Thread: Listen to Russian-speaking Radio Online

Here is what you need to do:

Firstly: If you haven't got a pair of decent speakers hooked up to your computer, then get some. Check your sound settings and make sure that a normal mp3 song sounds ok when you play it.

Next: Decide whether you want to use iTunes, Windows Media Player, Real Player, WinAmp or VLC when you listen to the radio. The three main formats of the for radio streams over the internet are:

1) .pls (streaming mp3) the open format which can be accessed by any player.
2) .ram, which can be accessed by Real Player.
3) .mms which can be accessed by Windows Media Player and VLS open source player.

For techies only: Some streams appear as if they can only be listened to through a flash based player in the browser, but in the background it is always using one of the above. You can capture the real URL with a tool called URL Snooper.

Next: Search the internet yourself for some good stations! Use your skills in Russian to search on Yandex.

If you want to listen to music you should use a station with a bit rate of 128 kbps or higher. (See screenshot. This refers to the quality/compression of the stream).



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If anybody has tips for good Russian-speaking language stations, please post them here!
I am particularly intersted in stations that are accessible in iTunes.
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Lastly: If you find a Russian-speaking station that you like, it doesn't matter where it is from, since there are no dialects in Russian! (see separate thread in the Pronounciation lounge) I think this is fantastic! You can listen to radio from Vladivostok, or even..... Uzbekistan.... or Estonia... It's going to teach you just as good pronounciation as a station from Moscow. There are even Russian speaking stations in Europe and North America.

I listened to a station that was almost non-stop discussions and phone-in shows about personal development and psychology. Initially I only understood fragments, but after only a few hours of listening I was able to follow long monologues about marital problems, naughty kids, aggrssive relatives and these types of issues... I couldn't believe it. I even learnt new words simply from hearing them several times in different contexts until I understood them.

No effort needed, you can do this while you are ironing, cooking or browsing the internet, assuming you can hear the sound from your computer.

Попробовал воспользоваться советом, загуглил radio online New York (ссылка radiotime.com), станций много, тематика разная..Интересная практика,но для моего уровня пока сложновато (понимаю 30-40%). За совет спасибо.

Originally Posted by Johanna

I even learnt new words simply from hearing them several times in different contexts until I understood them.

When I started reading Russian newspapers, after having not studied the language for some years, I also found that I could accurately guess the meaning of a new word, if it was used more than once in different contexts.