World Radio

If you think Google Earth is amazing (and it is) here’s the radio equivalent.  Each white dot is a licensed radio station, this app lists every single one on the planet.  Click wherever you want, and listen to what they’re airing–in real time!

Some surprises, but not too many.

Good example: Ads for HVAC service companies in Canada promote heating and ventilation, not air conditioning.  Obvious, though who’s had that thought?

Lots of American music in Western/Central Europe, the southern part of Scandinavia, often with the DJ’s voice in the local language.  Helsinki’s biggest station (by transmitting power) features 60s rock: I’m Your Venus was on when I tuned in.

Where there are lots of American ex-pats, e.g., Costa Rica, it’s the opposite: Central American music, i.e., songs in Spanish, but English often spoken.

Wales, Ireland and Scotland offer the folk tunes the indigenous people have been listening to for hundreds of years before the world of electronics came along.

Coastal Africa also has lots of English.  I caught stations in Gambia and Nigeria where listeners are urged to switch to Farmer’s Insurance, to save an average of $400, followed by the familiar jingle.

From Eastern Europe moving across the Middle East, Asia, and the subcontinent, there is very little English outside of the capital cities until you hit the Pacific or the seas that open into it.

Except for the various types of Australian accents, Oceana sounds like it could be a suburb of Chicago.

Almost 100% music, though some news, but no talk radio that I could find.  Imagine living without Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

They say that travel is the antidote for bigotry, and, while physical travel may be restricted, here’s a way to get a flavor of what the world’s 7.8 billion people are listening to at any moment.  Enjoy!