Section 1: BBC Radio Resources online.
A 100% commercial-free journey through the audio streams & online sound archives
of the British Broadcasting Corporation, via hyperlink.

Section 2: U K Independent Radio
Section 3: Worldwide Internet Radio

CONTENTS OF THIS SECTION (Press Tab)

Part 1: Major BBC Radio Channels: Listen Live links, Station Players & schedules
Part 2: Regional England BBC Stations, listen Live links combo box (40)
Part 3: BBC "Listen Again" Programme Players, MUSIC
Part 4: BBC "Listen Again" Programme Players, SPOKEN WORD
Part 5: Miscellaneous BBC Audio Directory pages
Part 6: Tips on using the BBC, Real & Windows Media players

PART 1:  MAJOR BBC RADIO CHANNELS:-

Editor's Intro:  Here's a listing of the BBC's main web-available stations, with direct links to their real player audio streams, "listen again" players, and schedules.  (Requires Realplayer to be installed in order to to work).

The BBC Radio Player Home page, where you can explore the full range of stations & programmes

United Kingdom Regional BBC, Live RP and Player Links:-

BBC Radio London Live (RP)      Radio London Player
BBC Radio Scotland Live (RP)   Radio Scotland Player
BBC Radio Wales Live (RP)         Radio Wales Player
BBC Radio Cymru Live (RP)        Radio Cymru Player
BBC Radio Ulster Live (RP)         Radio Ulster Player

Other Beeb stations
BBC 1 Xtra Live (RP)  BBC 1 Xtra Player
BBC 5 Live Sports Extra (RP)
BBC Asian Network Live (RP)  BBC Asian Network Player
BBC Radio Foyle (RP)
BBC Radio Nan Gaidheal (Gaelic) (RP)   Radio Nan Gaidheal Player

PART 2: ENGLAND REGIONAL BBC STATIONS LIVE (40) Select from the combo box & hit GO.

PART 3: BBC "Listen Again" Programme Players, MUSIC, by Genre:-

Blues Soul and Reggae Player
Classic Rock and Pop Player
Classical Music Player
Dance Music Player
Easy Listening & Soundtracks Player
Experimental Music Player
Folk & Country Music Player
Jazz Music Player
Music Documentaries Player
Pop Music Player
Rock & Alternative Music Player
Urban Music Player
World Music Player

PART 4: BBC "Listen Again" Programme Players, SPOKEN WORD, by Genre

Arts and Drama Player
Children's Player
Comedy & Quizzes Player
Entertainment Player
Factual Programmes Player
History Programmes Player
News & Current Affairs Player
Religion & Ethics Player
Science Player
Soap Player
Sport Player

PART 5: MISCELLANEOUS BBC AUDIO DIRECTORY PAGES

BBC7 Listen Again - 7 day archive of some fantastic on-demand programmes
BBC7 "Big Toe" Radio Show - directory of on-demand childrens' audio books
BBC Arts - Poetry Outloud: directory of Poets performing their own work
BBC Collective: large archive of audio interviews
BBC Cornwall: directory of David White Celebrity Interviews
BBC FOUR directory of Audio Interviews
BBC London - Danny Bakers Best Archive - with over 100 celebrity interviews
BBC London - Shows on Demand up to 7 days after broadcast - directory
BBC Manchester Music - directory of Music Interviews (NEW!!)
BBC Northern Ireland: "Living World" Programme Archive
BBC Radio 2: Main index of all Radio 2 shows & presenters in alphabetical order
BBC Radio 4: Main A to Z index of Radio 4 "listen again" programmes
BBC Radio 4 Science's listen again programme directory
BBC Radio 4 Thought for the day: Archive of religious thoughts from the past week
BBC Radio 4 Womans hour: directory of the past week's programming
BBC Radio 5 Live's Audio Archive Page
BBC Radio Scotland - main directory of listen again shows
BBC Religion: Devout Sceptics - Directory of Bel Mooney interviews of prominent persons, about God, religion & spirituality.
BBC School Radio: Directory with extracts from available programmes
BBC Voices - large directory of links to audio from all around the UK regions (New!!)
BBC Wales Catchphrase - a new way to learn Welsh - archive of audio lessons
BBC World Service - "Death on the Roads" Directory of progs on road death & injury
BBC World Service - Global Crime Report (with 4 programmes per section) - Part 1 The Body Trade  Part 2 Gunrunners  Part 3 Policing the Planet (RP)
BBC World Service: "Knowledge on the Net" Directory of Teaching programmes
BBC World Service - "Our Street" slices of North London life, directory of audio clips
BBC World Service "Political Songs", famous politicians select their favourites (RP)
Click Here For A Listing Of The Latest BBC Audio Described TV Programmes

Editors Tip: In addition to the streams & audio pages listed here, there are many short term BBC programmes and features.  In fact the amount of top quality BBC output that goes out both on the air and the world wide web is too phenomenal for the editor of this guide to contemplate keeping up with!    Why not try using the BBC Advanced Search Engine to find some more stuff

Go to Section 2 of the TAFN Radio Guide: Independent U K Internet Radio
Go to Section 3 of the TAFN Radio Guide: Worldwide Internet Radio

Have YOU got a favourite BBC Webpage, show or item?  If so we'd love to hear your recommendations! Please email and let us know.  

PART 6: TIPS ON USING THE PLAYERS & HOW TO RECORD PROGRAMS.

(A)  USING THE BBC RADIO PLAYER: Most BBC Audio online is in Real audio format, so in order to listen you will need Real Player installed on your system, which can be downloaded free from here. The BBC Radio player itself has more limited controls than the real player standalone - for example you can often only "play or pause" the audio, or are limited to fast forwarding 5 minutes at a time with on-demand programmes.  But on the plus side the BBC player contains links to other BBC programmes, and for many music shows, a link to that show's playlist.

Download Realplayer for Windows, free!

(B)  USING THE REAL ONE PLAYER STAND-ALONE:  Any station link which is tagged with the abbreviation "RP" on this page plays in the Real player software stand-alone (independently). This includes some BBC but mostly independent stations.  The latest version of Realplayer for Windows can be downloaded free from here.  When installing Realplayer, it is best to do a custom installation so that you can choose which file types you want the player to be associated with.  For example, I use real player for streaming audio where necessary, but prefer Winamp to be my default MP3 player.

Once installed The main Realplayer keyboard shortcuts are:-

PAUSE/PLAY - "CTRL P" (or SPACEBAR)
STOP - "CTRL S"
VOLUME UP - "CTRL UP ARROW"
VOLUME DOWN - "CTRL DOWN"
MUTE / UNMUTE - "F11"
EQUALIZER - "ALT T", ENTER, TAB TO TONE SLIDERS, USE UP/DOWN ARROWS TO ADJUST.

(C) USING WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER:  Windows Media is a very common format for online broadcasts, this player too has basic keyboard controls, which differ slightly from the Realplayer ones.  They are:-

PAUSE/PLAY -  "CTRL P"
STOP - "CTRL S"
VOLUME UP - "F10"
VOLUME DOWN - "F9"
MUTE/UNMUTE  - "F8"
REPEAT - "CTRL T"
TURN ON CAPTIONS & SUBTITLES IF AVAILABLE - "CTRL SHIFT C"

(D)  HOW TO RECORD PROGRAMMES:  The Accessible Friends Network takes no responsibility for any content external to this website, this page is merely intended as a useful guide to help people find their way around.  However, it is sometimes handy to be able to record streaming programs, from wherever they are broadcast.  Other than using a cassette recorder there are several programs that can do this.  A good one is Total Recorder, which you can find out more about here.    If you can recommend other programs to listeners for recording streaming audio, especially if they are accessible to screen reader users please email TAFN & let us know.

 This page & all pages at www.tafn.org.uk Copyright The Accessible Friends Network 2005.  All rights reserved. UK Registered Charity No. 1108043.

 Accessible Friends Network Radio Guide Courtesy Leon Gilbert, Editor .
Special thanks to each and every accessible friend.

Hope your visit has been enjoyable, TAFN are glad you stopped by.  & Happy radio travels!