Your Favourite Internet Radio Stations

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So the world of personal music listening has come a long way in the past four decades - from vinyl and cassettes to CDs to streamed music. But there’s been one constant platform amidst all this - the radio! But is it? Even the radio has morphed into numerous forms - from the old MW/SW to satellite radio to FM to the subject of this thread - ‘Internet Radio’. But despite the form and platform changes this format of musical entertainment has undergone, its defining essence is “programmed content that is broadcast from a radio station”. One may have an enormous personal collection of records/CDs, and access to millions of songs though the subscribed streaming app run even in shuffle mode, but it can’t beat the anticipation of not knowing the next song to be played and the thrill of finding it to be either an old favourite or a promising new discovery!

While traditional form of radio continues through FM boxes, it has limited attraction to audiophiles who don’t want to listen to the (usually musically irrelevant) chatter of the RJs and the advertisements. Worldspace radio came as a boon to us audiophiles in the 00’s decade, but vanished without a trace due to its unviable business model. But in the last ten years or so another phenomenon that has slowly grown from strength to strength, in the shadows of Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal and YouTube is the ‘Internet Radio’. Not as ubiquitously played in living rooms as the above music apps, Internet Radio stations still have their appeal for serious music listeners, specifically:
- Focused (many a times genre specific( stations
- Curated content (not at all stations though)
- Very few or no ad breaks
- Better resolution than FM - even upto FLAC and more in some cases
- Warmth of the host and listener community in some cases
- Discovering music across the globe

I have been a devoted listener of some Internet radio stations over the years and keep looking for new ones. Some of these have become my personal favourites and get tuned into regularly on my CXN V2 streamer. Given the larger number of threads on streaming music apps on the forum, I am surprised there aren’t many focused on Internet radio. Makes me wonder if other FMs do listen to Internet radio! While the number might not be high, I imagine there are some. And with the growth of streamers, it can only increase.

So, with the twin objectives of helping current users discover interesting stations and tempt non-users to try out, I am starting this thread. Please post your favourite (musical) internet radio station. Why musical? Because that’s the common interest shared by all of us. And the other kind of radio stations tend to be focused on news. And those usually have their FM equivalent. You could post that too, but let’s have more of musical stations.

Rules (to preferably follow):
- Please stick to one station (or group of stations run by same organisation) at a time. Add as many posts as you need to cover each of your favourite.
- Which hardware do you listen on. If part of native internet radio on a streamer, please state that.
- What’s the resolution of the stream?
- Provide URL of the stream where available.
- Is the service paid/free/ad-funded?
- What kind of music is played on the station?
- What makes it your favourite?

Let’s go!
 
Radio Paradise

How can I not but start with the bouquet of radio stations that occupies at least a quarter of my radio listening time! ‘Radio Paradise’ is a benchmark for all musical Internet radio stations. A subscription free as well as ad-free service run by a couple in America with four dedicated streams playing at five bitrates (highest being FLAC), well-curated content excellent sound quality - there’s so much going for Radio Paradise!

RP recently went from one stream to four and now we have:
RP Main (mix of best music across genres)
RP Rock (classic, alternative and indie rock)
RP Mellow (singer-songwriter, country, folk)
RP World/Etc (latest offering, getting better by the day)

967711C2-488C-4D1E-8FC0-0200CEEB3AF5.jpeg
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Radio Paradise is available as a mobile app. The app is very feature rich. Each song that’s played can be rated by listeners from 1-10 and you also see the overall rating (as well as rating for the artist). You have links to the same track on Apple Music and some other apps as well as the Allmusic.com page of the album. What more, there’s a description of the artist if you click on the name. And the best part is the bulletin board, with some very illuminating comments of the track by RP listeners posted over the years! It is one of the most comprehensive listeners feedback anywhere on the Internet. It’s a great way to know more about and appreciate better the current song being played.

I access the RP streams natively on the CXN V2 streamer - in fact these four are the first four presets on mine - it’s that good! RP is one of the handful Internet stations that (also) broadcasts at FLAC bitrate. Here are the links. You can add them on CXN through the CA Connect app:


RP is a listener-supported channel that is run on donations by satisfied users. These guys acknowledge every donation through a personalised mail and are also quite responsive to any feedback/suggestions. All in all, you get the feeling of a passionate and noble enterprise with Radio Paradise. Give them a try and chances are you’d be hooked.
 
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KMHD 89.1 - MHD stands for mt. Hood Community College, Gresham. It's free and free of ads. In Portland OR its famous and they play a wide mix of Jazz, blues, Soul, R&B and so on, it's mostly jazz though.

Available on squeezebox, Apple music, Tunein, etc it's free. For me it's either the SB or my phone connected to the amp.



Why do I like it? Every once a while they will play vinyl, whether it's a needledrop or for real couldn't be sure. Sound quality is as good as can be. The RJs are amateurs and that adds to the charm, it's entirely non-commercial. There is the occasional discussion too. The variety is huge it's very rarely I hear something I have heard before. Everyday I discover something new.
 
1.FM
It has many sub streams.
Can be accessed via the app or natively on the streamer.
My favourite is 1.FM Jazz on my streamer.

1.FM bouquet is quite extensive and has good bitrate. But I don’t know whether it’s just my system, but all of them sound pretty loud - not in terms of just volume, but distortion too. Did you feel anything like that too?


KMHD 89.1 - MHD stands for mt. Hood Community College, Gresham. It's free and free of ads. In Portland OR its famous and they play a wide mix of Jazz, blues, Soul, R&B and so on, it's mostly jazz though.

Available on squeezebox, Apple music, Tunein, etc it's free. For me it's either the SB or my phone connected to the amp.



Why do I like it? Every once a while they will play vinyl, whether it's a needledrop or for real couldn't be sure. Sound quality is as good as can be. The RJs are amateurs and that adds to the charm, it's entirely non-commercial. There is the occasional discussion too. The variety is huge it's very rarely I hear something I have heard before. Everyday I discover something new.

Sounds good, though just 128 Kbps. Since you are interested in Jazz, so check Miled Music - Jazz at 256 Kbps. Sounds very immediate.
 
Shanti Shanti - Hindustani Classical Radio

Classical music and radio go a long way together. There’s a thing about classical music of any kind, especially Indian - you can play it in the background for hours together without getting fatigued. On the contrary, it soothes and energises you. That makes it an ideal material for radio while you go about your things.

Back in the days of Worldspace Radio, its Hindustani Classical station used to play in the background while I worked. WS was a connoisseur’s delight - it’s irreplaceable. But since I bought the CXN a year ago I was on the lookout for a good internet radio station playing Hindustani classical music. (My other go-to is the prahar-wise Tidal playlists I have compiled - you can find them in the Tidal thread). I could find a few stations (shall list in subsequent posts), but wasn’t satisfied either with their content or the sound quality.

And then, almost serendipitously, I located Shanti Shanti while searching on CXN. I could have ignored it as one of the many devotional music channels (as there are plenty of them), but I tried and it turned out to be just what I was looking for.

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Shanti Shanti (the name of the station), or Shanti Classical as its logo says, is also available on TuneIn radio etc. Its stream is at 128 Kbps - which doesn’t seem a lot, but I believe this guys have good source material and equipment which helps the sound quality - it sounds clear, well staged, totally correct and alive. Neither dull, nor too bright - just optimum.

The station seems to be based in France. (The French have a thing for world music - there’s another favourite station of mine based in France playing world music, but that’s for a later post). Shanti Shanti‘s playlist doesn’t go too deep into the Hindustani classical artists, so you’d need to be content with listening to the legends - Hariprasad, Shiv Kumar, Bhimsen, Nikhil Banerjee, Vilayat Khan and the likes (especially the first two). Don’t expect Jayateerth Mevundi, Purbayan Chatterjee or Kaushiki Chakraborty.

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Shanti Shanti is a boon to Hindustani Classical Radio listeners. It can be the ideal station if it broadens and deepens its content.
 
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Sandesh Radio - The Hindustani Explorer

Having shared my impressions on ‘Shanti Shanti’ above, let me introduce you to another radio station dedicated to Hindustani Classical that is at the opposite end of the spectrum - Sandesh Radio.

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While Shanti Shanti focuses on the creme de la crime of Hindustani classical artists, Sandesh Radio does the opposite - it showcases lesser known greats (Abdul Karim Khan or Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan for example) or younger talent (eg Mohankumar Darekar) making it a great way to discover performers unknown to you.

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The station is also run by a classical instrumentalist Sanjay Deshpande (pic above) from Belgaum, Karnataka. So one can assume he knows good music from the average when he curates it. Streamed at 128 Kbps, the stream has clean and natural sound. In fact, it is more easy sounding than Shanti Shanti. What’s more, each track is announced before it is played - although digitally in an anglicised accent.

Radio Garden Link to Sandesh Radio:

Android APK:

If you are an Indian classical musician, you can send your recording to Sandesh Radio to be played on the stream:
 
1.FM bouquet is quite extensive and has good bitrate. But I don’t know whether it’s just my system, but all of them sound pretty loud - not in terms of just volume, but distortion too. Did you feel anything like that too?
Have not really paid attention to the sound quality of this station. I just enjoy the music. Am using a Cambridge streamer as well.
Iam pretty much convinced that streaming quality does not match my cd quality.
Thats another discussion altogether.
Will listen to the station again and let you know.
 
Radio Paradise

How can I not but start with the bouquet of radio stations that occupies at least a quarter of my radio listening time! ‘Radio Paradise’ is a benchmark for all musical Internet radio stations. A subscription free as well as ad-free service run by a couple in America with four dedicated streams playing at five bitrates (highest being FLAC), well-curated content excellent sound quality - there’s so much going for Radio Paradise!

RP recently went from one stream to four and now we have:
RP Main (mix of best music across genres)
RP Rock (classic, alternative and indie rock)
RP Mellow (singer-songwriter, country, folk)
RP World/Etc (latest offering, getting better by the day)

View attachment 45911
View attachment 45912
View attachment 45913
View attachment 45914

Radio Paradise is available as a mobile app. The app is very feature rich. Each song that’s played can be rated by listeners from 1-10 and you also see the overall rating (as well as rating for the artist). You have links to the same track on Apple Music and some other apps as well as the Allmusic.com page of the album. What more, there’s a description of the artist if you click on the name. And the best part is the bulletin board, with some very illuminating comments of the track by RP listeners posted over the years! It is one of the most comprehensive listeners feedback anywhere on the Internet. It’s a great way to know more about and appreciate better the current song being played.

I access the RP streams natively on the CXN V2 streamer - in fact these four are the first four presets on mine - it’s that good! RP is one of the handful Internet stations that (also) broadcasts at FLAC bitrate. Here are the links. You can add them on CXN through the CA Connect app:


RP is a listener-supported channel that is run on donations by satisfied users. These guys acknowledge every donation through a personalised mail and are also quite responsive to any feedback/suggestions. All in all, you get the feeling of a passionate and noble enterprise with Radio Paradise. Give them a try and chances are you’d be hooked.
wow. what a radio you have suggested. thanks a ton. i am listening from laptop to receiver. I dont know why sound is skipping. any solution? i played utube, its working fine.
 
Radio Club 45 - For Classic Rock Lovers

There’s probably no dearth of rock stations on the Internet. But a few are dedicated to classic rock. And of those, my favourite is Radio Club 45! Here’s why.

Firstly, the selection. Absolutely no adulteration - what you get is an uninterrupted stream of rock classics from the 60s and 70s (may be some 80s). The artist and album mix is pretty good. There’s hardly ever a dud pick. The selection spans soft rock, hard rock, blues rock, art rock, prog rock. See below the songs that played back to back as I was writing this.

3B3D135D-E403-4B25-ADD7-C5C60C8CA555.jpeg
208E29AE-06CF-4A35-B6DA-C72BBE661984.jpeg
45E51E10-7E63-4B59-BBBA-0B1176AC9219.jpeg
9F4792CD-70B1-4675-BCEA-97EEA607AAF9.jpegCouldn’t resist adding the fourth that played in the sequence. Get the idea?

Secondly, the sound! it does help that the stream has a healthy bitrate of 256 Kbps. But that’s not the highlight. The guys running this station undertand the Rock sound and seem to have tuned their source and equipment to ensure your system ‘rocks’ when you play it. So don’t expect the fine quality of sound (separation etc) that you find in Radio Paradise (even RP Rock). What you get is the dirty rock sound with desired distortion and produces a thick wall of sound. Badass! You can rock it by raising the decibel. And it will surely take you back to the golden decades.

Try it and type in your feedback.

(I couldn’t find links. Try typing the station name in your streamer/radio app and search).
 
Ok, here’s an addition after a gap. (Actually I sense there’s much lower interest in Internet radio as compared to streaming apps among the forum members, but shall persevere with this thread as it could help the few devoted current and future internet radio listeners).

What I am now going to post is pure gold! Quite of the order of Radio Paradise, but less known and still, larger. It’s a suite of over 30+ radio stations in fact!

FluxMusic - Comprehensive & High Quality Radio

I stumbled upon Flux while searching interesting radio stations in the VTuner of the CXN. But then I discovered there’s more to it. FluxMusic also has a a mobile app - a simple and glitch-free through which you can access all their channels/stations if you don’t have a streamer like CXN with the stations built in.

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So, what’s FluxFM about? As you’d have noticed from the pic above, it’s a German app. (That must have already raised your hopes on its reliability - and you aren’t wrong!). It’s more than an app, it seems a movement - they call it ‘Next level Radio’. In addition to the music stations, there’s a lot of articles/blogs/news:interviews around music, artists and related culture, some in the app, more on the website - but unfortunately in German language. But fret not, you don’t need to know German to play the radios in the app and they play not just German, but excellent collection of international music.

You have genres ranging from Electro (no one does it better than the Germans), Jazz, Rock & Metal, Hiphop, POP, Chill out ans Reggae. Yes, if you are a classical lover, you’d be disappointed. But for the rest of us, there’s a large recipe with multiple stations within each genre. For example:

33DEB67C-0268-4BAB-B964-AE860415E1AA.jpeg

or

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Want FLAC? Get FLAC!
All these stations are accessible through the tuner om Cambridge CXN (and possibly other streamers), but max in 320 Kbps (which is pretty good by Internet radio standards). However, if you download the mobile app, and do a free registration, you can access them all in FLAC resolution! Just AirPlay/Chromecast it onto your streamer.

Sound quality? One of the best I’ve heard on Internet radios. Very close to Radio Paradise.

So what are you waiting for? Get the Flux! Get the sound!
 
SomaFM group of stations - especially their Groove Salad for chill lounge type relaxing music & Indie Pop Rocks for Indie stuff is excellent. Not sure of the bitrate but its pretty good, could be 192kbps.



NPO FunX SlowJamz for R&B. I believe it is 320kbps.



any recommendations for Mellow Jazz stations? whenever i find a good one it seems to shut down. a lot of jazz stations seem to go from soothing to high tempo tracks & dont maintain the mood.
 
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@filmguy, The San Francisco based SomaFM is an excellent suite focused of eclectic mixes and also an enterprise that’s been going strong for 20 years now. They fought the recording industry legally to lower royalties for the Internet radio industry. Their Indian fusion station - ‘Suburbs of Goa’ is on my CXN presets. This guy knows his job well and will end up as an industry legend. Here’s an article on them: https://www.sfgate.com/entertainmen...irate-radio-from-a-Bernal-Heights-2710458.php

Thanks for suggesting NPO FunX. Shall check them out. Even naming Internet radio stations must be such an interesting challenge! It has to be succinct and distinct.

Here are some Mellow Jazz stations I have heard:

Jazz Vespers (Standards and love songs)
Radio Art - Jazz Ballads (Relaxing Music)
Miled Music - Jazz (mix, but lots of smooth)
WJMX-DB Smooth Jazz Boston Global Radio

There are 168 smooth Jazz radio stations listed on vTuner. You’d surely find some you like in the search result below:
 
Hi

I guess no one mentioned about any Indian radio station? I am too happy to find my favourite radio channel yesterday, AIR FM Rainbow. I was not expecting this one to be online but bingo, many web sites stream this at the same time.

I love this station because of retro/classical western songs show 3 times a day with 1 or 2 old hindi songs in between during morning show.

You may find this FM at this Air FM Rainbow and at many other web sites as well.

Regards
Vivek
 
Hi
Vivekji
Agree with you. There is no mention of any Indian radio stations in all the threads. However recently I have found one My Tuner and here you can have many Indian stations. Personally I like Retro Bollywood and Bollywood hits along side some FM stations that are available on this app. Actually my interest in internet radio grows as soon as I go through a nice thread written by FM Sachin chavan. Then I have searched on line, found MyTuner app, downloaded it and now I have become a fan of it. IMO, today it is good to have such an app to listen to music with out bothering much about anything else which is associated with physical media. I don't say that physical media has become obsolete but when we say about convenience, we can't ignore either streaming services or internet radio.
Cheers
 
Indian Radio Stations - Bollywood (Old)

This addition is prompted by @Vivek Batra and @Bhaskar Jyoti Talapatra ’s (rhyming surnames) comments above. Bollywood/Hindi film song stations are broadly classified into those playing old songs and modern/current songs. There’s no dearth of the latter type (though I am yet to find one that I am highly satisfied on both content and audio quality). But there are very few Internet radio stations dedicated to old Hindi film songs. I want to present here two of them which are in my CXN’s presets. Note that the resolution for both is just 96 Kbps, but then I don’t think the old recordings really need much more.

So what we are talking of here aren’t the melodies of the 80’s and 90’s. Not even 70’s. But largely the golden era of Hindi film music - the 50’s and the 60’s. If you love listening to it, you should definitely check out the two stations.

1. Hungama B&W Classics
The name is self-explanatory. You get to listen to old Hindi songs - many of them (though not all) from B&W era. Hungama, the promoter, is one of India’s earliest digital companies - starting from online marketing, to online gaming and eventually media (music and films). I like how this company has maintained its focus and diversified in related areas. And to survive and grow for 20 years, they must be managing pretty well - no wonder an ace investor like Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is its Chairman.
4BF81701-F171-4096-998A-40C7F77130EE.jpegBut back to the music. I like the sound signature of Hungama stations - unlike some other suites (Radio City or 1.FM) Hungama stations don’t sound loud or boomy. They sound natural and easy. Despite their low resolution, these stations can be heard for a long time. Also their musical collection seems vast. You get the effect of listening to ‘Chayageet’ or ‘Binaca Geet Mala’ of yesteryears. The sound is truly sweet.

The station can be accessed through Hungama’s own app as well as through vTuner and most other radio aggregator apps like TuneIn etc. Just search with its name, sit back and relax.

2. Shripad Radio
Now, this is an oddball. I bet 90% of even those reading this thread don’t know about it. I didn’t too till I chanced upon it.
F6A0A964-D276-4604-9D0F-CF742FE0F775.jpeg

So, if Hungama B&W Classics is run by a successful business house, Shripad Radio is run by an individual - Mr Shripad Kulkarni, based in Pune, probably from his home! Let’s clap first for the great leveller that’s Internet is! Of course this is a mix of Marathi and Hindi programming - you can expect that from a Puneite.;)

Now the best part! Mr Kulkarni himself curates the programs. Like for the Ek Geet, Do Pehlu program running right now. In this he presents two versions of the same song sung by two singers. For example just now he first played ‘Chhotu si yeh duniya’ by Kishore first and then Lata. And so on! Each program is unique. It’s a delight to listen to both the songs and his presentational .

You can read about the radio on his website:https://shripadradio.myfreesites.net/ and listen to the radio at:https://janus.shoutca.st/tunein/-stream/shripadradio.pls

On CXN/vTuner/TuneIn Radio, just search ‘Shripad Radio’. The resolution is just 96 Kbps, but again the sound tonality is suited for old Hindi songs.

There are of course, some other Internet stations that play old Hindi, but I wanted to showcase these two in particular. Do give a feedback if you check them out.
 
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Indian Radio Stations - Bollywood (Old)

This addition is prompted by @Vivek Batra and @Bhaskar Jyoti Talapatra ’s (rhyming surnames) comments above. Bollywood/Hindi film song stations are broadly classified into those playing old songs and modern/current songs. There’s no dearth of the latter type (though I am yet to find one that I am highly satisfied on both content and audio quality). But there are very few Internet radio stations dedicated to old Hindi film songs. I want to present here two of them which are in my CXN’s presets. Note that the resolution for both is just 96 Kbps, but then I don’t think the old recordings really need much more.

So what we are talking of here aren’t the melodies of the 80’s and 90’s. Not even 70’s. But largely the golden era of Hindi film music - the 50’s and the 60’s. If you love listening to it, you should definitely check out the two stations.

1. Hungama B&W Classics
The name is self-explanatory. You get to listen to old Hindi songs - many of them (though not all) from B&W era. Hungama, the promoter, is one of India’s earliest digital companies - starting from online marketing, to online gaming and eventually media (music and films). I like how this company has maintained its focus and diversified in related areas. And to survive and grow for 20 years, they must be managing pretty well - no wonder an ace investor like Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is its Chairman.
View attachment 47508But back to the music. I like the sound signature of Hungama stations - unlike some other suites (Radio City or 1.FM) Hungama stations don’t sound loud or boomy. They sound natural and easy. Despite their low resolution, these stations can be heard for a long time. Also their musical collection seems vast. You get the effect of listening to ‘Chayageet’ or ‘Binaca Geet Mala’ of yesteryears. The sound is truly sweet.

The station can be accessed through Hungama’s own app as well as through vTuner and most other radio aggregator apps like TuneIn etc. Just search with its name, sit back and relax.

2. Shripad Radio
Now, this is an oddball. I bet 90% of even those reading this thread don’t know about it. I didn’t too till I chanced upon it.
View attachment 47509

So, if Hungama B&W Classics is run by a successful business house, Shripad Radio is run by an individual - Mr Shripad Kulkarni, based in Pune, probably from his home! Let’s clap first for the great leveller that’s Internet is! Of course this is a mix of Marathi and Hindi programming - you can expect that from a Puneite.;)

Now the best part! Mr Kulkarni himself curates the programs. Like for the Ek Geet, Do Pehlu program running right now. In this he presents two versions of the same song sung by two singers. For example just now he first played ‘Chhotu si yeh duniya’ by Kishore first and then Lata. And so on! Each program is unique. It’s a delight to listen to both the songs and his presentational .

You can read about the radio on his website:https://shripadradio.myfreesites.net/ and listen to the radio at:https://janus.shoutca.st/tunein/-stream/shripadradio.pls

On CXN/vTuner/TuneIn Radio, just search ‘Shripad Radio’. The resolution is just 96 Kbps, but again the sound tonality is suited for old Hindi songs.

There are of course, some other Internet stations that play old Hindi, but I wanted to showcase these two in particular. Do give a feedback if you check them out.
Hi @SachinChavan

Thanks for adding this info. I am eager to try out these. Very well written as always. :)
 
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