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.