Today's Web radio takes a more low-key approach. Offices can range from small corners of a factory to a nearby cafe. Overheads are often just a few hundred dollars a month to rent a server. And the subject matter is different, too. Less politically oriented than stations such as People's Radio Hong Kong or Radio 71, the new generation has a simpler agenda: to voice all the stuff mainstream stations ignore.

HiRadio started with just three people - a pre-college student, a clerk and a journalist - when it launched back in 2002. Today, the team numbers 10 people, attracting up to one million hits per month. Programmes touch on lifestyle topics, including the local indie-band scene, TV culture and relationship issues. One-off podcasts have gone down fairly well, with HiRadio's June 4 commemoration show pulling in 2,000 daily downloads.

For one of HiRadio's founders, Vita Au, independent Web radio has blossomed out of a sense of disappointment with the content of existing radio networks, whose mainstream approach Au feels has dented the quality of their programming. 'While [there] are some arts and culture programmes [by local stations], mostly they just focus on the big arts groups,' says Au.

Fundamental differences over Hong Kong's music scene have been another key motivator. 'One of us is unhappy that rave party music has been linked with drug abuse,' she says.

And it's not just the arts that HiRadio says is misrepresented by mainstream media. At the WTO conference last December, the station deliberately avoided the same coverage of South Korean farmers battling with the police. 'We recorded footage of them performing at Victoria Park,' she says.

Perhaps understandably, mainstream stations don't focus much on IT. Curtis Pang Lai-bun, one of the founders of Talk Only, wanted to rectify the situation when he set up the station last January with some colleagues that mostly came from the IT profession. Pang says he and his partners have long known there's a gap the mainstream media have failed to fill, with some of them hosting an IT programme back in 2000 for the now-defunct Radio Republic. Now, there's more demand for IT content, he says. Each of the Web station's current affairs shows mixed with IT news are downloaded 1,000 to 2,000 times on average, he says.

'They're people [with] questions regarding software and they don't know where to turn,' says Pang. 'We talk about the latest moves of the IT companies. We also talk about things like the Bus Uncle, [but] we offer alternative points of view.'

'Ryan', one of the founders of Open Radio, which was launched last November, says there's a role for this new generation of internet radio stations to fill the information gap, particularly with regard to late-night programming. There isn't much choice for listeners between 11pm and 1am, Ryan says.

'It's mainly music programmes,' he says. 'Or some stations [with] hosts who just bombard you with their laughter [without much constructive comment]. The mainstream media is providing entertainment, but there's less information and education.'

Open Radio is lifestyle-oriented, the most popular programmes tackling relationship problems, sex, films and the growing blog culture, attracting between 1,000 and 4,000 downloads every week.

Web radio producers agree on one thing: that the wide availability of broadband internet and the growing sophistication of the burgeoning online community is playing out well for niche players.

'They start to appreciate niche things in cyberspace,' Au says. 'Now, people are interested in podcasts. When they try to develop their own podcasts, they also try to look for other similar programmes.'

There's also the added advantage of not having to follow traditional rules of media: there's no externally imposed censorship and no pressure from advertisers. And instead of radio programmers dictating the content, listeners pitch in ideas for new programmes, with some even becoming hosts themselves. 'There is a vetting process,' says Open Radio executive director Nelson Tam, whose station invites listeners to try their hand at hosting. 'But we welcome ideas as long as [they're] legal.' Open Radio is going one step further, planning to design systems that listeners will be able to use to set up their own stations.

With no government regulation, the sky appears to be the limit for the types of programmes these online radio stations want to cover. 'No one can judge the ethics in the programmes,' says Wong Cheuk-yan of Talk Only.

But the downside of that level of freedom can be erratic levels of quality. Some industry onlookers say that the level of professionalism in online radio stations is not up to the same standards as their mainstream rivals.

IT columnist Paul Lin Che-yeung, a podcaster himself, thinks these IT stations have benefited from the popularity of podcast technology, but is concerned that their editorial standards aren't high enough to appeal to people outside the online community, whom they also need to reach. 'They have to open new markets,' he says. 'There doesn't seem to be much improvement in the quality of their programmes in the way they speak. It's just not professional enough.'