Barcelona City

You'll inadvertently catch more TV than you expect sitting in bars and restaurants where the set often blares away on a shelf in one corner. Spaniards are Europe's greatest TV watchers after the British.
Most TVs receive between five and seven channels. Two come from the state-run Television Espanola (TVE1 and LA 2) and three are independent (Antena 3, Tele5 and Canal Plus). In Catalunya there are two stations run by the Catalan government: TV3 and Canal 33.

On the whole it's a fairly entertaining mix of films, talk and game shows, news programmes and children's TV. Sports fans are well catered for, with regular live coverage of football and basketball matches. In the football season, you can watch live matches from the Spanish, Italian and British leagues as they're shown in many bars.

There are several hundred radio stations around the country, mainly on FM. Many are independent, but some are run by town councils. The state network, Radio Nacional de Espana (RNE), has several stations. Radio 1, with general interest and current affairs programmes, and Radio 5 with sport and entertaiment.
The most popular commercial pop and rock stations are 40 Principales, Cadena 100 and Onda Cero, all on FM.

If you have a radio which picks up short wave you can tune in to the BBC World Service, broadcasting in English for most of the day on frequencies between 12MHz (24m) and 4MHz (75m). You may also be able to receive Voice of America and American Forces' stations.

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