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.
No.
I was an NPR supporter for years but now I find them to be more in line with being a voice for corporate Democrats and the status-quo.
The rest of the radio is a wash.
In my car, yes.
There's one radio station near me that's halfway decent to listen to every now and again but the host that's normally on when I'm driving just plays the same 5-7 songs on loop most days.
Also the adverts are insane, they'll maybe get through 2 songs before going to 10 mins of ads then come back for one song and go into some radio competition before going back to ads again.
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.
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.
No.
My personal rule is that I do not consume any media where I have to see or hear adverts.
When I'm in someone else's car that's an exception and they can listen to whatever they want, it's their car. But if I'm driving? Absolutely not.
I do, public service radio every day, all day.
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!
Yeah, every day. BBC 6 music is where it's at.
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.
Just whichever NPR affiliate comes in clearest on a drive.
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.
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.
Everyday but through internet coz im an expat
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.
I've got a good college radio station in the area. They don't just play the same songs on repeat but play a good mix of alternative rock. Awkward student DJs and minimal ads.
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.
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.
Where I live there is exactly one good radio station and I listen to it every day.
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.
Yes, I switch between a few OTA stations. Usually just on as background noise. There's a couple of NPR programs that I sometimes try to listen to.
Hell yes I do. There's a great local rock station here.
Yes, but rarely, and only independent ad-free stations.
Yes! There one locally owned station in particular that seems to be thriving. It has no blocks of ads and real DJs. They always seem to be playing new stuff, and they even host small concerts for local artists and guests. They also stream at their site, thesummit.fm
Between them and The Alternation, which is another locally owned station that plays alternative rock, everything else in the area is iHeart Radio blandness. You know the type. Constant ads, playing the same songs over and over, morning shows etc
i use internet radio all the time
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.
The local community college has(d?) a good rock station with no ads but I am just out of range of their transmitter since we moved so I have not been able to listen for the last couple years.
In the US, the HD stations also don't play as many or any ads, I don't know how they are funded but its pretty cool. Mostly deep cuts or out of vogue genres. There are a couple of cool local jazz, blues, oldies or others.
No, but my dog does. I put the radio on when I'm not home because the background noise helps her keep calm.
Yup my too 5 stations to listen to in the UK and it depends on my mood and vibe.
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.
In the car. They don't steal my information. There are no pop-ups. There is no subscription. Yes, I have to listen to ads, but I they have to pay their workers somehow. Often its public radio which has no ads and some good programs.
I listen to and from work. It's mostly for background noise and the local news.
WWOZ and WMUH checking in. Sad day when NPR fucked over/ bought out another college great WLVR. Rest in peace Fritz.
FM radio never, web radio often, I even made made a FOSS html web radio where you can search and play any web radio station worldwide. holi
Internet radio, all the time. It often just streams in the background on a Yamaha internet connected speaker.
I have a handful of stations from places I used to live but can no longer reach the FM signals so I listen to their online streams. They have human DJs, which is kinda like having an algorithm but no AI.
Yes, in the car. But I immediately change frequency when it comes to ads or start to talk too much about useless stuff (for example for some reason at 9am most channels need to waste 15 minutes of people's lives by reading gpt-generated horoscopes)
It's a way to listen to something different all the time, otherwise if I choose Spotify it always the same stuff
Although some radios are like 50 tracks on loop with pre-recorded talk segments pretending to be live.
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.
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.
Rarely. And I'm a ham.
Almost every morning when I drive to work.
I do. I listen to our local Classical station almost every day. Its quality has been constantly good for so many decades. I also listen to some other music stations on the Internet from time to time, but I try to avoid those that have hourly news…
AM news radio every morning.
There's 1 listener supported classical station and 1 listener supported news station, the rest are garbage constant ads or worse
I use radio.garden every day. When I work I like listening to trance and EDM and there's no better stations to listen to that stuff than random ones in Germany or Belgium.
I also like listening to Post-Hardcore music and Russian stations have that stuff in spades. really quality stuff even from bands I haven't heard in years.
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.
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.
Really enjoy WXRV 95.9 The River Boston. You can stream from a number of sources.
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.
Jazz FM for the morning coffee, BBC 6 music when making dinner
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/
AM radio at the top of the hour for news, and only when I'm in my car. My sprit animal is old man.
Only omw to work in the mornings. Just use it to catch up on daily news. Usually covers stuff I read the night before though lol
Not for about 2 years, and it was only because I was in a carpool situation at my old job so local radio stopped any potential bitching.
Yes, but just in my 2004 truck with a broken CD player. so it's my only option for entertainment.
I do radiogarden, all day, with a favourite junk pop station. I need the noise because my home office can be deafening sometimes.
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!
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.
Only in the work truck... unfortunately
Nope...I haven't turned a radio on in at least a decade. Can't stand all the commercials and so on. I have around 16K songs on a USB drive in my car, that's what I listen to.
My phone Bluetooth is off by default so if I'm just going for a short drive I will listen to my local station. The music selection is generally decent and I don't mind the chatter. I'll also switch over for traffic reports if I'm stuck. I'm sure they're just looking at google maps but it saves me having to do it.
Very often yes, but I wouldn't ever again if the only channel I listen to went under.
CKUA, it's donor sponsored. The variety of programming is why it's not just the excellent variety of music played but the spoken word, poetry, interviews, The Road Home segment, and more.
The rest here is top 50 slop FM or cuckservative AM indoctrination for farmers.
Occasionally I use Shortwave on Linux while I do house chores for web radio. Again, similar idea but foreign donor sponsored channels from other countries besides Canada. CKUA is also in their channel list.
I used to listen to the CBC every day but switched to podcasts years ago because the CBC turned to utter lame shit, more worried about their budget than actual journalism.
Npr classic station for commutes and house cleaning.
NPR and the mariachi station. Turns out the latter have the better playlists
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