The radio remains one of the best ways to discover new music, perspectives and trends. But the problem is we don’t have a radio set on us all the time. Recently I came across a website called Radio Garden, which basically points you to different radio stations around the world and lets you listen to them online.
The non-profit Dutch radio and digital research project by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision is like accessing Google Earth but for radio. There is a 3D globe that you can spin and zoom in on radio stations. There are dots all over the map and each dot represents a feed you can tune in to. The best part of the experience is live streams where you can browse music as diverse as country from Texas to Japanese J-pop. And there are thousands of stations to keep you busy. I mean, you cannot exhaust the list… ever.
The web interface of Radio Garden
Not that it’s a new project but the it continues to attract people from around the world. I wouldn’t say you will find all the stations on the map. I didn’t find many from the eastern part of India but then I came across Indian stations that I have never heard of. In a way, the idea is to offer a modern version of the old world receiver radio sets.
One of the app’s founders is Jonathan Puckey and he has several other projects, like Dance Tonite, Do Not Touch and Delaunay Raster. So, what am I listening to at the moment? Flashback Radio from Solihull, Alocada FM from Villamayor, Living Waters from Mumbai and Lofty 88.9 from Mount Barker. Who said you need a radio set to enjoy the magic of the radio? Imagination knows no boundaries, like the radio.