Radios around the globe
Radio Garden is akin to a Google Earth for radio stations, allowing you to explore live sounds from different parts of the planet.
This project began in 2016 as a conceptual experiment for a Dutch research project with a simple idea: take online streams of AM/FM radios from around the world and place them on a globe.
Since anyone can add a station, the map has grown rapidly. Although there are still more stations densely packed in Europe, some can be found in the most remote places on the planet.
It's very visual and invites you to explore the sounds of the world in the same way Street View tempts you to get lost in the streets of other countries. There's a list of favorite stations where you can add the ones you discover.
Over time, I have added some music radios to this list that I usually listen to, but there are also many conventional radios that might be good for language practice.
- Arctic Outpost AM1270 only plays gramophone music. Located on the island of Svalbard, it is the northernmost station available.
- Radio AkuAku is located on Easter Island, making it the most isolated radio from any other. It plays a bit of everything, from Pacific tribal folk music to current tunes.
- Indie Star and TheGoosh are two stations I used to listen to in Los Angeles and have a great sense for new releases. They often play alternative rock and electronic songs that months later become hits.
- Rave Crew Radio is located in Brighton and plays only electronic music, especially drum and bass, which for some reason works very well for me to concentrate.
- Jazz Con Class is a contemporary jazz radio from New York that plays a wide variety of jazz. For much quieter jazz, you can try the Tokyo station Jazz Sakura.
- Capital FM is a hit station from Uganda that usually plays very lively music mixing English and Swahili.
- Dreams Share FM is a Sri Lankan radio that I'm not quite sure how to describe but also listen to often.
If you find any other interesting radio stations, feel free to leave them in the comments. I'm still looking for a lofi station to replace that YouTube video with the same 8 hours of music on loop.
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