Tuned to the Radio

A few of our favorite stations and apps for hearing new music.

Like many of you, Lance and I spend a lot of time listening to the radio. Whether it’s transmitted via airwaves or internet — we’re tuned in, and here are some of our favorite access points.

Radio Garden: Tune into the World’s Radio Stations

If you’re in the mood to travel, explore live radio around the world with Radio Garden.

You can listen online or via their app and search for your favorite station, location or browse through the thousands of cities and towns identified across the globe. 

Recently, while listening to a station based in Cheboksary, Russia that plays Orthodox Chants, I came across a station in nearby Ufa, Russia that plays ethnic and folk music of the region. How else would I have the opportunity to hear this music? I liken the experience to listening in the dark, unable to understand the language spoken between songs means the musicians and song titles remain a mystery. For me, this reinforces the importance of the mission of Dust-to-Digital: to present music and offer research and context so we may know and understand people and cultures around the world.

Radiooooo: When would you like to listen today?

Inspired by a desire to easily access music from different times and places, Radiooooo allows listeners to explore music by decade and country with options to customize for slow, fast, weird, plus ways to explore via taxi, island, or shuffle modes.

Not a traditional radio experience, Radiooooo’s content is generated by collectors and contributors whose selections are reviewed by an editorial staff who evaluate each track based on audio quality, and aesthetic. More like a curated playlist, it is an incredibly fun way to listen and to expand your musical horizons.

E. P. Licursi wrote a brief history of the app for The New Yorker back in 2016. In his piece he tells how the five O’s in the name represent the five continental landmasses, “all of which you can hear music from, though Antarctica’s stations contain mostly whale songs.”

WFMU: Experimentation, Spontaneity and Humor

A perennial favorite at Dust-to-Digital is WFMU, Lance and I listen to it quite often. The terrestrial radio station based in Jersey City, New Jersey is currently the longest-running freeform station in the United States and, like so many of the best things in life, it is proudly “uncategorizable.”

WFMU broadcasts live over the airwaves, online and via an app. The station offers a program archive and broadcasts three web-only streams; Give the Drummer Some, Rock ‘n’ Soul, and Sheena’s Jungle Room. My current favorite show is “Feelings” with Michele with one “L.”

NTS Radio: A Global Platform for Music Lovers

NTS began in London in 2011 as a UK-based radio station and broadcasting platform. It offers two live radio stations and 14 music-only streams of themed playlists that they describe as infinite mixtapes plus genre and mood-guided listening. The favorite mixtape at the Dust-to-Digital office is Memory Lane. Lance says it has him pulling up Shazam probably more than anything else.

Happy listening, and we’d love to know what your go-to stations are.