By the Zonagirante.com team @spinning zone
Cover art by Zonagirante Studio
The enduring relevance of radio as an act of discovery
In times of endless playlists, algorithms that anticipate our tastes, and platforms that seem to know us better than we know ourselves, Radio Garden remains a beautiful anomaly.. Not because it has changed radically, but precisely because it hasn't.
Radio Garden doesn't ask you what you like.
It asks you Where do you want to listen?.
And that simple decision completely changes the experience.
While most music services are organized by genre, mood, or listening history, Radio Garden is organized geographically. The criterion isn't aesthetic, it's territorial. It doesn't matter if you know what you're looking for: just spin the globe, hover over a green dot, and let the local radio do its work.
Listening to Radio Garden is listening to the world in real time, with all that entails: accents, strange advertisements, awkward silences, unpredictable music selections, and a constant feeling of spying on something that wasn't designed for you.
A simple idea that still works
For those unfamiliar with it, Radio Garden is an app and web platform that lets you tune in to live radio stations from virtually anywhere in the world. The interactive map displays large cities, small towns, and unexpected areas, each represented by a green dot. Tapping one starts the radio. No registration, no payments, no intermediaries.
The project was created by Jonathan Puckey, from Studio Puckey in Amsterdam, in collaboration with Netherlands Institute of Sound and Vision, And since its launch, it has remained surprisingly true to its original idea.
As of today, Radio Garden:
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It continues to add new stations.
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It eliminates signals that are no longer transmitting
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It allows you to save favorite radio stations.
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and continues playing even with the phone locked
Nothing spectacular. Nothing unnecessary. Just what radio needs.
It's not nostalgia, it's the present moment
It would be easy to read Radio Garden as a nostalgic exercise, a kind of homage to radio "of yesteryear." But that would be a mistake. Radio Garden doesn't try to recreate an idealized past. It works because Take advantage of the best of the digital present without betraying the logic of radio.
There's no aggressive personalization here, no promises of automated discovery. There are no rankings or recommendations based on past behavior. What we have today is something much more radical: chance driven by curiosity.
You choose the place.
The rest is up to the world.
In an era where music tends to become homogenized, Radio Garden brings back something essential: the context. Listening to a local station in the early hours of the morning in another time zone is not just about listening to different music, it's about listening to a different rhythm of life.
Radio as sound geography
One of Radio Garden's most powerful virtues is that it makes visible something the internet often erases: the relationship between sound and place. Each station carries its surroundings with it, even unintentionally.
Radios don't sound the same in:
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a European capital
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a port city
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a small town
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a region plagued by conflict
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an emerging cultural scene
The music filters through, but so do the voices, the silences, the pauses, the mistakes. Radio Garden doesn't correct any of that. It transmits it exactly as it is.
That's why listening to Radio Garden is more like traveling than consuming music. It's not about finding "the best," but about... peek.
Five radio stations to get lost in (and stay with)
Within that ocean of signals, we propose five stations to begin the journey. Not as a ranking or a canon, but as starting points.
1. Radio Vilnius (Lithuania)
A recommendation that has stood the test of time.
Radio Vilnius It offers an eclectic, modern program with a healthy mix of local music, electronica, alternative pop, and sonic exploration. It doesn't try to impress, but it succeeds. It sounds like a vibrant city, a scene in motion, a present without anxiety.
2. NTS Radio (London, United Kingdom)
Better known, yes, but essential.
NTS brings back to radio something that seemed lost: fearless human curation. Live shows, DJs with their own unique style, and programming that transcends genres, eras, and geographical boundaries without asking permission. Listening to NTS means accepting that not everything has to appeal to be interesting.
3. Radio Alhara (Bethlehem, Palestine)
One of the most moving and necessary stations on the global independent circuit.
Radio Alhara A mix of electronic music, experimental sounds, contemporary Arabic music, and broadcasts that intersect art, politics, and community. Here, radio isn't just entertainment: it's presence, dialogue and cultural resistance.
4. KEXP (Seattle, United States)
A modern classic that continues to justify its reputation.
Live sessions, constant support for independent artists, and programming that seamlessly blends local and global scenes. KEXP proves that a radio station can be great without losing its identity or commitment.
5. Latin American community broadcasters (open exploration)
The recommendation here is to move around without a plan.
Exploring community, university, and cultural radio stations in Latin America within Radio Garden is an experience in itself. Many don't have an international name, but they offer something even more valuable: proximity, accent, and context. These are radio stations that still speak to their surroundings, not to the market.
Listening as an active act
Radio Garden reminds us of something that seems obvious, but isn't: Listening is a decision. Not everything has to be handed to us on a silver platter, optimized and explained. There's value in not knowing what comes next.
In that sense, Radio Garden functions almost as a silent political gesture. It doesn't accelerate, it doesn't push, it doesn't capture. It simply opens a door and steps aside.
Perhaps that's why it remains relevant. Because it doesn't compete with streaming platforms, it doesn't try to replace or correct them. It exists in parallel, as a space where music becomes something else. discovery and not confirmation.
The world continues to broadcast
Radio Garden doesn't promise the best in the world.
It promises the world as it sounds.
And in an age obsessed with choosing quickly, listening slowly, spinning the planet without knowing what will appear at the next click, it remains a discreet but powerful form of freedom.
Radio did not die.
He just changed maps.
