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.
I switched from Spotify to Navidrome+local radio. When I’m in the car, it’s been 100% radio recently.
I actually like a lot of the music on my local radio stations. Yes, it’s 10 songs on a loop, but they gradually change out the 10 songs. So 6 months from now it’s slightly different 10 songs. I also get to spend more time with each song, which lets me learn the lyrics or notice different parts of the song better.
Yes, there are ads and talking, but it’s not all bad. I like the ads for local businesses, restaurants, or events. The talking gets annoying sometimes, but most of the time it’s fine or, dare I say, even enjoyable. When the ads/talking gets too much, I just change the station. There are like 4-5 stations I cycle through. If they’re all annoying, then I just turn the radio down for a minute.
I also discover new songs from the radio that later I add to Navidrome.
Overall, pretty happy not paying for Spotify and not having to use my phone.
Every day. The morning show wakes us up, there is radio in the car, and in my hobby room, while there is neither cellular nor wifi access, the radio still works.
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.
I drive a truck for work; the radio is absolutely a lifeline for me. Usually just local weather/traffic updates for whatever city I’m passing through, maybe the news if I stumble upon an NPR station in time for All Things Considered. I stick to my music/audiobooks all other times though.
Unless I’m passing through home. Listening to my hometown stations helps me get out of “work mode” at the end of my rotation.
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.
I love listening to CBC (the Canadian NPR). It makes me feel more connected to my community, keeping up to date with local news I would not otherwise have known.
Also university and coop radio stations are great for discovering new music.
There’s 1 listener supported classical station and 1 listener supported news station, the rest are garbage constant ads or worse
I have found almost all radio status near me play a mix of 12 songs and ads. Tuning in to any station was likely to result in ads and not music.
My radio is tuned to static so I can get into my car without being forced into hearing an ad while my Bluetooth connects and I can start playing a book.
There is a station I used to listen to 8 years ago when I saw heavy traffic (to decide if I need an alternate route) - this is in a tiny city which rarely has traffic issues. everyonce in a while I hear it in a store a something and I still know the song that will be next.
Yes! But usually only when I’m driving. It’s either NPR or a local alternative station out of TJ. The local station is one of the only places I have heard Social Distortion, MxPx, Green Day, and some new rock band. It’s pretty fucking great.
I have started carrying cds in my car again, too. I’ve found quite a few great albums for $1-3 at thrift stores (great for Blu-rays too) or ripping CDs I borrow from the library. I also have a small mp3 player loaded with a bunch of music I’ve ripped or downloaded.
And I have AppleMusic for anything else.
Hell yes I do. There’s a great local rock station here.
I still listen to FM radio and, if you’ll please pardon me tooting my own horn, I also help make some of it as part of a long-running weekly talk show. (I’ve been off the air for the past couple weeks, but I’m back next week.)
I was a listener to the station and the program for a long time before I joined up. I still listen to radio often, and the medium continues to mean a great deal to me.
Sounds interesting, I think I’ll give the show a listen.
Cool! I’d be happy to learn what you think of it.
Haven’t listened to the radio in about 15 years.
Drive to work in the morning would piss me off. Stop the jibber jabber and play some music already!
Yeah, only when driving or playing with old radios. Or in my garage I leave it on.
Sadly radio reallllllly sucks now for the most part. Some late night DJs are cool and play interesting stuff but otherwise it’s junk.
No, I turned it off the day I bought my truck and its been off since. The only form of pure audio media I consume are podcasts. I rarely even listen to music.
I listen to NPR or most of my driving I can get a tiny local station Cavern FM which plays obscure rock music from around the globe. You can listen online here. https://www.cavern.fm/
