--- title: "puskaradio" translation: "Word of mouth. The grapevine." type: "word" category: "standard" url: "https://finnishirl.com/words/puskaradio" canonical: "https://finnishirl.com/words/puskaradio" published: "2026-10-24" updated: "2026-10-24" author: "Andrey the Nomad" site: "Finnish IRL" license: "https://finnishirl.com/terms#ip" --- # puskaradio URL: https://finnishirl.com/words/puskaradio Translation: Word of mouth. The grapevine. Pronunciation: /ˈpuskɑˌrɑdio/ Category: standard Archetypes: thing, people Region: Finland Register: neutral, and affectionate more often than not Literal meaning: Bush radio. Tone and safety: Safe everywhere. It names the channel, not the people using it. Published: 2026-10-24 Quick answer: - Puskaradio is word of mouth: how news reaches you when nobody published it. Literally, bush radio. - The channel has an address now. Town and neighbourhood Facebook groups all over Finland are literally called Puskaradio plus the place name, and the Oulu one has close to 88,000 members. - Gossip is juoru, and it is about a person. Puskaradio is about how you found out. - A Finnish business that grows puskaradion kautta is growing by recommendation, and it will say so in a press release. What it means: - Puskaradio is how the news got to you when nobody published it. A flat coming free, a dentist worth the trip, a road closed on Saturday, a shop that is closing down. - English reached for the same picture twice, with the bush telegraph and the grapevine. Finnish put a radio in a bush. - In a reserved country it does the work small talk does elsewhere. Finns are not famous for chatting to strangers, and the information gets around anyway. People who know Finland from the jokes about silence do not expect that. Literal meaning: - Puska is a bush or a thicket. Radio is a radio. The compound does what a Finnish compound usually does: it puts two plain nouns together and leaves the joke to you. How Finns use it: - About where something came from: kuulin puskaradiosta, I heard it on the grapevine. It is the polite way of saying you cannot name your source and do not intend to. - About marketing, in completely straight business language. Puskaradion kautta is how a hairdresser, a plumber or a summer café expects to find customers, and how a Finnish reader expects to find them too. - As the actual name of a Facebook group. Town and neighbourhood groups all over Finland are called Puskaradio plus the place name. Puskaradio Oulu started in 2012 and is the largest of them. - Puskaradio gets there before the employer does. If the restructuring reached the coffee room before the email, that is what people will call it. - The channels are ordinary and short. Two neighbours at the bin shed, colleagues by the coffee pot, a class chat group that is a puskaradio with a membership list. Common mistake: - Hearing it as an accusation. Calling something puskaradio does not question whether the news is true; it says how it travelled. - Using it for gossip about a person. Juoru is the word for that, huhu for an unverified rumour, and neither of them is a compliment. - Assuming the channel is rural. The biggest one is a Facebook group in Oulu with close to 88,000 members, about 50,000 of whom look in on a given day. - Puskaradio runs on the neighbours, colleagues and parents who already know each other, so a newcomer usually hears about it before hearing from it. Examples - Hearing it on the puskaradio: - The elative. The polite way of saying you cannot name your source and do not intend to. Kuulin puskaradiosta et kauppa menee kiinni. - I heard on the grapevine that the shop is closing. - Completely straight business language. A plumber expects to be found this way. Meidän asiakkaat tulee puskaradion kautta. - Our customers come by word of mouth. Examples - Citing the puskaradio, and when it is already moving: - Citing it as a source, with no claim that it has been checked. Puskaradion mukaan siinä talossa on hyvä isännöitsijä. - According to the grapevine that building has a good property manager. - The inessive. Already moving, and nobody can say who started it. Tää on jo puskaradiossa. - This is already going round. Examples - What the puskaradio beats, and what it is not: - If the restructuring reached the coffee room first, this is what people will call it. Puskaradio ehti ennen työnantajan sähköpostia. - The grapevine got there before the employer's email. - Puskaradio names the channel. Juoru is about a person, and it is not a compliment. Ei toi oo puskaradioo, toi on juoruu. - That isn't the grapevine, that's gossip. Mini dialogue: A: Mistä sä kuulit ton? B: Puskaradiosta. A: Eli Facebookista. B: No siis joo. Sama asia nykyään. A: Onks se varma? B: Kaks ihmistä sano samaa. Katotaan. FAQ: Q: What does puskaradio mean? A: Word of mouth. Literally the bush radio: news reaching you through people rather than through an announcement. Q: Is puskaradio the same as gossip? A: No. Juoru is gossip about a person. Puskaradio describes the channel, and a Finnish company will happily say its customers arrived that way. Q: Are the Facebook groups really called that? A: Yes, very often. Town and neighbourhood groups across Finland are named Puskaradio plus the place. Puskaradio Oulu was set up in 2012, is the largest of them, and had close to 88,000 members by 2021. Q: How do I say I heard something that way? A: Kuulin puskaradiosta. It does the same job as "a little bird told me" without sounding coy, and nobody will ask you who. Q: Is it a rural word? A: No. The picture is rural and the practice is not. The largest single example is a city group, and every office has one running through the coffee room. Related words: kahvihuone, talkoot, taloyhtio, stadi, anoppi Sources: - Puskaradio on oululaisten oma olohuone (Yle, 29 March 2017): https://yle.fi/a/3-9534097 - Puskaradion ylläpitäjä näkee, miten ihmiset puhuvat entistä rumemmin toisilleen (Yle, 28 May 2021): https://yle.fi/a/3-11950587 - Facebookin puskaradio-ryhmät voivat olla yrittäjän tuho tai pelastus (Yle, 1 October 2017): https://yle.fi/a/3-9856952 - Kosinta ja koirankakkariitoja - Facebookin kortteliyhteisöt tuovat mikrouutiset uutisvirtaasi (Yle): https://yle.fi/a/3-8794884 - Kielitoimiston sanakirja: puskaradio (Kotimaisten kielten keskus): https://www.kielitoimistonsanakirja.fi/#/puskaradio - Kielitoimiston sanakirja: juoru (Kotimaisten kielten keskus): https://www.kielitoimistonsanakirja.fi/#/juoru - Sanojen alkuperä (Kotimaisten kielten keskus): https://kotus.fi/ajankohtaista/kysymyksia-ja-vastauksia/sanojen-alkupera/