Stations like Radio 4...

A few months ago I had a driving holiday in Ireland, and became quite addicted to the Irish equivalent of Radio 4, RTE 1 - great documentaries, discussions, drama etc. And you can listen to the programmes online at http://www.rte.ie/radio1/index.html.

Any other recommendations for good internet radio programmes to look out for?

Hello "wandering_star", I think we are very lucky to have Radio 4, not least because if you've read David Hendy's Life on Air: A History of Radio Four then you'll know that for much of the 70s and 80s much of the management of the BBC wanted to get rid of it and replace it with a rolling news network. They didn't think radio drama, comedy or readings had a future in the TV age.

I doubt there is anything consistently of quite the same calibre elsewhere in the world, but I'm pleased to say there is some excellent speech radio out there. If you are not already aware of it, you may find http://speechification.com/ a useful way of tracking down some of this output.

The English service of Radio Netherlands offer some interesting programmes about Europe as a whole, not just their patch, with some of them available as podcasts. There's also http://www.audiobookradio.net/; original drama downloads, for free from http://www.wirelesstheatrecompany.co.uk/; and there is an occasional programme called "Squaring the Circle" available from http://www.celticaradio.com/. Celtica Radio is a highly ecclectic internet radio station, mainly promoting unsigned music artists, some of their speech output can have a touch of the "shock jock" about it, but "Squaring the Circle" is a lot more refined. It offers a platform for writers to get their short stories and poems broadcast to the world.

I hope this is helpful. Happy listening!

Thanks! I already knew about speechifaction but the others look excellent too.

And I can strongly recommend 'This American Life' from NPR in America - available to download/podcast via itunes - weekly show about an hour long, just brilliant.