Many language learners find it helpful to listen to online radio stations in their target languages. Listening to foreign language broadcasts or podcasts is especially useful after you understand at least the basics of your target language. In addition, listening to the radio is often pointed out as a good way of getting used to the accent and the intonation of a language.
Radio stations in other languages[]
The site listenlive.eu provides a long list of radio stations for a few dozen European languages. Many radio and podcasting applications also have a built-in list of stations.
When you're looking for a perfect radio station for you, your first step can be visiting a website of the official broadcaster of a country in which your target language is widely spoken. Usually the country has several channels for different audiences, and their content choices may include, for example, news, popular, or classical music. However, for most language learners, the best option can be radio stations that present talking and music in a balanced way.
These are the examples of such radio stations (since the list is incomplete, please add another sources):
Afrikaans[]
Radio Sonder Grense (Radio Without Borders), public station
Basque[]
EITB is the Basque's Country public service broadcaster. On their site you can listen to Euskadi Irratia (news, talk radio) and Gaztea (more music, aimed at youth)
Belarusian[]
1 Kanal, the first station of a Belarusian public broadcaster
Bulgarian[]
Radio Horizont, one of the stations of a Bulgarian public broadcaster
Czech[]
Radiožurnál, the first station of a Czech public broadcaster, compromising 24h news and popular music
Danish[]
Radio24syv - a commercial talk radio station
Dutch[]
Radio 1, public station dedicated to news, politics, current affairs and sport
English[]
BBC Radio1 (Pop, rock music + inane DJ chatter)
BBC Radio 2 (Light music, Pop Music, Jazz, oldies)
BBC Radio3 (Classical Music, some drama)
BBC Radio4 (News, documentaries, drama, comedy)
BBC Radio4extra (Drama, Comedy - mostly archive material; some new)
Manx Radio, the national commercial radio station for the Isle of Man; broadcasting several programmes in Manx language as well
Finnish[]
YLE Puhe - the talk radio station of Finland's national broadcasting company Yle
Flemish[]
Radio 1, belgian radio channel operated by the Flemish public broadcaster dedicated to news and culture
Radio 2, a less formal version of Radio 1, aimed at all group ages
French[]
Radio France French national public broadcaster with multiple channels dedicated to news, culture, music.
La Première Belgian radio channel from RTBF a public broadcasting organisation of the French Community in Belgium
Swiss Radio from Swiss public broadcasting organisation Radio télévision suisse (RTS)
Gaeilge (Irish)[]
Raidió na Gaeltachta Irish language station of the public broadcaster RTÉ
[Raidó na Life] Irish Language station broadcasting from Dublin.
German[]
WDR One of the public broadcasters of radio and TV with multiple stations
NDR North German Radio with multiple channels
Dradio Deutschland Radio (News, Culture, Drama, Sport, Science, Economy etc)
Deutsche Welle - International Radio and TV - in 30 languages
Icelandic[]
Rás 1 covers news, weather and cultural programming.
Rás 2 is the most popular Icelandic radio station, covers the news, current affairs but also pop and rock music.
Latin[]
Nuntii Latini podcast from Finnish station Yle Radio 1
Latvian[]
Latvijas Radio 2 second programme of Latvia's national broadcaster
Lithuanian[]
LRT Radijas radio station from the national public broadcaster
Luxembourgish[]
Radio ARA, multilingual Luxembourgian station, focused on music; presenting, inter alia, programmes in Luxembourgish
Norwegian[]
NRK (Norsk rikskringkasting) Radio P1 (NRK P1), P2 (NRK P2)
Persian[]
Radio Zamaneh, an Amsterdam-based Persian language radio
Polish[]
Polish Radio One (Jedynka), Polish Radio Two (Dwójka) and Three (Trójka), TOK FM (Tok FM)
Portuguese[]
RTP Radio with various radio stations from Portuguese public service broadcasting organisation RTP (Rádio e Televisão de Portugal)
Scottish Gaelic[]
BBC Radio Nan Gaidheal BBC Scottish language service
Slovak[]
Rádio Slovensko, the first programme of a Slovak public broadcaster
Slovenian[]
SLO1 - Slovenian public broadcaster station
Swedish[]
P3 - the third programme of a Swedish public broadcaster
Radio1 - a commercial talk radio station
Ukrainian[]
Radio FM Galychyna, Western Ukrainian local radio station
Welsh[]
BBC Radiocymru (BBC Welsh Language Service)
For some languages, such as Uzbek and Tajik, there are almost no or even completely no radio stations broadcasted online. In such case you may try Radio Free Europe programmes. They are usually on air early morning and in the evening.
Playing online radio[]
This is a incomplete list of applications. Please add your favorites!
Android[]
- TuneIn Radio. High-quality application with a huge, built-in list of stations.
Linux[]
- Radio Tray. A tiny application in menu bar. Works with Gnome 2.