@ckw4y,

I'm glad I'm not the only one who uses international radio to practice listening to Chinese. I've been listening to the German broadcaster, Deutsche Welle's Chinese service (德国之声国际广播电台) for a while now. I listen to 30 minutes every day, and likewise, can only understand about 20% of it, but it definitely helps. Even when they're talking full speed, I can still pick out most of the words I know. The list of political words I've learned to recognize instantly is probably much higher than it should be (欧盟, 奥巴马, 伊朗, etc.) though. :)