If the nursing home has wireless, the ISP's connection will be paid for.

But operating Internet Explorer (or even some friendlier browser like Opera) on a laptop will be impossible if an iPod is difficult.

There are special-purpose internet radio applications which are a lot easier to use than browsers. VLC runs on most types of computer and might be worth a try. But sound quality will not be anywhere near CD standard, for either a browser or a radio application.

Giving him a very large hard disk filled with lossless CD images and with VLC or some other music-file-playing application to play them might be the most reliable solution - no physical disk-swapping and the only thing he'd need to move would be a mouse or trackpad. But while it would be the same music as he's used to and at similar quality, he'd have to be mentally ready to adopt a different way of controlling it.