Nation Radio Wales

In the United Kingdom's ordering this is number 275 of 466, which is the middle of the list. The stations either side of it are a better guide to what the country sounds like than the head of the list is, because the head is the same few famous streams in every country.

Nothing else in the United Kingdom's listing leads with contemporary. The tag is self-declared, which makes it a statement of how the broadcaster positions itself rather than a classification anyone audited, and on this dial that statement is unique.

The gap here is large: 47 kbps where the United Kingdom's stations typically run 128. Rates at this level were designed for dial-up and for mobile data that was billed by the megabyte, and plenty of stations simply never changed the setting.

Where the United Kingdom's stations mostly use MP3, this one uses AAC+. Worth a line only because it is a difference, and because the country page's format breakdown is one of the quicker ways to see which providers a national dial runs on.

Its audio comes straight from edge-ads-05-gos2.sharp-stream.com, an address unique to this entry in the United Kingdom's listing. That is the simplest case there is, and it is the one where pressing play tells you the whole truth about whether the station is on air.