Radio in Europe's Minority Languages: Basque, Welsh, Sámi and More

Published 26 September 2026

You can listen to radio in Europe's minority languages online in any browser, with no download and no account: open 72FM, search for a station's name, and press play. For many of these languages, a public radio station was one of the first places the language was heard every day — and for learners and the diaspora, it is still one of the best.

Spain

• Euskadi Irratia — public radio in Basque since 1982, from the broadcaster EITB, which also runs Radio Euskadi in Spanish.
• Catalunya Ràdio — Catalan public radio since 1983; Barcelona radio online covers the rest of the Catalan dial.
• Radio Galega — Galician public radio since 1985, with a music channel, Radio Galega Música.

Britain and Ireland

• BBC Radio Cymru — the BBC's Welsh-language station since 1977, with a second channel, Radio Cymru 2.
• BBC Radio nan Gàidheal — Scottish Gaelic radio since 1985.
• RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta — Irish-language radio since 1972.

France

• Radio Kerne and Canal Breizh — radio in Breton.
• France Bleu RCFM — public radio for Corsica, in French and Corsican.

The Netherlands, Switzerland and the Nordic countries

• Omrop Fryslân — regional public radio in Frisian and Dutch.
• Radio Rumantsch — public radio in Romansh, Switzerland's fourth national language.
• NRK Sápmi — Norwegian public radio in Sámi.
• Kringvarp Føroya — Faroese public radio.
• KNR — public radio from Greenland.

And a language with no country

• Muzaiko — music and talk in Esperanto, around the clock.

Why these stations matter

For a language with a few hundred thousand speakers, a radio station is a daily, living use of it — news, football, gossip and pop — rather than a subject in a classroom. That is why learners use them, and why learning a language with radio works best with stations like these. Irish radio, Scottish radio and Spanish radio go further.

A route in

1. Euskadi Irratia, for Basque.
2. BBC Radio Cymru, for Welsh.
3. RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, for Irish.
4. NRK Sápmi, for Sámi.

For the whole continent, radio around the world is next.