Web Sighting (8)

By the time we discovered WKSU's "Folk Alley," more than 10,000 listeners had signed up as users of the 24-hour, folk-music Web site. Program manager Robert Burford hopes to surpass the 25,000 mark by the time www.folkalley.com celebrates its first birthday Sept. 8. "We had lofty goals and it's been tremendous," he says. After toying with the idea of streaming classical music, WKSU decided to focus on folk because of less online competition. The station then made WKSU's part-time musician and folk-music lover, Jim Blum, the show's host. "It's not just a computer jukebox," Burford says. "The music often has thematic connections. It's really carefully put together and we can't find anything out there like it." Apparently, others feel the same way. Listeners hail from 46 of the 50 states and a host of foreign countries, including Brazil, South Korea, Australia and Taiwan.