South Korean radio: a listener's guide
K-pop made Korean music famous worldwide, but Korean radio is where idols, ballad singers and veteran trot stars meet their fans in a much more personal way — live, chatty and late into the night.
Station counts updated October 8, 2026
The big broadcasters
Radio in Korea dates back to 1927, when the Gyeongseong Broadcasting Station began transmitting from Seoul. Today a few major broadcasters run most of the national radio networks:
- KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) — the public broadcaster, with channels for news, classical music, pop and traditional Korean music.
- MBC and SBS — major broadcasters whose FM stations carry many of the country's best-known music and talk shows.
- EBS — the educational broadcaster, famous for its foreign-language radio programmes, including English lessons that generations of Koreans studied with.
- Arirang Radio — an international, English-language service about Korean culture, news and music, made for listeners outside Korea and foreigners living there.
Each broadcaster also has its own listening app in Korea — KBS Kong, MBC mini and SBS's Gorilla — which are how many Koreans listen on their phones.
Radio and K-pop
Radio plays a special role in the K-pop world. Idols regularly appear as guests on music and talk shows, play live acoustic versions of their songs, read fan letters and joke with hosts, and some idols host long-running shows themselves. Fans follow these appearances closely, and clips often spread online afterwards. Late-night music shows, with hosts reading listeners' messages between songs, are a much-loved Korean radio tradition.
What you'll hear
- K-pop — from the biggest idol groups to rising acts.
- Ballads — emotional Korean pop ballads, a staple of Korean music for decades.
- Trot — Korea's oldest pop genre, with a distinctive rhythm and vocal style, which became hugely popular again thanks to TV singing competitions from 2019 onward.
- Gugak — traditional Korean music, featured on public radio.
- Indie, hip-hop and R&B — Korea's lively scenes beyond the idol industry.
- Classical — KBS runs a well-known classical music channel.
Radio for learning Korean
If you're learning Korean, radio is a great way to hear natural speech. Talk shows use everyday, conversational Korean, while news programmes use formal speech — hearing both helps you understand when each is used. Arirang is a gentle starting point because it explains Korean culture in English.
Listening to Korea on AURIDEI
- Open South Korea on the globe → · 60 stations live on AURIDEI Most stations are around Seoul; zoom in to separate them, then look for Busan on the south-east coast.
- Korea is 13 hours ahead of New York in summer and 14 in winter (Korea doesn't use daylight saving time). Korean late-night shows air in the US morning.
- Try the Pop genre filter to hear K-pop alongside pop from around the world. Open Pop stations →
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