Poland Radio Live — Free Online Stations

At five in the afternoon on 18 April 1926, a woman's voice in Warsaw spoke the words that every Pole of that generation would remember: "Halo, halo, Polskie Radio Warszawa, fala 480" — "Hello, hello, Polish Radio Warsaw, wavelength 480." The first official programme that followed featured the music of Chopin. A century later, Polish radio still carries that mix of national memory and music, and it is why so many people search for Polish radio live or want to listen to Polish radio online.

1925–1926: from a test to a nation's voice

The first experimental broadcast in Poland went on air on 1 February 1925 from the station of the Polish Radiotechnical Society in Warsaw. Polskie Radio was founded on 18 August 1925 and began regular broadcasting on 18 April 1926, with the announcer Janina Sztompkówna at the microphone. At first the programme lasted about an hour a day, and fewer than five thousand people were listening. Within a year, regional stations opened in Kraków and Poznań.

The interwar golden age

Radio quickly became part of Polish culture. One of its most loved programmes was a satirical show from Lwów featuring two local characters who spoke in the city's distinctive dialect, and it drew a national audience. Writers worked for the radio too: the poet Czesław Miłosz, later a Nobel laureate, was a literary programmer at Polish Radio in Wilno in 1936.

September 1939: a mayor at the microphone

Polish radio's most dramatic chapter came during the siege of Warsaw in September 1939. Day after day, the city's mayor, Stefan Starzyński, spoke to the population by radio, keeping up morale as German forces surrounded the capital. His broadcasts are remembered as one of the great examples of radio's power in wartime.

Voices from outside and Trójka inside

After the war, broadcasting was under state control. Many Poles turned to stations from abroad, above all Radio Free Europe, to hear news the official media did not report. Inside the system, a different voice emerged in 1962: Program III, known as Trójka, which became famous for rock, jazz, alternative music and a freer, more personal style of presenting. For several generations it was the station that defined good taste in music.

After 1989: the commercial giants

The fall of communism opened the airwaves to private broadcasters, and two national commercial networks grew quickly: RMF FM from Kraków and Radio Zet from Warsaw. A religious network, Radio Maryja, also built a large audience. Polish radio today combines strong commercial brands with a public broadcaster that runs national channels and seventeen regional stations.

Long wave, FM and DAB+

Poland's public radio still broadcasts its first programme on long wave, one of the last major European services to do so, alongside FM, DAB+ digital radio and the internet. For the large Polish diaspora in Britain, Germany, Ireland and the United States, streaming makes Jedynka, Trójka or a local station from home a daily companion. Below you can play the Polish radio stations online we index, free in your browser.