These internet radio URLs replace the ones used in the former GarfNet Internet Radio player. They should all work directly in your browser and they should open in a new browser tab. Alternatively, you may copy them and use them in an internet radio application of your choice.
English Language Streams
BBC HLS Streams
The BBC’s http://bbcmedia.ic.llnwd.net/ radio stream server has now been closed. Seems Aunty Beeb wants folks to use its dreadful so-called iPlayer instead. However its HLS streams are still available. These are the BBC’s high quality 320kb/s audio streams, using Apple’s proprietary HLS (hypertext transfer protocol live streaming) format. Basically this chops the stream into tiny files, and stitches them together again once they have got through various firewalls etc. These are particularly appropriate for mobile devices.
- More about HLS streaming:-
https://www.dacast.com/blog/hls-streaming-protocol/
Playing Internet radio streams
On most modern browsers, you can play the stream URLs directly from your browser window. This is particularly true for the standard MP3 types I cite in my first table. Simply click on the link and hopefully it will play. More complex proprietary streams such as those I list in my second table will probably need a proper media player, such as VLC or similar. In which case, you need to copy the stream URL and paste it into the player of your choice. Here’s how to do it with VLC…
- In VLC, select from the top menu: Media > Network Stream.
- In the VLC “Open Media” dialogue, select: “Network” tab.
- Paste or type your chosen station URL into the “Please enter a network URL” box. E.g.
- http://stream.live.vc.bbcmedia.co.uk/bbc_6music
- Click the “Play” button.
Recording internet radio streams
Several ways to do this. On most modern browsers, you can simply click “File” > “Save Page As” or similar on the actual player page, as it is playing, and it will write the stream to disk. Works well except that to stop recording, you need to go into your browser’s download manager and forcefully cancel the download. This often erases what you have just saved. So you must make a copy of the streamed file before you cancel the download. Which is a bit crude and hacky!
VLC will also record the stream for you too, in a somewhat more elegant manner.
- Do the same as you did above to play a radio stream in VLC, up to stage 3.
- Carefully click the down arrow that’s attached to the “Play” button.
- Select “Record”.
- Use the standard “Browse…” button to select where you wish to save the file.
Finally if you don’t have VLC already, then you may download it for free from…
NB: VLC is available for MS Windows, Mac OSX, GNU/Linux, Android and iOS. It is free, open source, with no hidden nasties or gotchas. It is also one of the best and most versatile media players ever created. Debian-based GNU/Linux users probably already have VLC in your distro’s repositories. In which case it is a simple matter of typing the following into a terminal window and pressing the “return” key…
sudo apt install vlc
Other streaming radio station lists
Useful lists that “cut to the chase” and list the actual stream URL’s:-
Other lists, that can be moderately useful too. However, they tend to make it harder to find the actual stream URL’s:-
(updated 2022-05-21 14:00 UTC)