Hi,

I wish to listen to Italian talk based radio stations online (news,
current affairs, etc.) The purpose is to improve my Italian verbal
comprehension as I study the language.

After several hours of searching I have been unable to find a single
streaming, talk based radio station that I can listen to online.

My constraints are:

Must be streamable through Windows Media Player 10 (not Real Player)
Flash plugin not required. 

The 2nd constraint is the biggest problem. For example,
http://www.radio.rai.it/ won't work, as the player uses flash
controls.

I have already tried all talk based links from the following sites,
without success.

http://www.romavera.com/radio/italian_radio_stations.html
http://www.romavera.com/radio/
http://www.qsl.net/g3yrc/radio-online/Europe/Italy.htm

To answer this question, please provide at least one talk based radio
station that broadcasts in Italian (doesn't have to be in Italy), that
can be streamed successfully on a PC running Windows XP, IE 6.0,
Windows Media Player 10 and no flash.

---

Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 11 Dec 2005 13:39 PST

There are several Italian talk radio stations listed on this site. To
check whether they use Real or Windows Media Player, just hover over
the green button with the arrow:

http://www.radiotime.com/toppicks.aspx?p=1&m=0&g=150

Please let me know if you find anything here that is satisfactory.

---

Clarification of Question by eppy-ga on 11 Dec 2005 15:28 PST

I'm sorry PF, but I tried all of those Media Player links, and only 2
worked - one giving me music, and the other Bloomberg TV but in
Japanese, not the advertised Italian. All the other links required
that I 'sign up' and download a custom media player - which I mustn't
do on this computer (thus the requirement for Windows media player).

I'm frankly surprised that it is this difficult to find streaming
radio stations these days.

---

Clarification of Question by eppy-ga on 12 Dec 2005 10:18 PST

PF,

I have now found a talk channel on the the site you found for me. I
will be pleased to accept your link as the answer.

eppy

Buon giorno, eppy!

I am delighted to learn that the link I provided led to success.

My search strategy began with this search string:

Google Web Search: "talk radio" italian "windows media"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22talk+radio%22+italian+%22windows+media%22

This was a genuinely interesting project. I speak very little Italian,
and this may have doubled my vocabulary.

Grazie e ciao,
pinkfreud

I have received a great answer from the great researcher, Pinkfreud.

Thank you very much for the five stars, for the generous tip, and most
especially for the kind words!

~pinkfreud