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.
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.
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.
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, we have community radio here, and I listen & also contribute a little $ each month.
ETA: there used to be one good commercial station too, alternative rock, but they got bought out by a bigger conglomerate and now are a Spanish station, and unfortunately not a Spanish alternative station, that would be awesome but no, just a pop station, a clone of the others we already had!
I stream my local college radio station while I work. There’s charm in hearing the student DJs kind of stumble through everything as they play a wide assortment of music.
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.
Almost every morning when I drive to work.
i use internet radio all the time
Where I live (The North of Scotland), there’s really only about 6 FM radio stations. I tend to stick to the BBC, and alternate between Radio 4 (mostly grown up, politics/current affairs and some plays/comedy), Radio Scotland (regional news and ‘Get it On’, a music request show with a daily theme), Radio 2 (lightweight entertainment and phone-ins aimed at a middle age demographic) and that’s pretty much it. I also listen to Radio X on my Alexa, but it’s basically a 90s indie playlist with adverts, so not sure that counts.
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.
