R101 FM streams adult contemporary hits alongside TG5 and TGCOM news updates, broadcasting nationally from Milan under the RadioMediaset group. You can stream it live and free right now on Radio Shuffle, wherever you are in the world.
Four Names in Thirty Years
R101 has rebranded itself more times than most stations manage in a lifetime. It began as Radio Milano International on March 10, 1975, then became 101 Network once it reached national coverage in 1987, simplified to Radio 101 not long after, and finally settled on R101 on June 6, 2005, according to Wikipedia's history of the station. Each rename tracked the station's growth, from a single local signal to a genuinely national Italian network.
A Launchpad for Claudio Cecchetto
The station attracted serious on-air talent almost immediately. DJ Claudio Cecchetto, who went on to become one of Italian broadcasting's most influential talent scouts and producers, was part of the station in its earliest days, when it was still broadcasting out of a Milan bedroom and covering just a 40-kilometer radius.
A Brief Detour Into Television
R101's ambitions did not stay confined to radio for long. By 1977, just two years after launch, the station branched out into television with Milano International TV, a short-lived venture that showed the founders were thinking beyond FM even in the station's earliest years, well before television and radio crossover became a standard media strategy.
Reviving Its Own Original Name
In 2002, the network did something unusual: it brought back its original 1975 name, Radio Milano International, as a separate metropolitan FM project distinct from the by-then-national R101 brand. That move let the company run a local, Milan-focused station alongside its national one, effectively giving its own founding identity a second life decades after the name had been retired.
Tune In
From a bedroom broadcast in 1975 through four name changes and a brief TV spinoff, R101 FM now runs as Italy's national adult contemporary voice under RadioMediaset. Stream it free on Radio Shuffle to hear it live.