Radio Garden
Just a few decades ago, in certain regions of the world, radio was considered a window to the latter. Families spent hours, seated in front of their respective transmitters, scanning the airwaves, hoping to catch a moment of static-free reality from a far-away place or in some cases, from home.
While radio today has seemingly taken a backseat to visual alternatives, online radio is still alive and kicking. As a matter of fact, besides our own humble venture to bring you a regular selection of extraordinary sounds from around the globe or great initiatives such as Radiooooo.com, here's another undertaking that has the potential to keep all you audiophiles out there glued to your devices for hours on end.
As recently (dis)covered in a piece by Deepak Singh for NPR's Goats and Soda section, the newest kid on the block is Radio Garden, a platform launched in December, based in the Netherlands and funded by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision with no immediate commercial aspirations. Radio Garden is instant fun for the curious at heart. Ring up the page and you will face a world map with a sheer endless amount of illuminated dots. Each dot highlights a certain locality in the world and offers users a choice of one or more 'local' radio stations to tune in to.
"The main idea is to help radio makers and listeners connect with distant cultures and re-connect with people from home and thousands of miles away", says Jonathan Puckey, one of the project's founders. And the idea seems to have struck a worldwide chord. In an interview with Singh, Puckey confirmed that he is currently being inundated by calls from around the world, requesting to be added.
In addition to the stations, Radio Garden offers a selection of other features, e.g. History, Jingles and Stories, definitely worth checking out. We've literally just spent our afternoon, browsing the world map, tuning into radio stations in Tehran, Addis Ababa or Tallinn and cannot believe our ears. Highly recommended! Right this way...
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