Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Fahey, who shares the following reply to our Como Audio Solo review:
I am a heavy user of internet radios and have a few scatted around the home, the one most frequently used is the Grace in the kitchen. What stations do people listen to?
I listen to lots of different things while cooking, what I do is tune to a station local to whatever I am preparing. So that means a lot of Asian stations; Indonesia, Vietnam, India, Japan, China, Laos etc! A few months ago spending time in Southern California put me in the mood for Mexican food, so there has been a lot of Mexican radio playing in the kitchen lately. On the special occasions when cooking Grits for breakfast I usually listen to 103.3 AshevilleFM.
[Note to Mark: I’d like to think I have something to do with the fact you’re one of the only guys cooking grits in Australia! -Thomas]
The Logitech in the bedroom is usually tuned into European stations late a night as I drift off, and as I wake up and dress I’m usually listening to Japanese community radio stations.
In the main living area mostly USA alternative and indi rock, NPR or college radio is on.
I am a very serious flight-simmer and love exploring around the world this virtual way. I’m very serious about this so preflight and route planning takes up to an hour, so in the hours before a flight I quite typically listen to a station in the city my Cessna-404 twin turbo happens to be at that particular time.
I’m kind of interested – what are you guys listening to on internet radios?
PS. Oh and the Como Solo looks great – Im ordering one!
Your query is timely, Mark, as someone recently asked me the same question.
The Sangean WFR-28 WiFi Radio
I primarily use Internet radio to listen to music and local news outlets.
In terms of music, I love almost everything, but especially Jazz, Classic Rock, Big Band, Brazilian music, French, Mambo, Zydeco, Electronica, and, frankly, anything a little eclectic and musically interesting.
Some of my favorite music stations are: The UK 1940s Radio Station, RFI Musique, FIP, Radio Bossa Nova, KBON, Espace Musique (various outlets), CBC Ambient Lounge, Kanal Jazz, Radio Swiss Jazz, WNMB, RadioNostalgia, Celtic Music Radio 1530, WNCW, Radio 6 and Fréquence 2 to name a few.
In terms of news and talk, I listen to: CBC Radio 1 (Toronto, Montreal, St. Johns, Charlottetown), WFAE, WCQS, Alaska Public Media, Vermont Public Radio, France Inter, Radio Canada, ABC Radio Australia, ABC Northern Tasmania, Radio New Zealand National, BBC World Service, 7RPH, Federal News Radio, ABC Radio Perth and many, many more.
I especially love finding some random, local radio station and eavesdropping on their community news!
I have well over 100 stations/favorites organized in various folders on my WiFi radios.
Honestly, this 2016 election season in the States has so heavily dominated domestic news, I’ve focused almost exclusively on stations outside of the US to seek a little refuge.
Of course, I’m also a heavy shortwave listener. While using a WiFi radio lacks the “fun factor” and skill of SWLing, it certainly serves up a world of diversity and is the perfect compliment to shortwave listening.
Radio Australia serving up a blowtorch signal into North America this morning–a steady S9+20db on my Elecraft KX3.
As I type this post this morning, for example, I’ve been listening to the CBC and France Inter on my WiFi radio (the audio actually emanates from my vintage Scott Marine SLR-M via an SStran AM transmitter). I’ve been muting the WiFi radio from time to time to listen to the ABC top of the hour news and music programming on Radio Australia with my Elecraft KX3 (above).
Now…back to Mark’s question…
What do you, dear Post reader, listen to on your WiFi radio, mobile device or computer? Please comment!
Wow thank you everyone – so many interesting stations I have never listened to. I am going to try them all! Cheers, Mark
I listen to Internet streams only ocassionally, but here are some of my favorites:
* Deutschlandfunk, Germany
* Kommersant FM, Russia
* WRN in English and Russian
* Antena Satelor, Romania (Folk music), also on 153 kHz LW
* Science360 Radio, USA
* Raadio Kuku (informative programmes in Estonian)
I listen to Estonian stations more often via FM than via Internet, even though their reception via FM is a bit difficult here in Helsinki. For example Raadio Kuku from Tallinn TV Tower is only weakly audible on 100.7 MHz and there is a stronger station on 100.6 MHz in the Finnish side. Estonian language resembles my native tongue Finnish in a curious way, which contributes to my interest to listen to Estonian stations sometimes.
I listen to science podcasts while cooking and eating if no local radio station provides an interesting program at that time. The following are the science podcasts that I listen more often than others.
* Science in Action podcast from BBC WS
* Vetenskapsradions nyheter (Science news) podcast from Swedish Radio P1
I use mplayer for playing streams in Linux commandline. I also stream podcasts using Linux commandline. For example the command for listening Science in Action is
mplayer `curl http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002vsnb/episodes/downloads.rss | awk -v RS=”enclosure.+url=” -F\” ‘{if (i++ >0) print $2}’` #Science in Action
I can find old (even complicated) commands with streaming addresses included fast by searching commandline history with the shortcut ctrl-R
Hi all, I have had a C Crane CC Wifi radio in my kitchen for several years now. Like the author I tune in to Mexican music on our “Mexican Nights”, usually Fridays. I especially like Banda music.
Otherwise I listen to; BBC Five Live, LBC from Britain.
Australia; ABC Classical, Double-J
Canada: CBC, 680 News in Toronto.
USA: Mostly sports talk from Boston where my loyalties reside (I’m in Pennsylvania).
Out of curiosity, why multiple CBC Radio One stations (Toronto, Montreal, St. Johns, Charlottetown)? I listen to CBC Radio One Montreal, but for no particular reason that I can recall. I also sometimes listen to CKZN on 6160 kHz on shortwave, which is CBC Radio One from Newfoundland.
As far as music is concerned, I like to listen to SR3 Oldiewelt, SR3 Schlagerwelt, Radio Dismuke, and Radio Nostalgia Amsterdam. Another interesting station is Seeburg 1000 Background Music.
Good question, Matthew!
While the CBC news at the top of the hour is the same across all of the regional stations, at about 10 minutes after, they begin local programming. At the bottom of the hour, they have mostly local news. Sometimes, I like moving around to different regions to see how good local programming is.
I’ve spent a lot of time in Prince Edward Island in my travels as we have friends there–it’s always fun to keep up with their provincial news (they must be the smallest region with a dedicated CBC affiliate, save some of the stations in the far north).
I listen to Toronto most often, though, because I like their morning news program, “Daybreak.” I used to be an avid listener of “All In a Weekend” on CBC Radio 1 Montreal. When the host (my buddy), Dave Bronstetter retired, though, I sort of lost interest. Here’s a small tribute I wrote a few years ago:
https://swling.com/blog/2012/02/all-in-a-weekend-bon-voyage-to-david-bronstetter-from-an-unlikely-listener/
I do the same for Australia. I’ve a number of local ABC affiliates organized in memories.
Thanks for sharing your stations! I’ll check them out!
Thomas
I used to like to listen to World at Six when it was on Radio Canada International, so my interest has always been the national news. But sampling different local programming sound like an interesting idea.
Thanks for the explanation and for an interesting article. I have a few new stations to check out as well.
Interesting information about the CBC regional stations. I enjoy things like the rush hour traffic, snow and school closure reports in the winter, so depending on the time difference for the various CBC regional variations I can hear that from late morning through to post-lunch here in the UK.
If anyone is interested, the BBC has a different approach to regional stations. The main national stations – Radios 1 to 4, the Asian network, 5 Live, 6 Music and the rest are exactly that – national. Then there are almost 60 local BBC stations:
> some for major cities like BBC Radio London which I mentioned before, or BBC Manchester
> some for counties like BBC Radio Cambridgeshire or BBC Radio Shropshire
> some for regions and groups of counties like BBC Radio Solent here in the south
> Scotland has 4, including a national station and a Gaelic language station
> Wales has 2 including one in Welsh
> Northern Ireland has 2
> Even the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey have their own BBC local stations, one each for quite small islands that aren’t too far apart
Full list on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_BBC_radio_stations
Being a former Canadian medium wave DXer and SWL of 40+years, internet radio was the answer to my tastes, which was quality, not long distance. CBC and the French equivalent Ici Premiere are commercial free and serve a lot of variety. The answer to why the multiple stations? Time shifting. With five time zones from Halifax to Vancouver, that’s five choices on four channels, or 20 choices at any given time.
I listen to jazz on Radio Suisse Jazz, and I would like to time shift their programming because they are such wonderful programmers that morning jazz is morning jazz in Switzerland, but evening jazz in Vancouver.
Time shifting for me. Five Canadian time zones mean lots of choice, both in the music channel and the variety channel (CBC Radio One). Multiply that by an equal choice in French, means 20 choices at any given hour.
I listen to Radio Swiss Jazz but without time shifting. They broadcast great dinnertime jazz but alas I get if for breakfast.
I use my Sangean WR-22 and connect my Samsung Galaxt S7 to it often. Aside from the music on my phone, I listen to podcasts like 99% Invisible and Science Vs. Also, I use TuneIn Radio for the major international broadcasters and local radio stations. I rarely use iHeartRadio but I will listen to Q104.3 in NYC and NewsRadio 600 in Memphis for Coast to Coast AM. It has pretty much replaced my shortwave listening habits, but I still have my Tecsun PL-680 (which is in its case at the moment).
is it possible to get QSL cards for internetradio? Who has experience?
I listen in Germany ansdI like classic rockstations from USA
Along the same line, what smartphone apps are people using to listen to internet radio? I like the idea of a tabletop radio at home, but listening to internet radio on the go should be easy with a smartphone and a pair of headphones.
I’m asking for a Sangean WFR-28 from my wife for my upcoming birthday. Looks neat.
I have an early Pure Evoke Flow which I use to listen to a number of stations. France Inter and FIP (of course FIP, one of the best radio stations I’ve ever come across) although I have a French TV satellite system and I’m just as likely to listen via that. I live about 90 miles south west of London, which is too far to get BBC Radio London on FM, so the internet stream comes in handy to catch the brilliant Robert Elms show (weekday mornings at 10.00 London time).
Then there’s 938 Live Singapore (English news and talk from south east Asia), various regional versions of CBC R1, MR1 Kossuth Radio from Budapest (which I can hear on AM at night; I think it’s Europe’s most powerful medium wave transmitter), Radio Gibraltar (had a great holiday there in the ’70s when I was a kid), Radio New Zealand National programme, Radio Sri Lanka in English (which sounds like it’s run on a very low budget, and like they are broadcasting live from the 1950s…), Swedish Radio P2 (their classical station), WFMU (eclectic music from New Jersey), and lots more.
Latest discovery is Resonance FM, which is an arts station in London. They are on 104.4 FM from near London Bridge station, but they stream 24/7 and their range of programmes is worth browsing if you are interested in any aspect of the arts.
Kevin – I’d be intrigued to know a little more about your French TV Satellite System.
Best Wishes,
David