zine7/submissions/tsui/guide_to_indie_radios.md

---
title: A (small) guide to indie internet radios
author: tsui
papersize: a5
pagestyle: empty
geometry: margin=0cm
output: pdf_document
---

\pagenumbering{gobble}

You're back home from a tiring day out. You want to relax listening to
some music. You have acquired lots of music along your journey
throughout the Internet. However, you don't want to listen to any of
it right now. You don't want to deal with the decision paralysis of
youtube or bandcamp either. Furthermore, spotify and friends are out
of the question. Lastly, your old radio doesn't catch any frequency
that's interesting to you.

But there's hope. While your old radio can't catch much more than
what's physically near it, the internet radios got you covered.

Internet radios come in many varieties. Some of them are just the
internet version of old-school radios, and many of those are mostly
available to be listened through their website only, so they can track
you, show you ads, or cut the streaming after you haven't been engaged
to their website for some time. Worst case scenario, they require you
to get their android/ios app that's riddled with who knows what.

I won't bother with those. I will focus on just a few Internet radios
that are available both through a webfront and a direct streaming
link, so you can tune in using a browser, or a media player when the
former is inconvenient.

## Tilderadio

Link: [tilderadio.org](https://tilderadio.org) 

I can't start without mentioning tilderadio. Tilderadio is the online
radio of the tildeverse. Members of the tildeverse request time slots
and stream things to their liking. There are shows dedicated to music
playlists and talk shows. Highly recommended.

### Link for media player 

- https://azuracast.tilderadio.org/radio/8000/radio.ogg

## Anonradio

Link: [anonradio.net](https://anonradio.net) 

One of oldest pubnixes is is the [Super Dimension Fortress Public
Access UNIX system](https://sdf.org), or SDF for short. The folks at
sdf maintain [anonradio.net](https://anonradio.net). Like tilderadio,
anonradio operates on a volunteer basis, with DJs being members of the
sdf. There's a wide selection of music shows. Rock, synthpop, metal,
electronic, dubiousness, partying, languages, old and new. There's
something for almost everybody.

### Link for media player 

- https://anonradio.net:8443/anonradio

## SOMA FM

Link: [somafm.com](https://somafm.com/)

Soma fm is an entirely listener-supported independent radio with
as many as 30 channels dedicated to different music genres.

- Do you like a mysterious sountrack in the background? [The secret agent channel](https://somafm.com/secretagent/)
might be of interest to you.

- Are you hacking together that project that has been keeping you
awake for many nights? Check out [the DEF CON radio channel](https://somafm.com/defcon/).

- You haven't had enough of 70s style rock and wish you could
hear more of it? Here's [Left Coast 70s](https://somafm.com/seventies/).

- You prefer the synthpop of the 80s? Here's some more too at
[Underground 80s](https://somafm.com/u80s/).

And many more channels for you to explore, playing obscure and popular tracks
within the genre of the station.

### Link for media player 

There are too many channels to list all of them, see the webpage for the other
channels for more ways to listen to them.

- http://ice.somafm.com/secretagent
- http://ice.somafm.com/defcon
- http://ice.somafm.com/u80s

## Lainchan radio

Link: [lainon.life](https://lainon.life/)

While lainchan is itself an anonymous image board, with all the controversy
that entails, their radio project has given me many hours of enjoyment and
i believe it should be treated seperately from the place it comes
from. It has 4 channels.

- Cyberia, for electronic music in the style of the popular japanese
  anime series Serial Experiments Lain's Cyberia Club.

- Cafe, for touhou arrangements, relaxing soundtracks and mellow pop-rock
  songs. This is my favorite channel and the radio i listen to the most.

- Swing, for swing, jazz and blues music. Very soothing, energizing or both!

- Everything, a combination of all previous channels.

### Link for media player 

- https://lainon.life/radio/cyberia.ogg
- https://lainon.life/radio/cafe.ogg
- https://lainon.life/radio/swing.ogg
- https://lainon.life/radio/everything.ogg

## KMFA 89.5

Link: [www.kmfa.org](https://www.kmfa.org/)

This is an old-school radio station located in Austin, Texas, that happens to
have an online streaming channel that fits within the constraints of this guide.

Their focus is classical music. Their offer ranges from Baroque, to the Modern
period, including classical arrangements of contemporary pop songs. Chamber, Cantata,
Concerto, Mass, Opera, and so on, you can find all of those here. This is the single
best radio for all of you classical music fans.

### Link for media player 

- https://kmfa.streamguys1.com/KMFA-mp3

## R/a/dio

Link: [r-a-d.io](https://r-a-d.io/)

This radio station is also part of the community of an anonymous image
board, but it can be safely ignored.

They focus mostly on anime and game soundtracks, if that's your jam,
you will probably like this. It's also possible to request songs, but
i haven't used this feature, so i don't know if it works.

### Link for media player 

- https://relay0.r-a-d.io/main.mp3

## Hackers.town radio

Link: [hackers.town](https://hackers.town)

Hackers.town is a fediverse instance that also happens to have an radio
stream that i discovered by chance. Their music selection is very
eclectic, so whatever label i might throw will probably be too narrow.
I can't recommend it enough, very nice tunes there!

### Link for media player 

- https://radio.hackers.town:8000/

## Wrapping up

These are only a handful of the hundreds, if not thousands, of online
radios that you can find online, and they were subject to my own
tastes and technical preferences. But surely there's a radio out there
that's more suited to your own likes. If you feel like exploring this
world, i would be thrilled to know your findings and get to know more
radios. If you'd like to do so, please mail me to tsui@sdf.org.

Happy listening!