Worldwide Radio channels at your finger tip. Visit ‘Radio Garden’

Worldwide Radio channels at your finger tip. Visit ‘Radio Garden’

Mangalore Today News Network

On my office computer screen is a 3D graphic of the earth. Countries appear as big brown blotches of land with no boundary lines drawn. The image slowly rotates and bright green dots begin to appear over all the countries, like a bad rash. No, this not another apocalyptic video game I am checking out. Instead, it is a brilliant idea that is slowly but surely gaining a fan following.

 

The thousands of green dots on the screen are the locations of radio stations around the world. Click on one and you will hear music that is being played at that particular station at that exact moment. For an entire generation that can access global products and services at the mere click of a mouse, this is their introduction to the joys of listening to the radio without the ‘hassle’ of fiddling with knobs.

Welcome to Radio Garden, the brainchild of the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision and five other international universities. This non-profit, live-streaming project was developed between 2013-16 and has been steadily racking up listeners. Be it samba music one second from Brazil   or staccato drum beats for belly dancing or catchy Indian film songs, all radio stations are just a spin-of-the-globe away. In an increasingly fractured world where boundaries between countries are shifting at an alarming rate, it is actually comforting to see the world as one just listening to good music.

Everyone in the office is now curious and wants to have a go at clicking randomly on radio stations just to see what the world is listening to. Click on a green dot and the globe spins. Mountains, rivers, trees and countries whizz by and then music fills the office. Nearly a  decade ago, the death knell for the radio was sounded  when Gen X shunned it for YouTube, Spotify, Pandora and a host of other sites that offered easy access to music. But it looks like Radio Garden is all set to change that perception.

Back in 1985, at the Live Aid concert in London’s Wembley stadium, a flamboyant Freddy Mercury, the lead singer of the rock band Queen, strutted up and down the stage in front of a 72,000-strong audience singing a now iconic song. “All we need is….” he bellowed into his mike. “Radio Ga Ga!” roared back thousands of voices at once. Yes, people! The radio is well and truly back! 

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