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List of Popular German Radio Stations Online

A good way to practice and improve your German is to listen to different radio stations, or watch TV shows where native speakers talk about latest events or everyday incidents.

The following list provides popular German radio stations that you can listen to online. Some of them are only broadcasted in different parts of Germany, and others can be listened to all over the country. Since most of these websites inform about the latest news in written articles, you might have to click on the button called 'webradio" to start the live radio broadcast. 

This list gives you an insight into the great variety of online information Germany has to offer, such as news, political debates, sports and music. Nevertheless, they are subdivided into different fields you might be interested in.

General German Radio Stations Online:

• http://www.swr3.de/musik/webradio/-/id=47410/15xko6o/index.html
  'SWR3' is one of the most popular public radio stations that is located in the south of Germany. It reaches an audience of about 15 million people and is attractive for younger and older generations. It plays the latest music and news.
• http://www.wdr.de/radio/home/webradio/index.phtml
  'WDR' is a popular radio station that keeps its listeners informed with news and multimedia information, such as TV or other radio programs, and well-known German comedians, singers and actors.
• www.dradio.de
  'Deutschlandradio' (Deutschlandfunk) is a cooperation of four radio stations that broadcast a wide range of different music, news, cultural information and political debates. Originally, it operated as a Western Germany radio station that a lot of Eastern Germans and Communists listened to. Nowadays, it mainly broadcasts a variety of important information about Germany and the world.

News:

• http://www.mdr.de/radio/index.html
  Up-to-the-minute news, political, economical and cultural information, as well as sporting news are broadcasted by this radio station. It mainly focuses on incidents around Eastern Germany.
• http://mediacenter.dw-world.de/english/audio/
  'Deutsche Welle' broadcasts information about Germany, but also worldwide news and incidents that are of global importance. As one of the few national radio stations, 'Deutsche Welle' broadcasts information in English as well as in German.

Music:

• http://www.ndr.de/radio/index.html
  'NDR,' also known as 'Norddeutscher Rundfunk,' is a popular radio station located in the northern part of Germany. Besides recent and older music, 'NDR" also broadcasts concerts and live shows.
• www.wdr.de/radio/wdr4/
  'WDR4' belongs to the widely recognized and popular radio and television company WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk). This radio channel functions as a subgroup of the main radio channel WDR and it mainly plays golden oldies and popular old-fashioned songs. This radio channel is especially liked by older generations of listeners.
• www.einslive.de
  'Einslive' is one of the most popular radio stations in Germany that can be received all over the country. Most of the listeners are between 15 and 45 years old. 'Einslive' is well known for its popular and most recent music, and several comedy shows are broadcasted during the day. Every week 'Einslive' plays the listeners' 'most wanted" hits.
• www.dasding.de
  'dasding' is a radio station for young people that is controlled and operated by SWR (Südwestrundfunk). Besides latest music and charts, it is also popular because it does not contain any form of advertisement in between the songs.
• www.klassikradio.de
  'Klassikradio' is a radio station that mainly plays classical music and operates until 8:00 p.m. every night. Unlike most other national radio stations, 'Klassikradio' does not give any important information about political or world affairs.
• http://www.jam.fm/radio
  One of the most popular national German radio stations for younger generations is 'JAM-FM.' Based in Berlin, 'JAM-FM' mainly broadcasts Hip Hop, R&B and Soul music; therefore, it attracts a very specific audience. Lately, it started to offer two different streams depending on which kind of music you want to listen to online, either 'Black'n'Dance' or 'New Music Radio.'

Sports:

• http://www.sportradio.org/modules/welcome/
  'Sportradio' is a widely recognized online radio that broadcasts any type of sports, especially German soccer live. On the weekends there is a live conference of the current games where famous retired players comment on individual matches.
• http://www.radio-mi-amigo.com/portal.htm
  This online radio station only focuses on sports and broadcasts every soccer match of the 'German Bundesliga' live. It also informs on the latest sports news of other fields, such as Tennis, Handball or Formula 1 races.

Culture:

• http://www.kulturradio.de/livestream/index.html
  This cultural radio station informs its listeners about latest books, popular concerts and operas, cultural news, and it also broadcasts important church services live. Renowned German people attend this radio stations and discuss about different topics or talk about what they have experienced or achieved.
• http://www.ndr.de/ndrkultur/index.html
  On this website a variety of cultural audio data is given that can be listened to individually depending on what you are interested in. Regional information about cultural events are given as well as famous authors reading extracts of their books.