Good "discussion" style Internet radio stations?

August 3, 2008 11:20 AM

Recommendations for good "discussion" Internet speech radio stations? Like BBC Radio 4? Not talk radio.

Got a nice new Internet radio a few days ago and like to listen to BBC Radio 4. Intelligent and educative. But for those times when The Archers is on, I'd like to flip stations. I found Radio Dublin Anna Livia, which sounds pretty good, and would like to find more like it, regardless of geographical area provided they're mostly English language.

posted by humblepigeon to society & culture (10 comments total)

I find CBC Radio One, and NPR to be most like BBC 4. Both have a similar mix of programs to BBC 4 (news reports, documentaries, intelligent discussion programs, and the phone-in shows are relatively rant-free), though CBC Radio One has a bit more musical content (usually arts programs with a mix of talk and music). Of course, CBC is very Canada-centric, while NPR is very US-centric, as it to be expected.
posted by jb at 11:34 AM on August 3, 2008

sorry - links would probably help. Don't know if either work with internet radio, but I do podcast a great deal from both, as well as BBC4.

CBC Radio One (Radio Two is music).
NPR (National Public Radio)
posted by jb at 11:37 AM on August 3, 2008

The Australian ABC Radio National is of a similar nature; arts, news, discussion, culture, documentaries, drama, science, you name it.
posted by Jimbob at 12:17 PM on August 3, 2008

Thanks jb and JimBob. No other replies though. I guess discussion radio just isn't popular with the MF crowd.

It was only when I tuned into Australia's ABC Radio National that I spotted a flaw in my plan. I live in the UK, so my daytime is their nighttime. At 9pm Sunday night I was listening to their 6am news for Monday morning. It's quite a mind-twister. North American stations are less problematic, although at lunchtime and dinner time I'm tuning into their breakfast shows...
posted by humblepigeon at 2:35 AM on August 4, 2008

Somebody contacted me by email and mentioned http://www.publicradiofan.com/. This looks like a really good resource.

Also, in answer to another question in that email, the radio that I'm using is this one. Basically, it works over wifi (connecting to your home router), using a list of stations provided by Reciva. It's probably only sold in the UK but other countries must have equivalents. It's been a while since the UK was at the cutting edge of technology...
posted by humblepigeon at 2:42 AM on August 4, 2008

Wow humblepigeon...I have daydreamed about something like the internet radio you linked to, but wasn't aware it actually existed! The Reciva list looks pretty comprehensive, although it's lacking my local community/yoof station Edge FM. I might have to save up for something like that!
posted by Jimbob at 3:20 AM on August 4, 2008

If the ABC Radio National schedule doesn't suit you, you may want to try Radio Australia - the ABC's overseas service for the Asia-Pacific region. Here is their program guide for your time zone. Much of the content is region-specific, but there's an English-only feed and who knows, you might learn something!

Also, most of the ABC's programs are available by podcast.
posted by [ixia] at 3:54 AM on August 4, 2008

Can your radio handle streaming from your computer, or podcasts? That's how I time shift BBC Radio 4 programs, now that I've moved back to the US.
posted by jb at 7:26 AM on August 4, 2008

Can your radio handle streaming from your computer, or podcasts? That's how I time shift BBC Radio 4 programs, now that I've moved back to the US.

The radio I mentioned can even play back BBC "Listen Again" programmes, as well as streaming radio. They've thought of everything. The only issue is that there's a lot of fiddling around with the controls to find the programme you want. The two-line display doesn't help but, short of holographic displays, I'm not sure how they could avoid this.

The radio can even seek out shared folders and play MP3s, so it could playback podcasts. Again, there's a lot of fiddling around, however.

although it's lacking my local community/yoof station Edge FM.

The list on the Reciva website isn't entirely the same as the list I'm offered on the radio itself. I don't know why. I initially picked out a few stations on the Reciva site and then totally failed to find them on the radio itself---better just to find an interesting-looking station on the radio, and then look it up online. But this is ultimately why I'm asking here, because the radio and Reciva site just throw thousands of stations at you with no indiciation of quality, or even details about content.
posted by humblepigeon at 10:03 AM on August 4, 2008

Radio Open Source.
posted by tellurian at 12:10 AM on August 8, 2008