I do. Most stations in my region are just crappy music and dumb call-in shows, but there’s still a few stations with quality programming. FM radio is where I get my news, where I listen to press conferences, old-school audio theatre and (surprisingly) where I get new music recommendations. Hard to believe that modern streaming platforms’ algorithms can be outperformed by traditional media.
Just whichever NPR affiliate comes in clearest on a drive.
It’s always fun trying to find the next one when the previous goes out of range on road trips. Yes, we could look it up on a phone, but it’s more fun to guess each station genre as quickly as possible.
“Country, Christian, Christian country, classic rock, country, WAIT this might be NPR…”
Where I live there is exactly one good radio station and I listen to it every day.
I listen to BBC Radio because it’s still excellent. BBC Radio 6 is my go-to daily station which specialises in new music and has DJs who are passionate and have a lot of freedom, but the station also follows John Peel’s A-B-C format which keeps things nice and grounded. Also, BBC Radio 3 for jazz and classical (unlike Classic FM, which only plays movie soundtracks) and BBC Radio 3 Chill which is self-explanatory.
ABC’s Triple-J deserves an honourable mention. Student radio can be good as well.
The local commercial stations are all homogeneous slurry, lowest common denominator saccharin slop where every shred of character and local identity has been eradicated. I grew up listening to Rock FM (Lancashire) and Trent FM (Nottingham), both were cheesy but authentic local pop stations that have been thoroughly Borged into ultra-branded and means tested chaff. It’s adverts, relentlessly forced-cheery sponsored segments disguises as ‘banter’, desperately insincere attempts at audience engagement, and, occasionally, heavily edited and shortened versions of the same dozen songs.
Try , https://radio.garden/ its free music for everbody from around the world
Omg it has am radio too. I haven’t listened to am in such a long time, my phone only had FM. Thank you for this knowledge
I listen to NPR everyday. I listen to college radio stations where young people awkwardly talk about young people topics and the music they play stretches my tastes. Radio is human and alive. Where ever you are, acquire a radio and scan with your little fingers and listen with your ears.
I’ve lived in Japan for 30 years but listen to an Australian radio station every day while working. It keeps me loosely connected with the motherland. Mostly music, competitions, gossip and generally useless information, very little news or current affairs.
I can’t concentrate while listening to albums or playlists of music I select, but somehow radio just becomes comfortable background noise … if that makes any sense.
My car radio is tuned to the 80s/90s station. When I start my car if a song is playing, I’ll listen. If an ad comes on, I’ll mute it, and usually forget to unmute it again. Sometimes I hear two or three songs in a row before an ad. Sometimes I remember to unmute it, and maybe hear another song.
I could make an effort to have music in the car, but I don’t care that much about it. I’m okay with silence.
Nope. Never. It’s like 20% music, 10% talking, and 70% bullshit advertisements. They lost me 20 years ago when I got satellite radio. Now I just connect my phone to my vehicle for my entertainment.
yes but mostly in the car. It would be kinda cool for the public tv station to broadcast the public radio staing on a sub channel. like .6 with some photo rotation or something.
i use internet radio all the time
Almost every morning when I drive to work.
If I am in the car and its a long drive, I usually play music off my phone. But if its a shorter drive or I’m not feeling the music, its my local NPR station, always.
Really enjoy WXRV 95.9 The River Boston. You can stream from a number of sources.
Yes, often. Between being in the car a lot since RTO mandates and being alone in the house a lot and needing to have some noise to help me focus on the task at hand, the radio is on a lot.
I have the advantage of a great, local, non-profit radio station with real, local DJs that just talk normal. They play an abundance of local and emerging artists alongside classic artists. Since it’s non-profit, there are no commercials other than a “sponsored by” message from time to time.
NPR and the mariachi station. Turns out the latter have the better playlists
