German Radio Nostalgia

I don't know what it is about September, but my thoughts seem to trend heavily back to Germany. When I first got back, "live streaming radio over the internet" didn't really exist, yet. :-P When I was teaching high school German in 2001, I found the websites of my two old favorite stations, discovered their live streams, and used to turn them on in class as a reward when the students were working well. A lot was/is the same current popular music played here - along with some utterly random songs from the 70's & 80's (German pop radio is obsessed with Rod Stewart :-P); but I always got (& get ;-)) excited for the occasional song in German. (Xavier Zaidoo! :-D) I'd have the students try to pick out phrases & decipher as much as they could. :-D My favorite part was/is listening to the DJs in between songs, making sure I can still understand what they're talking about (relatively easy: clear & articulate radio voices + fairly light & short topics ;-)) and I love hearing the traffic & weather for where I used to live. :-P Why? I have no idea. It just makes me happy.

To be honest, though, I haven't thought much about German radio since having kids - even when going through big German-movie-on-Netflix kicks. As much as I love music, I only listen to it in the car (my local Christian radio station - positive lyrics keep me lifted up; kid-friendly!) and to prep for Zumba & cheer choreography & singing on Praise Team. When I'm home or hanging out, I will *always* choose TV over music. But the other week, something jogged my memory & for the 1st time I thought to look for an iPhone app for my old stations...

Of course they have them!!! And they don't cut out to buffer as often as their old websites used to! ;-)

One app actually holds almost every major radio station in Germany: RadioRec Germany
It's free! My fave channels were/are Bayern 3, Antenne Bayern, & NJOY - check them out! :-D (Bayern = Bavaria) I'd forgotten about some of the others, too; I look forward to rediscovering! I get excited when I hear the big news at the top of the hour & understand what's up. :-P (This Sunday was Election Day in Germany - lots of news!) It still fascinates me that they're 7 hours ahead of Texas (I'm a very time-obsessed person ;-)); and I can't help but grin when they use some of the same radio tones & jingles they used when I lived there 15 years ago & listened daily on my Walkman --- right?!?!?! When was the last time you thought about a Walkman?!?!?! Mine was the yellow sport one that was radio & cassette. :-D