Radio!

[yakalskovich]

japanologist pointed me to a little free program called Screamer Radio -- it's basically just a radio player for internet radio stations. It has more stations than you can possibly hope to listen to in one lifetime (and in more languages than you can possibly hope to learn), but if it doesn't have one specific station (like Heart FM from Cape Town which japanologist had been recommending on his Google+, which started my search for a way to get at its stream), it will accept an URL for the stream and open it.

Now I can listen to my beloved Klassik Radio again, can follow up all sorts of recommendations the world over, tune in to the BBC when essayel tells me about the interesting stuff they're talking about via IM, and yes, listen to Heart FM, which is really the ideal mix of upbeat music for a grey weekend in July. I can listen to celticangel76's show when it is on, and get my dose of Bhangra and fast-talking Hindi from BBC Asian Network. I can have news in Finnish and were-Balkanese party music from Ljubljana.

They have re-invented the dear old shortwave DX radio, and I can have one for free!!