Fact Check: Viral post stating ISRO developed radio portal, Radio Garden, is FALSE

A message sharing a link to radio.garden is being shared virally on Whatsapp and also by a few users on Facebook with a claim that ISRO has developed a portal to listen to live radio from anywhere in the world. The viral post goes “Dear All, Now you can listen to worldwide radio even without earphones!!!! This is from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) when you click the link, you can see the globe rotating. There are green dots on which you simply touch you can start listening to live radio from that place. Try your local radio!!!!

Simply Amazing!!!! Proud of OUR ISRO, Keep Sharing.... http://radio.garden/live FANTASTIC ”

This message is shared virally on WhatsApp too.

Fact Check:

The claim that ISRO developed a radio portal website where we can tune into live radio from all over the world is False. Radio Garden is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

When we clicked on the settings on the portal, we found the explanation submitted by the makers that Radio Garden is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Radio Garden started out in 2016 as an exhibition project commissioned by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in the context of the research project Transnational Radio Encounters. It was created, designed, and developed by Studio Puckey & Moniker.

According to the Guardian, the free app, Radio Garden, which carries tens of thousands of radio stations broadcasting live 24 hours a day, has seen a huge spike in popularity during the Covid crisis. Its founders say in the past 30 days they had 15 million users, a 750% increase on the visitors they normally get in a month.

The app is the brainchild of the Amsterdam-based studios Puckey and Moniker. launched in 2016. It was originally commissioned as a temporary project by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision as part of research looking at how radio has fostered “transnational encounters”. It started out as a web-only offering but has been available as an app since 2018.

IBtimes.co.uk also states that Radio Garden was created by Amsterdam-based interactive design firms Studio Puckey and Moniker for the Netherlands Institute of Sound and Vision, which is currently researching transnational radio to understand different cultures and communities as part of the Transnational Radio Encounters project – with six universities from the UK, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands.

The website currently features live streams from 7,877 radio stations from 3,819 cities in 159 countries spread across an interactive globe. With the click of a mouse button or a swipe on a smartphone, users can expand and explore the site, which now has 300 more stations asking to be added to it.

During the research, we also found an article by New Indian Express.com, While it is true that you can listen to several radio stations live from various countries through ‘Radio Garden’, where the link takes you to, what ISRO has to do with the project is perhaps known best only to the creator of the message.

Radio Garden is a portal that connects about 8,000 stations around the world and broadcasts it to anyone willing to listen. Although the ISRO has plenty under its belt for any Indian to take pride in, the Radio Garden, sadly, isn’t one of them.

As the message was also viral in the year 2019, fact-checking organizations like Factly have debunked the claim earlier.

Hence, the message claiming that ISRO developed a radio portal, Radio Garden, where 8,000 stations from around the world can be tuned in is False. The portal was designed and developed in the Netherlands.