How to listen to radio from another country

Radio used to be limited by physics. A transmitter reaches as far as its power and the terrain allow, and beyond that you got static. Almost every station now also publishes its signal as an internet stream, which means that limit is gone: a community station in rural Nepal is exactly as reachable from Berlin as the one down the road.

What has not been solved is finding anything. Thirty thousand station names sorted alphabetically is not a way to explore a planet. Putting them where they broadcast from is.

1. Open the player

Go to the player — there is no sign-up, no download and nothing to install. It works in Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox, on a phone, tablet or computer. The globe takes a few seconds to load its map imagery the first time you visit.

2. Find the country you want

Drag anywhere on the globe with one finger, or hold the left mouse button and move. The Earth turns under your hand. To zoom, pinch with two fingers, use two fingers on a trackpad, or scroll a mouse wheel.

The green dots are places that have stations, and a bigger dot means more stations at that spot — capital cities are usually the brightest thing on a continent.

3. Let the reticle tune for you

The ring in the centre of the screen is the tuner. Whatever station falls inside it starts playing, so you never pick from a list: you move the planet until something is under the ring, the way you used to move a dial until something came through. Stop moving and it plays.

You can also tap a dot directly if you can see the one you want, or use search if you already know the station’s name.

4. Keep the ones you like

The heart button saves a station to your favourites, and everything you play lands in recents by itself. Both live in your own browser rather than in an account — which makes them private, and also means clearing your browser data clears them, and that nothing syncs between your phone and your laptop.

5. Listen while you do something else

Playback carries on when you switch tabs or lock the screen, and the station appears in your device’s normal media controls, so you can pause from the lock screen or a headset button. The sleep timer stops it after a set time if you listen falling asleep.

Things worth knowing

Some stations will not play

Every stream comes from the broadcaster, not from us. If a station goes off air, moves its stream, or limits how many people can connect at once, it will not play until they fix it on their side. That is normal and it is not a sign anything is wrong with your connection.

Nothing plays until you tap once

Browsers refuse to start audio before you have interacted with the page. That is a rule of the web rather than a bug — tap once and it plays.

You can install it, but you still need a connection

Add the player to your home screen and it opens full-screen like an app. Radio is streamed, though: no connection, no sound.

Ideas for where to point it

If you are staring at a whole planet and cannot think of anywhere, some starting points that reliably reward the trip: Reykjavík on a winter evening, any coastal town in Brazil on a Saturday, Lagos at almost any hour, the Scottish islands, Kyoto early in the morning, or wherever you have been meaning to visit. If you are learning a language, park the reticle on a talk station in that country and leave it running while you cook.

Open the globe and start somewhere.