
Radio Garden – Explore live radio by rotating the globe - dayve
http://radio.garden
======
lcall
There is also an app called "radiodroid" (or maybe it is "radiodroid2"; on the
[https://f-droid.org](https://f-droid.org) app store that says it builds all
the apps from free/open source) which I have very much enjoyed for this.
Unlike the other 1-2 internet radio apps I tried, this one made it easy to
browse thousands of stations, search by tag (I guess _everything_ is in
there), language, country, etc etc, set bookmarks, list listening history, and
no annoying weirdness. Very few that I have tried had commercials, those that
did were not enough to annoy: bach, beatles, ethnic, deep lounge, 1940's big
band, tejano, on and on.

Edit: I also recall a nice little linux program called radiotray, on debian
(that sat in the XFCE or maybe LXDE app tray / bar), that did something
similar. Presumably there are others.

Edit2: I mention radiodroid and internet radio among ideas like watching news
TV sites on the internet from around the world, on my simple fun/relaxation
page:
[http://lukecall.net/e-9223372036854618463.html](http://lukecall.net/e-9223372036854618463.html)

Edit3: I tried libre.fm too (which basically seems to be an FSF initiative to
flag or play favorite tracks from archive.org by category, and had high hopes,
thought it had promising ideas, but though it seemed to work well at first, I
later couldn't get anything to happen after I logged in, etc., and finally
gave up. Mentioning in case others know better.

~~~
clan
Radiodroid 2 is also available in the Play store.

Thank you for that. Finally time to say goodbye to TuneIn.

~~~
chewz
FYI: RadioDroid 2 from F-Droid does not support Chromecast. RadioDroid 2 from
Google Playstore supports Chromecast..

[https://github.com/segler-
alex/RadioDroid/issues/155](https://github.com/segler-
alex/RadioDroid/issues/155)

------
mwexler
If you like this to explore music of other places, try also
[https://radiooooo.com/](https://radiooooo.com/) to travel through time and
space.

Mentioned here a few times
([https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=radiooooo&sort=byPopularity&type=story))

~~~
typpo
This one: [http://www.lightyear.fm/](http://www.lightyear.fm/) is a neat
visualization of the "radio bubble" around Earth about 110 light years in
diameter (edit: radius).

~~~
shifto
I just got rick-rolled at 30LY.

------
dijit
I used this service a couple of years ago to listen to the local radio station
from my home city.

It's indescribable how homesick it made me, but at the same time I felt so
much more connected to my home after hearing the local news, and my regional
accent which is somewhat rare.

for context; I'm British, from a city called Coventry (which does not have an
accent similar its neighbours) and I live in Sweden, where everyone who speaks
English sounds either American or very Swedish.

~~~
kinow
Same here, was surprised to see so many radios from my city (Sao Paulo,
Brazil) and from the country side too, where they have an accent similar to my
father's family. Still use radio.garden weekly, great service.

------
adrianmonk
In case the developer is reading, feature requests:

(1) When browsing the list of radio stations, I can see the use of
alphabetical by call letters. But the way my brain remembers radio stations is
by band (AM/FM) and frequency. (Maybe it is ancient muscle memory from radios
you tune with a knob.) So it would be nice to have this available as a view.

(2) In a large metro area, there are transmitters in different cities and
suburbs. To get the full set of stations, I have to flip around between nearby
points on a map and look at different lists. (For example, in the Bay Area,
you have to click SF to get KQED then click Berkeley to get KPFA.) It would be
super cool if I could click on any point on the map, then see one list of all
stations that a radio at that location would pick up. Getting a completely
accurate list is probably complicated (topography, weather, antenna type,
etc.) but distance and maybe transmitter power would give a good
approximation.

------
blocked_again
So how are all these radio stations connected to the Internet? Do all these
radio stations have a server? Or is there some organization which does the
broadcasting on behalf? Who pays for the streaming fees? Can I start my own
station?

~~~
soylentcola
Can't speak for every one of these, but yeah, it's usually just an audio feed
encoded and streamed out to a server that handles the streams to listeners.
There are several ways to do it but I only know the way I used to do it back
in the early/mid 2000's.

Back then, I had an ever-updated playlist running on WinAmp with a ShoutCast
plugin. Whatever I played (or when I switched over to mic, etc.) was streamed
to a ShoutCast server I had running on some storage provided by a dude I knew
who was working at a small ISP. He basically said they would never care or
notice that I was streaming a 128k/sec stream to maybe 5 or 10 people at a
time so just go for it, heh...

That said, I could've run it from home if I wanted, but this was more stable
on an early 2000's broadband connection. Otherwise, today you could probably
do this with any suitable online virtual web server.

As far as streaming fees, well...if you mean bandwidth, you can see above. If
you mean license fees for copyrighted material, then that's the main reason I
stopped running one. Loads of these did (and still do) fly under the radar,
but you're still essentially sharing media with other people, so if it's not
something you have the license to broadcast or share, you have to pay to
license it.

For a time, I had been looking into an ASCAP/BMI license since (terrestrial)
radio doesn't really pay much at all for that. Airplay is free advertising for
commercial music sales, after all. But somewhere along the line in the wake of
Napster freaking the hell out of music labels, the laws were put in place to
be much more restrictive on streaming radio. Instead of a relatively
affordable blanket license, you also had to pay per-song-per-listener
royalties. The whole thing made it cost prohibitive for amateurs to legally
run a music streaming station so I just said screw it and moved on.

Of course, there's nothing stopping you from streaming something else. You can
do a talk show or get license to stream local unsigned artists. You could do
all sorts of things, just as people do with live video streaming. You just
can't really do anything like typical FM or satellite music radio unless you
wanna deal with quite a bit of licensing and expense outside of just a PC and
bandwidth.

------
barking
I used to be user of TuneIn radio for a year or two but grew to dislike it
with its newer heavier updates that you could not avoid and the pressure to go
professional or whatever it's called. Now I just have bookmarks to the BBC
Sounds webpage and also to the couple of other stations I listen to sometimes.
It cuts out the middle man and the risk of initially great sites like this
going the way of TuneIn radio and ruining the user experience.

------
dang
If curious see also:

2018
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18427701](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18427701)

2016
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13164058](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13164058)

Comments from the developer in both threads.

------
ydnaclementine
Similar database of internet radio stations: [https://www.radio-
browser.info](https://www.radio-browser.info)

~~~
grozzle
The radiodroid app mentioned elsewhere in comments uses this list as a source.

------
djacobs7
It's crazy how similar pop music sounds from all over the world. The language
differs, but the energy of the music is similar in a lot of different
countries.

I wonder if this is because everyone is using digital audio workstations like
Ableton or Logic now. It used to be that different places had different
instruments; and it would take years to become an expert. But now, the DAW is
everybody's instrument.

~~~
mistrial9
musicians are the ultimate cross-pollinators .. someone, somewhere will
inevitably get a creative buzz from listening to something solid from somwhere
else.. its not a bad thing, entirely.. different strokes for different folks
.. Think about "guitars", except over the centuries.. is it a technical
copying that makes the music sound the same, since it is a stringed
instrument, like those other ones ? hmm It certainly could be argued that pace
of interaction can lead to loss of diversity.. isolated people dont copy music
styles.. big topic !

~~~
jborichevskiy
A wonderful video exploring this: Everything is a Remix

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJPERZDfyWc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJPERZDfyWc)

------
tech-historian
Great site! But as I clicked on music radio stations across the US, they were
almost all broadcasting commercials at the time. Which is one of the
fundamental problems with the format.

~~~
owenmarshall
My vote, every time, has to be for WFMU. "The format", in 'FMUs case, is
whatever the DJ likes to play.

You may end up listening to an hour of funk, followed by an hour of
experimental noise, then old '78s and bluegrass. It makes for a fun listen.

[https://wfmu.org/](https://wfmu.org/) \- for a feel of programming, you can
pick some of the DJs from here:
[http://www.wfmu.org/table](http://www.wfmu.org/table)

~~~
twirlip
Yes! Freem-form WFMU is an incredible station. Though based in NJ, it has a
worldwide listener base. It is entirely listener supported, without even
corporate underwriting, unlike other public radio stations in the US. It also
has internet accesible archives of programming that goes back into the 90's.
If you have a unique musical itch, just Google that song and add WFMU as the
site. Click and enjoy the playlist that pops up.

------
knowuh
Is there an open directory of radio stream URIs?

Like if I wanted to build my own tiny radio streaming client, where would I
look for the streams?

I tried snooping the network tab in dev tools on Radio Garden, but couldn't
see many requests that weren't either grabbing map tiles, or connecting to
Radio Garden itself.

~~~
defanor
There is [http://dir.xiph.org](http://dir.xiph.org) for Icecast radio
stations.

~~~
knowuh
Thank you!

------
glouwbug
Strange, I tuned into a random South Africa station and the guy immediately
started talking about radio garden. Coincidence? Did not sound like an advert
because he immediately trailed off to talking about Netflix and some ex marine
sniper stuff.

~~~
paublyrne
Perhaps he'd been browsing hacker news.

~~~
glouwbug
What a crazy world this is

------
Abishek_Muthian
Recently, a user posted on my problem validation platform that she's unable to
listen to radio from her home town (possibly rural India) from a foreign
country[1].

Setting up SDR for this seems to be beyond the capacity of that user. Sites
like these might address this need gap, if they allow the user to tune to
specific frequency rather than being limited to particular stations[I
understand that this has larger technical overhead].

P.S I checked the Radio Garden, it GeoIP's some stations, there were no
prominent stations, mostly comprised of religious stations and couple of
unknown hobby stations.

[1][https://needgap.com/problems/126-listening-to-obscure-
intern...](https://needgap.com/problems/126-listening-to-obscure-
international-radio-station-radio-audio)

------
LargoLasskhyfv
Nice for discoverability. I've been positively surprised by [1]
[https://hirschmilch.de/](https://hirschmilch.de/) _progressive_ stream, which
i'm now listening to by other means.

(Should i feel Jägermeistered now?)

------
247365p25
Great work! If op is maintainer, feature request: "random station in random
city"

------
ycombonator
Thank you. Just found this beauty on Faroe Islands
[http://radio.garden/listen/-7fm/EgrMqzvq](http://radio.garden/listen/-7fm/EgrMqzvq)

------
cocktailpeanuts
wow how does this work? is there a public list of radio stations? or does this
site maintain a scraper of sorts?

~~~
lcall
Something I vaguely remember reading in an app (maybe it was the "internet
radio" app or its description, from
[https://f-droid.org?](https://f-droid.org?)) said there is a maintained list
on the internet, of stations, like maybe in xml. (edit: or maybe where I read
that was about the "radiotray" linux desktop app.)

edit: Ah, another comment has mentioned "Similar database of internet radio
stations: [https://www.radio-browser.info](https://www.radio-browser.info) ".

------
themodelplumber
That is really neat. I'd love to see an app like this which allows surfing the
globe for listening to shortwave radio. Users could report which WebSDRs (for
example) are picking up which stations. Then those stations are marked as live
on the globe, and you can listen to the WebSDR audio feed(s) that are picking
up that station, as if you're listening on a real shortwave radio.

Maybe individual WebSDR listings could show SINPO numbers, to allow users to
choose a source based on the quality level that's currently available...hmmm!

------
hymnsfm
I suppose this is strictly for terrestrial radio stations? I run an internet
radio station[1] and there is a galaxy of us.

[1] [https://hymns.fm](https://hymns.fm)

~~~
mirkules
This is lovely, thanks!

------
matmann2001
You put radio... on the internet.

~~~
chrisseaton
I think many people already listen to radio over the internet.

~~~
mikestew
I believe there is a joke being missed here:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/SiliconValleyHBO/comments/5n0xen/ca...](https://www.reddit.com/r/SiliconValleyHBO/comments/5n0xen/can_someone_explain_the_radio_on_internet_joke/)

------
n0nick
This was the subject of a really nice NYTimes "Letter of Recommendation"
recently [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/05/magazine/letter-of-
recomm...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/05/magazine/letter-of-
recommendation-radio-garden.html)

------
sergiotapia
Thanks for sharing this, heard my hometowns' radio station in Bolivia after 5
years of being away, nostalgia hit me hard. :)

------
OmarShehata
For anyone who's curious - this is built with CesiumJS
([https://cesium.com/](https://cesium.com/)), same as:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21037167](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21037167)

Disclaimer: I work for Cesium.

~~~
DoingIsLearning
You're probably aware but I will just report it anyway.

On that link
([https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/](https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/)),
there doesn't seem to be a lower bound limit on the 'polar angle' rotation. So
I am able to rotate below the 'horizon' and look up to the earth's 'inner
surface' (the concave side of the mesh). The trajectories dashed lines are
still rendered and drawn on top of the earth's 'bottom' but are all glitchy
and intermitent.

This maybe an issue with this specific implementation and not cesium itself
but just thought you should know.

------
dayofthedaleks
If you’d like something a bit more curated, WFMU has a show called “The Blind
Tourist” which is mostly audio collage from various global radio stations.

[https://wfmu.org/playlists/TX](https://wfmu.org/playlists/TX) All shows are
archived and streamable for free.

------
Azametzin
This is great. For years I have been exploring radios around. Sometimes I add
radios from my region to Radio Garden. Just send it through their form and
wait to be accepted. I just wish it was easier to export their favorites. I
once lost a good list of saved radios.

------
rootbear
I came across this a while back and had hours of fun randomly sampling radio
stations around the world. The one feature I wish it had was the ability to
"lock" the current station while still being able to wander around looking for
another station to try

~~~
oplav
There's a "Lock" button right above the zoom in/out buttons that does this.

~~~
rootbear
Thanks! That's new, I haven't used Radio Garden in months and the previous
version didn't have that.

------
zeisss
All I want is an app that I can hotkey to my main (android) screen that starts
a stream with an auto-sleep timer set to some value. I currently have to click
like 6 times with various wait times to listen to my nightly "sleep time"
stream.

Any app recommendations?

~~~
tartoran
Without a timer, if your stream can be found in a url form just save a link on
your homescreen. One click can start it.

For a one button solution with timer if no app is satisfactory you can build
your script in Workflow (IOS) or any other automation tool on android. You
might find a script already made on your liking.

------
johnchristopher
Nice.

But, oh my god, why are mainstream radios stuck with the same 10 songs since
what seems like forever ? First pickup: suzanne vega, second pickup: francoise
hardy.

~~~
jvm_
Me: lets listen to the middle of Africa. Second song - Manic Monday by the
Bangles

~~~
tzs
Try Madagascar and nearby islands. 90% of what I got there was sufficiently
off the beaten path that neither Shazam nor SoundHound could tell me what it
was.

------
noisy_boy
Awesome. Feature request: show tooltip showing station name/location on hover
so that I don't need to change location to get station info.

------
ibdf
I'm impressed... a bit crazy while you are zoomed out, but when you zoom in
it's actually a good way to navigate through a country.

------
rnernento
Overall I like it, great interface. I would like to be able to explore the map
without changing the station I'm actively listening to.

~~~
handruin
You can do this. Click the lock icon and then you can browse around without
changing stations.

------
antihero
This is wonderful! I forgot how beautiful Cambodian pop was. Be really nice if
they had country borders and city labels as an option too.

------
start123
Thank you so much for this. It makes me so happy that I can be in different
country and yet listen to my favorite station back home.

------
weakwire
Just wondering what would happen if you combined these thousands of radio
stations to 1 stream. Would it result to white noise?

~~~
dsr_
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaginary_Landscape_No._4_(Mar...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaginary_Landscape_No._4_\(March_No._2\))

------
nico401
I have used it for a while now, thanks for the work put in it! I would love to
have some sleep timer added to it.

------
thecleaner
Any good recommendations on which cities ahve great radio ? I mostly stick to
London and surroudning area.

------
iandanforth
This feels like the opening to a movie that needs an intro to the variability
of human societies. Love it!

------
chrisseaton
Why do so many US stations have such cryptic abbreviated names? And why do so
many start with W or K?

~~~
mark-ruwt
It was a naming convention created in the early 1900s, using the Mississippi
River as a rough line of delineation. Local TV stations use a similar
convention.

[https://www.rd.com/culture/radio-stations-
k-w/](https://www.rd.com/culture/radio-stations-k-w/)

~~~
chrisseaton
Oh wow so they don't even stand for anything? Must be hard to brand an
abbreviation you get handed!

~~~
gbear605
The three latter letters are usually meaningful, but only barely. For example,
there’s WGBH, a Boston public broadcasting station that stands for Great Blue
Hills, which are the hills that the broadcasting antenna is located on.

~~~
richardfontana
Also related to the etymology of Massachusetts:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts#Etymology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts#Etymology)

------
otagekki
Congrats! You successfully found me a replacement for TuneIn :)

Navigating on a map is so much more practical

------
deveac
One of the few applications pinned to my browser in the past year.

It's a fantastic work companion.

~~~
hn3333
Same here. Although I wish it would show the song names.

~~~
lcall
The radiodroid app does (which I mentioned in another comment here), at least,
and probably others -- it seems to depend on the station.

------
srachamim
I want to travel in time in listen to radio/TV in a specific point in time.

------
aaadult
When would you guys listen to radio ? And why not Spotify, podcast, YouTube
etc ?

~~~
Kaibeezy
One word: Discovery.

College radio is excellent for this. My favorite DJ has been on 4 hours a week
for a decade, and most of the music is new to me. Half is OK in the
background, there can be a handful of awful grindy noise bleh, but another
bunch of it is often great, and there are amazing gems that have taken my
listening off into new frontiers — from Bevis Frond to Gravitar to Mono to
Expo 70.

The most common question the kids ask is: How can you listen to that? The
answer is: I’m happy to listen to unfamiliar and even unpleasant music if
that’s the price to discover something completely unexpected and amazing.

------
thearn4
It's interesting how few streaming stations there are in eastern Asia.

~~~
yorwba
[http://www.radio-browser.info/gui/#!/countries](http://www.radio-
browser.info/gui/#!/countries) lists 1625 stations in China, of which barely a
handful appear on radio.garden. I guess nobody volunteered to put them all on
the map.

------
chrisbrandow
Very cool. Never seen anything like this, though they may exist. Well done

------
InafuSabi
Thank you very much for this great interface to online terrestrial radio!

------
chrisjarvis
I have nothing to add to the discussion but this so cool :D

------
quickthrower2
Spot on. A HN show that might actually use every day!

------
tgtweak
Someone needs to make this for DTV...

------
greenie_beans
dang! i forgot about this. thank you. it's like scanning the radio on grand
theft auto

------
FpUser
This is so cool. Love it.

------
jmakov
Very nice onterface, tnx!

------
maerF0x0
part of me wishes this site was called "sound.garden"

~~~
slfnflctd
When I first saw the band's name in the early 90s, my imagination ran wild
with what they might be like. Considering the musical landscape at the time (a
few I was aware of-- Enya, Fishbone, Skinny Puppy, Ice Cube, Slayer) it could
have been anything and everything.

They are still one of my favorite bands, and Badmotorfinger is probably in my
top 3 albums of all time... but I must admit I was disappointed when I first
heard them because my expectations had been so crazy from the name. It took
going through some tough times before I warmed up to their style, and the name
never seemed to have much to do with it. It's a great name, though.

~~~
caf
It's named after a permanent outdoor sculpture installation in Seattle.

------
bityard
This has been around for years, what makes it front-page-of-HN-worthy now?

~~~
codingdave
It offers some variety when so many of us are working from home?

Also, just because it isn't new doesn't mean it isn't interesting.

