Do you still listen to AM/FM radio?

[schmitt trigger]

I read the other day that Norway is the first country to completely phase out analog FM radio.

That got me thinking, when was the last time I actually listened to radio? The quick answer is, it has been for so long, that I don't remember. Perhaps in the early 2000s was the last time I actually tuned in.

So how about you? Do you still listen to radio? And if not, why not?
To me, the widespread of music downloads and cheap memory, have eliminated the need to listen to long, amped-up and horrible commercials, waiting for the actual content.

 

[dknguyen]

2002-2003 was the last real time while studying during high school. Because the music I liked was actually on the radio at the time.

I don't care about the commercials because I'm not sitting there focused on the radio, and it's not like I'm waiting in anticipation of the next song since it's someone else's playlist.

 

[ronsimpson]

Do you still listen to radio?

I think this depends on what country.
In the US, much of AM is church sermons and right wing talking heads. (I can not stand screaming and fake news)
I listen to FM for mostly "public radio news" and some "old rock". I enjoy shows like "Science Friday". One day a week they do book reviews. On public radio they, at night, air British news. For a while I could get Altezar News. Some times I go to short wave to get news from the other side of the world.

 

[schmitt trigger]

Not only what country, but even which area of the country.

My son lives in the NYC metropolitan area. When we go visit him and take a cab from the airport, sometimes the cab will have tuned in some very interesting stations.

However, I live in South Texas and for the radio stations down here, the programming is very thin. No good choices.

 

[alec_t]

Still used a fair bit in the UK. DAB radio reception can be patchy.

 

[dr pepper]

As I just said on another thread I listen to radio 4 on long wave.
I dont bother with anything else as these days the airwaves just seem to be an advert wasteground, and I cant stand them.

 

[cowboybob]

AM rarely. FM as a rule, with a number of stations available. I swap between music, NPR and talk, depending on my mood.

 

[Externet]

Mostly while driving. Once I modified my car radio into 4-band shortwave, and that was fun, as I understand half a dozen languages. Noisy but fun. Now the favorite overseas stations have abandoned the dial.
The USA shortwaves are plagued with religious networks that made me reach for the off button. Discarded the SW, swapped for a standard modern receiver.

 

[Grossel]

Obviously no. Haven't installed DAB radio in my car yet.
Have 4G reseption along most of the main roads so I can use web radio app on my phone until I have a decent radio installed.

Btw Have a long ride ahead of me tomorrow, about 500 km, and 3 mountains in questionable weather conditions icy roads the whole way. Radio reception is everything, but glad there is 4G most of the way.

 

[audioguru]

I listen to FM radio music on my clock radio, on my pc and in my car. But on weekends many stations add extra sounds to the popular music and it messes up the music.

 

[hyedenny]

I listen to AM every day on my way to and from work. Besides the internet, it's one of the few places to get news and opinion that isn't blatantly biased and only half the story if not a complete fabrication.

<Mod edit: Please keep politics out of it>

 

[tcmtech]

Now that I have my workshed mostly setup I went old school/retro and have a 1950's Heathkit FM4 and a similar aged 35 watt tube amp for my music but beyond that I can also run the sound off my laptop and 32" flat screen monitor to it too.

Mostly I listen to educational and informative talk and lecture videos while working now. As with others, the nut job screaming head pseudo-news crap has burned itself out for me to where it's nothing but laughably pseudo-science grade nonsense rather than real fact based credible news.
<snip>

<Mod edit: Please keep politics out of it>

 

[tomizett]

I listen every morning to FM - BBC Radio 4, which is the UK's public service spoken word service. I'm very fond of my Panasonic radio-cassette that I got for Christmas when I was about 15 - it'll be a sad day when it becomes obsolete!

It is interesting how these things slip out of your life though. I used to listen a lot to music radio, now barely ever. Only yesterday I had to go hunting for a 3.5" floppy drive... I'd not even noticed that I didn't own one any more - just assumed that I did.

There are some interesting politics coming out here, too. Different people are clearly seeing the same content in very different ways.

 

[JimB]

I listen every morning to FM - BBC Radio 4, which is the UK's public service spoken word service.

I also listen to Radio 4 throughout the day.

Over lunch time, I switch to BBC Radio 2 and listen to the Jeremy Vine programme.
What I like is the wide range of topics which are discussed, however, Vine himself not so much, he gives me the creeps!

All this takes place on VHF FM, I have not listened to AM for several years now.
I used to listen to "Talk Radio" which later morphed into "Talk Sport" but retained some of the phone-in type discussion programmes late at night.
Then a few years ago I was abroad for few weeks on a business trip and on my return it had all changed.
I corporate "business speak", they had reverted to their "core business" and the whole of their programming was discussion of sport topics, which is something in which I have zero interest.
So they lost me as part of their audience.
What was that old saying about "Don't let the door hit you in the **** on the way out" !

So far I have resisted the propaganda to buy a DAB radio.

JimB

 

[DerStrom8]

I listen to FM radio on a daily basis. I usually have three stations I switch between, depending on the time of day.

 

[ronsimpson]

Different people are clearly seeing the same content in very different ways.

I can not stand screaming and fake news

Very sorry I said anything! (politics)
I live close enough to town to get all the radio stations. I drive every month 8 hours (one way) through farm country. As far as you can see (35 miles) wheat and abandoned farm houses. <snip> The news is "corn prices up 1/4 and soy beans down 1/10, beef steady".

FM radio: There is a country music station that will take out 10 minutes to list all the tractors at auction this Friday. Once an hour some girl will read a recipe for apple pie or something. News does not happen more than 200 miles away. There are, every 100 miles, a small station, just reading the bible. Through out farming country there are radio repeaters, that rebroadcast national public radio. Most of the (rural) law maker have promised to close down NPR for its bias. NPR takes this serious and for over a year has experts on both sides on the big stories. Giving both sides equal time is "so biased" that NPR may get removed from the farm lands.

Too bad that radio, internet, and news is so involved with politics that radio is politics.

<Mod edit: Please keep politics out of it>

 

[schmitt trigger]

In this age of the Internet, it is difficult for the new generations to grasp the importance of Radio.

Radio was the very first mass medium, updating the news much faster than newspapers could, and reaching isolated towns in the remotest corners of the world. It was every bit as revolutionary as the web is today.

Also, I can safely say that Radio launched the electronics industry, and with it the need for technicians and engineers who understood it.

If you haven't read it already, I strongly recommend the book: "Empire of the Air. The Men Who made Radio".
There is also a Ken Burns documentary that -most likely- is available on the web.

 

[tcmtech]

Not poltical in intent but a representation of the wide range of intellectual things I listen to that draw public attention for all the wrong reasonings they clearly do not deserve.

Through out farming country there are radio repeaters, that rebroadcast national public radio. Most of the (rural) law maker have promised to close down NPR for its bias. NPR takes this serious and for over a year has experts on both sides on the big stories. Giving both sides equal time is "so biased" that NPR may get removed from the farm lands.

I do have to say that from what I have heard NPS has improved on their staying neutral over the last year because of that funding threat.

I don't listen to their over the air broadcasts but I have played a number of them off of the internet to see what all the fuss as about over some of the people they were not letting on.

Here's what they were refusing to put on the air and I have to say that showed some pretty strong and unfounded bias that by my views more than justified the want to pull their money and take them off the air.

<snip - too political for this site>

If people don't want to hear it then I want to hear it in HD 7.1 surround sound and if people don't want me or anyone else, who really needs to know what's really going on, to see it then I have to take it they have less than honorable intentions. (very much includes internet sites and forums as well.)

 

[dr pepper]

Tomi, I dont mean to be miserable however cassette's are obsolete, so your rad/cass will be too at least partially.

 

[audioguru]

Sure it is obsolete.
Philips invented the Compact Cassette Tape Recorder/player in 1962. That was 55 years ago. I joined Philips a few years later and saw it replace 8-track players in car radios and I had a go at making it produce high fidelity. Dolby beat me.
In the '70ies I had my car radio record an FM radio station's music while I was at work. But today I haven't played a cassette tape for about 20 years.