Polka, coming at you live from Valkenswaard!
December 5, 2017 1:36 PM Subscribe
Spin the globe and it will start playing live radio wherever you stop. You can also click on a specific place. Libyana 100.1 FM is playing some bangers! Radio Thailand 97 has some good chillout music. Catavento Radio (Brazil) got my hips shaking. There are hundreds (thousands?) of stations. If you get static, just be patient, it will likely snap to the nearest station.
Eh, I say it can stay. December world radio party!
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:49 PM on December 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:49 PM on December 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
Hm, seems like there's a flaw in the posting page.
posted by AFABulous at 1:50 PM on December 5, 2017
posted by AFABulous at 1:50 PM on December 5, 2017
Double or no, thanks for sharing! I'm really enjoying the electronic music on Awya FM in Khartoum Sudan, which is not what I would had expected to be listening to a few minutes ago!
posted by bessel functions seem unnecessarily complicated at 1:52 PM on December 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by bessel functions seem unnecessarily complicated at 1:52 PM on December 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
This is endlessly entertaining and educational. The Federated States of Micronesia has a channel with English-language Christian country music. Samoa has Beyonce. The Solomon Islands has what I'd expect for "island music." Ushuaia (Argentina) has some sort of mashup between EDM and cumbia (?).
posted by AFABulous at 2:03 PM on December 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by AFABulous at 2:03 PM on December 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Never saw the previously, so thanks for leaving it up! This almost justifies the internet.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:31 PM on December 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:31 PM on December 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
I just had my mind blown by hearing an ad for Les Schwab Tires on a Ghanaian radio station: I was surprised that 1. Les Schwab Tires exists in Ghana and 2. The ad had a guy speaking with a folksy American accent. Of course, once the ad was over, I realized it was just playing on the stream. The actual radio station delivered the very Afropop I was hoping for.
posted by lunasol at 4:37 PM on December 5, 2017
posted by lunasol at 4:37 PM on December 5, 2017
My Girls Who Code kids this week had found this and were showing it off to each other, which led to a bunch of talking about Indian music--at this point more than half of the class is of Indian descent but their families are from all over and India is a big place. But there a lot of descriptions of things as "ugh this is music that your mom would listen to". I asked what music *they'd* listen to, which led to a bunch of Indian-American middle school girls explaining Jpop to me, visiting Japan's streams, and deciding that Japanese hip-hop was also pretty cool.
They had also figured out apparently right after discovering it that no, you cannot get any radio streamed from North Korea. Because of course that's the first thing a bunch of middle school girls want to know about something like this.
It was pretty amazing.
posted by Sequence at 5:13 PM on December 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
They had also figured out apparently right after discovering it that no, you cannot get any radio streamed from North Korea. Because of course that's the first thing a bunch of middle school girls want to know about something like this.
It was pretty amazing.
posted by Sequence at 5:13 PM on December 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
well, this is just great
posted by pyramid termite at 5:44 PM on December 5, 2017
posted by pyramid termite at 5:44 PM on December 5, 2017
Loving this.
Also, I now know where I'm getting my maid insurance, next time I'm in Singapore.
posted by pompomtom at 6:09 PM on December 5, 2017
Also, I now know where I'm getting my maid insurance, next time I'm in Singapore.
posted by pompomtom at 6:09 PM on December 5, 2017
I think this should be posted every December, a new holiday tradition.
posted by bongo_x at 6:18 PM on December 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by bongo_x at 6:18 PM on December 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Apparently Mannheim, Germany, is the bomb for house and techno music. This is amazing, thanks for sharing!
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:19 PM on December 5, 2017
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:19 PM on December 5, 2017
cool.
it's also good to know that generic~ish 80's pop music is not quite yet a lost art-form.
posted by ovvl at 7:38 PM on December 5, 2017
it's also good to know that generic~ish 80's pop music is not quite yet a lost art-form.
posted by ovvl at 7:38 PM on December 5, 2017
Oh my god this is incredible. Because its proving so great, I'm stuck in West Bengal and am afraid of what the main part of the subcontinent will do to my spare time with its dense clusters of stations. I have really high hopes for the whole of Africa. Especially the western parts.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 8:46 PM on December 5, 2017
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 8:46 PM on December 5, 2017
btw the site worked just fine on Chrome on my iPhone 6s and I was able to stream it through bluetooth. I didn't try Safari or anything else. There's no official app, unfortunately.
posted by AFABulous at 9:36 PM on December 5, 2017
posted by AFABulous at 9:36 PM on December 5, 2017
This is a fantastic interface. It's like Euro Truck Simulator 2 without the trucks!
posted by zompist at 10:39 PM on December 5, 2017
posted by zompist at 10:39 PM on December 5, 2017
I was just about to mention Euro Truck Simulator 2, because that's exactly what this reminds me of.
One of my favorite ways to unwind at the end of a long day is to start ETS2, take the longest delivery run available - Sheffield to Sicily, that kind of thing - and fire up ETS2 Local Radio. As you travel, the program syncs up your in-game radio with a real-world station from whatever your game location is. Driving along rural French roads and listening to the morning news from Marseille is satisfying in ways I can't describe; it's amazing how much immersion can be accomplished through something as simple as a low-fi webcast.
This website scratches a similar itch. It's so fun to pick a bright green spot and listen in on a whole other world.
posted by ZaphodB at 11:09 PM on December 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
One of my favorite ways to unwind at the end of a long day is to start ETS2, take the longest delivery run available - Sheffield to Sicily, that kind of thing - and fire up ETS2 Local Radio. As you travel, the program syncs up your in-game radio with a real-world station from whatever your game location is. Driving along rural French roads and listening to the morning news from Marseille is satisfying in ways I can't describe; it's amazing how much immersion can be accomplished through something as simple as a low-fi webcast.
This website scratches a similar itch. It's so fun to pick a bright green spot and listen in on a whole other world.
posted by ZaphodB at 11:09 PM on December 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
No joke, it dropped me on a country station in Hutchinson, KS, playing "Last Christmas," by Wham. Dammit.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 3:49 PM on December 6, 2017
posted by halfbuckaroo at 3:49 PM on December 6, 2017
I love this! Now when I search for some background music, I look for a cool sounding radio station in some forgotten far corner of the world. And there are endless numbers of them, and they are all playing amazing music I've never heard before.
A great way to expand your mind, increase your global awareness, and hear some great music all at the same time.
posted by eye of newt at 9:06 PM on December 6, 2017
A great way to expand your mind, increase your global awareness, and hear some great music all at the same time.
posted by eye of newt at 9:06 PM on December 6, 2017
I am distress, as every spin takes me to http://radio.garden/live/kiowa-co/coyotecountry983/ which a: is unavailable and b: is only about 50 miles from me. How to re-spin? (Going back to the original URL just spins me to Kiowa.)
posted by cyndigo at 4:26 PM on December 7, 2017
posted by cyndigo at 4:26 PM on December 7, 2017
Tunisian EDM is my new jam. Arabic somehow lends itself to auto tune.
More generally, I like having background music in a different language because it’s less distracting.
posted by AFABulous at 6:10 PM on December 7, 2017
More generally, I like having background music in a different language because it’s less distracting.
posted by AFABulous at 6:10 PM on December 7, 2017
cyndigo - can you not just spin it yourself with a mouse or your finger? Or are you expecting it to pick somewhere completely random each time you open the site? I'm in Milwaukee and every time I open the site it's a different station but nothing too far away (Kansas, Illinois, etc). If I want to randomize it I just close my eyes and spin with my finger. When I lift my finger it usually snaps to the closest station (if it's not in an ocean).
posted by AFABulous at 6:13 PM on December 7, 2017
posted by AFABulous at 6:13 PM on December 7, 2017
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posted by JanetLand at 1:44 PM on December 5, 2017