Tune in: Some Tried and True Global Radio Stations.

Get out of your NPR comfort zone (…though NPR is pretty great)

I wrote awhile back how much I respect the idea of Beats 1, Apple’s new global radio station.

We’ve disappeared so much into our hyper-personalized and curated experiences that the collective experience — and surrendering to the taste of a DJ — has been somewhat lost. It wasn’t long ago that disc-jockey legends like John Peel would break new artists in England and the world by virtue of their finely-tuned tastes and ravenous appetites for finding unpolished gems from stacks of promos.

I recently went down the Internet radio rabbit hole, courtesy of the Tunein app on Sonos, and re-booted my international radio selections for home listening.

There’s something magic about listening to a Tokyo breakfast show on a rainy Sunday night in New York, or imagining you are in a taxi from the airport in a new city, drinking in an unfamiliar news radio station in French.

My resulting dig through the internet and terrestrial airwaves is a fun, wide ranging spectrum of sounds from bleeding edge East London riddims to beautifully naive (and very sincere) college radio to global pop, autumnal cardigan jazz and beyond.

I was also inspired and guided by this very thoughtful and comprehensive guide, by Pete Naughton.

Also, some longstanding listens are included, including Tim Sweeney’s legendary Beats in Space program (do it big!) and the ever-reliable WFMU. Both have really informed my knowledge and love for a variety of genres. And both are passion products that have rightly earned a devoted audience.

Here’s my list. Get deep.

WFMU: An icon of interesting independent music and spirited DJs.

Beats in Space: House, disco, techno and more curated by Tim Sweeney. A favorite.

Radio Reverb Brighton: Brighton based, volunteer run community station.

NTS London: Electronic focused London channel with exceptional programming. I love when Trevor Jackson DJs on here.

Rinse FM London: Future forward bass music. Dubstep, grime, drum and bass and whatever beautiful mutations are being played on heavyweight sound systems in London town. Great programming and skilled DJs.

FIP (France): “Expect to hear everything from Haydn to Serge Gainsbourg to John Coltrane to De La Soul and beyond.” A lot of curatorial thought is given to the programming and how songs flow.

KCOU 88.1 FM (University of Missouri): Tasteful college station with a wide range of stuff being played.

KUSF (USF’s student station) Same as above. Label focus: Sub Pop, What’s Your Rupture? Etc.

Monocle 24 Radio You have to respect what they’ve accomplished with their depth and breadth of coverage. From foreign reportage, to food, to the magazine industry, to global music. The programming can get a bit garish when they go deep on K-pop but it is also part of the charm.

Tokyo FM Lots of pop weirdness. But I am such a Tokyo fan that I dive in from time to time, also because the spirited Japanese conversation is just a fun vibe.

Sundowner on KBC: From Jonny: “Ironically, the most famous African show mostly plays country music — it’s called Sundowner on KBC (Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation) and has been on 6–7pm for about the last 30 years…Nairobi’s on the equator so the sun sets at 6pm year round and I used to love listening with a jazz cigarette when I lived out there…”

Radio Nova: After this was posted, a lot of people peppered my inbox with strong endorsements for Nova, including one from the illustrious LMDC. Described on their site as “non-mainstream or underground artists of various music genres, such as electro, new wave, reggae, jazz, hip hop and world music.”

Bush Radio: Ralph Borland writes in with a hearty recommendation for this community based radio station in South Africa. More on their mission here.

Triple J Australia Tasteful indie and electronic shows. Australian stalwart.

KMAH Radio from Leeds. Sharply curated independent electronic music station, focused on techno. Thanks to James Friedman for this tip.

Wildcard: Public Possession, a cool record shop and label based in Munich. They have an awesome Soundcloud, which isn’t radio per se, but is worth mentioning. Thanks to Roy Dank for this.

Note: This will be updated as I see stuff come through. Drop me a note if you have anything on rotation: @CJN on twitter.