How to Listen to Tamil Radio Online

Published 18 September 2026

You can stream Tamil radio live in any browser, with no download and no account: open 72FM, search for a station by name, and press play. Tamil is spoken by tens of millions of people and is an official language in India's Tamil Nadu, in Sri Lanka and in Singapore — so Tamil radio is not one country's dial but several, plus a diaspora that runs its own stations from London to Toronto. This guide goes through each of them.

Tamil Nadu

Most Tamil radio comes from Tamil Nadu, and Chennai has the busiest dial.

• All India Radio — the public broadcaster runs Tamil services across the state; Vividh Bharati Chennai and AIR Kodai FM from Kodaikanal are both in the directory. For classical music, AIR Raagam is All India Radio's round-the-clock Carnatic and Hindustani channel.
• Commercial FM — Chennai's private stations, such as Suryan FM and Hello FM, fill the day with film songs, phone-ins and chat.

Private FM in India is mostly film music and talk, so for Tamil news on the radio, All India Radio is still the main source. The Indian radio guide covers the rest of the country.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's Tamil community has radio of its own, with a sound and accent of its own. The SLBC Tamil National Service — the public broadcaster's Tamil station, heir to the Radio Ceylon tradition — is among the most-voted Tamil stations in the directory. Sooriyan FM and Shakthi FM are the big commercial Tamil stations, and Tube Tamil FM from Jaffna plays Tamil and South Indian music to a large online audience. The Sri Lankan radio guide has the full picture.

Singapore

Tamil is one of Singapore's four official languages, and Oli 96.8FM, run by the public broadcaster Mediacorp, is its Tamil station — around the clock, with the latest Tamil songs, news, lifestyle features and classical music. Its roots go back to the Tamil service of Radio Malaya.

Malaysia

Malaysia has one of the largest Tamil communities outside South Asia, and two big Tamil stations: Minnal FM from the public broadcaster RTM, and Raaga from Astro. In the directory, Jei FM Klang Tamil Radio from Selangor streams Kollywood and Tamil music at 320kbps. The Malaysian radio guide covers the rest of that dial.

Further afield

Tamil communities in Mauritius, the Gulf, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia have their own radio, much of it online. Tamizen from Mauritius streams at 192kbps, and Lankasri FM plays Tamil music for listeners at home and abroad. Expat radio covers the habit of listening to home from far away.

Stations built around the music

A large part of online Tamil radio is not a broadcaster at all but a stream built around one kind of music — and some of these are the most-voted Tamil stations in the directory.

• Film songs. Tamil cinema — Kollywood — produces most of the music people mean by Tamil songs, and many online stations play nothing else.
• One composer. There are streams devoted to a single composer or singer: AR Rahman Lite Radio, M S Viswanathan FM, Harris Jayaraj FM, and a station for the singer K. S. Chithra.
• The decades. 80's Tamil Hits, 90's Tamil Melodies and Tamil Old Hits FM are for the songs people grew up with.
• Online-only stations. Kalai FM, the most-voted Tamil station in the directory, is an internet station rather than an FM one.

These streams are run by fans and small online broadcasters rather than the film studios. They come and go more often than the big stations, and if one has stopped, another with the same idea is usually close by.

Finding them on 72FM

Tamil stations sit under several countries, so the quickest ways in are:

1. Search by name — type "Tamil", or the name of a station such as Oli or Sooriyan.
2. Browse by country — the India, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia pages.
3. Save the ones you like — favourites put your morning station one tap away.

Some stations appear more than once, because different people have added different streams. If one listing does not play, try the next — why a radio stream buffers or stops explains what is going on.

Sound quality

Tamil streams vary more than most. The public stations are often 32–64kbps, fine for speech and acceptable for music on a phone; Jei FM and Tamil Sun FM stream at 320kbps. Many online stations do not report a bitrate at all, which shows as "0" and says nothing about how they sound. Radio audio quality and bitrate explains the numbers.

A route in

1. SLBC Tamil National Service, for public Tamil radio with a long history.
2. Oli 96.8FM, for Singapore's polished all-day Tamil station.
3. Jei FM or Tube Tamil FM, for music and a big online following.
4. AIR Raagam, for Carnatic music.
5. A composer station — AR Rahman Lite Radio or M S Viswanathan FM — for an evening of film songs.