Broadcast Radio. Still listen to them?

[The Real MC]

I stopped listening to broadcast radio since 2004.  Where I lived then, my region wasn't very diverse - the radio only played classic rock, modern rock, hip hop, or modern country - that's it.  I was tired of the constant rotation of classic rock songs, there are way too many ads, and the new music was terrible.  By then nearly all the radio stations were acquired by a handful of corporate conglomerates, where playlists were broadcast from a central location with no respect to regional preferences and the interface between DJ and audience was gone.

 

I used to do a lot of business travel and discovered much more diverse music that would never get played back home.

When I discovered I could play mp3 CDs in my car where each disc would random play ~150 mp3 songs on from a single CD, that was another reason I stopped listening to broadcast radio.  So I ripped favorite songs from my CDs and built mp3 CDs from them.  I could listen to many other genres that weren't getting played on broadcast radio - very very liberating.

 

One of the bands I was in played R&B/funk/blues.  I really enjoyed that format.  A very interesting observation: when we played anywhere in the town with very narrow radio genres, we got deer in the headlights from the audience.  The songs we played were not on local radio so the audience did not respond to them - they only responded to songs they heard on radio.  But if the band played outside that town, we got much better reception.

I have since relocated to an area with much more diverse music on radio, but broadcast radio still has its thorns.

The last ten years the few new CDs I have bought were through peer recommendations, sadly not from radio.  I keep an open mind to new music but the new music I like is not getting played on broadcast radio.

Do you still listen to broadcast radio?

[Anderton]

AM radio has been taken over by political and sports talk. I sometimes listened to Phil Valentine , a conservative talk show host in Nashville who was open-minded, had a great sense of humor, and was a Cubase user. But, he wasn't into the vaccine, got covid, and died. I stopped listening to AM radio after that when he was replaced by people who constantly made factual errors (not "opinion facts," verifiable facts), so I gave up. And there are zero liberal talk stations, so that makes it hard to get hopelessly biased opinions from both sides 

 

FM radio is what you describe - classic rock, modern rock, hip hop, or modern country. There's a classical station and an alternative station that favors local musicians, but that's pretty much it.

 

For hearing music, AFAIC it's all about the internet, especially sites from outside the US, and recommendations from friends. Terrestrial radio is basically a dinosaur at this point.

[GovernorSilver]

Just the news channels, and only when I'm in my car

[David Emm]

I still have a decent working boom box with AM/FM in it, but I'd take an ice pick to it before I'd listen to either. Its like most media now: its screaming at you. Its like biting into a chocolate eclair and spitting out a rhinoceros beetle. PASS.

[Joe Muscara]

One of the features of Apple Music is the "radio" where they have various "personalities" they've hired to do shows, interviews, etc. (Not to be confused with when you tell it to play you a genre or music based on an artist. These are more like traditional radio shows.)

 

Every time I've tried to listen to them, I'm as turned off as I am with broadcast radio. All I can hear is some fast talking shill blathering away about something. Maybe it's old man-speak to say I don't remember broadcast radio being like that when I listened to it, a lot of AOR DJs came across like a a buddy. These DJs now sound like used car salesmen or TV ad pitchmen to me.

[KuruPrionz]

We have one station out of Anacortes (50 miles south west of here) that plays jazz and real blues (not honkies in suits with sunglasses mimicking).

It's pretty listenable. 

"Classic Rock" stations make me want to kill ugly radio. Horrible songs played over and over again. 

That's been for decades now with no end in sight. 

 

In some towns, the college station can be interesting, a friend listens to ours but so far I haven't done it. I did listen in Fresno, it was the best station on the dial. 

 

Mostly, I don't listen to music at all. Not sure why exactly, may have something to do with 3,000+ gigs in. I like no music, it's peaceful. 

[RABid]

Only to listen to high school girl's basketball while my great-niece was playing. She started her first varsity game while in the 6th grade. Made the state tournament team as a freshman. Highly recruited. Been injured every year since 6th grade including 2 knee surgeries. After suffering yet another concussion playing summer ball a few months ago the family said no more. No more radio for me. I will keep a battery operated radio around for emergencies. 

[Doerfler]

Broadcast radio in DC is still very good. There are stations that only broadcast news, traffic, and weather. Essential for the commuter.

Classical radio station, WETA, is top notch, and partners with NPR when it is time to broadcast any news.

Jazz and justice station, WPFW, is managed by a MPN brother, ZukeSkywalker. Listner supported, could use more funding.

American University, WAMU,  hosts "Bluegrass Country" all day every day. Listener supported, very well funded.

LIke most others, I avoid the commercially owned "I Heart Radio" and other types of commercial radio.

I do like to listen to commercials on the Latino stations, those guys/gals can make anything sound good. 

[RABid]

I miss WOWO. Wish Sweetwater would buy it and return it to the glory of the 60's and 70's.

[Lou Gehrig Charles]

I'm cynical enough to listen and note when the station adds new material to their collection.  Example: WDRV here in Chicago suddenly added Grunge to it's lineup of AC/DC, Aerosmith, Boston, Guns n Roses, Who, Zeppelin-heavy playlist.  I think they went out and bought Pearl Jam "Ten" and Nirvana's "Nevermind" and "In Utero" and immediately inserted them into heavy rotation after a couple decades of not playing them at all.  Not once.  Now you can hear them ten times a day.....  Makes me wonder what happened - Did the "Back in Black" CD get scratched so badly they can't play it any more, so they bought something new?  Maybe if I wait another decade they will start playing Radiohead and Tool.

 

But yeah, I do (unfortunately) listen to the radio.  I don't have XM or an Ipod.....  And not enough CDs.

[Stokely]

Am political radio is so bananas (IMO) that I used to tune in.  I've lost all stomach for it as I've gotten older.  I have enough things in my life stressing me out, I don't need to listen to things tailor-made and designed to do just that.  (Ditched facebook for the same reason.)   Our bass player listens to all that stuff, and while our band is completely non-political, he's started to slip a couple times because he gets so riled up.  He needs to keep that crap in check, or either him or I will be moving on.   He's worn a couple tshirts to gigs lately that I personally feel go over the line, my job is to play music not inflame customers on the "other side."  But I'll leave that to the bandleader.   I have few illusions that I'd be able to find another band that has lasted ten years by members agreeing to keep that stuff at home where it belongs, oh well.

I occasionally tune in to sports radio, but mostly in the car I listen to audiobooks.  Unfortunately my car is too old to have easy phone audio so I just leave the radio off and play it from my phone (or SD card if I can be bothered to load stuff on it!).  NPR is the only news-ish station I listen to.

What's kind of funny is that while I don't put on FM music stations that often, somehow my kids know every song when I do.  That's with their faces buried in their phone when I have it on...

[RABid]

9 hours ago, Lou Gehrig said:

Makes me wonder what happened

My guess, the music director retired and the replacement likes those bands.

[Anderton]

On 11/27/2022 at 5:00 PM, KuruPrionz said:

Mostly, I don't listen to music at all. Not sure why exactly, may have something to do with 3,000+ gigs in. I like no music, it's peaceful. 

 

 I can relate. People ask why I don't read books. After writing them for hours on end, reading is the last thing I want to do!

[Nowarezman]

Radio in the car is still a habit.  KMFA in Austin is a great classical station funded by members.  KUT is an NPR station - still love Fresh Air, All Things Considered, Radiolab, Texas Standard. 

 

And on some station, somewhere along the FM dial, some station is still playing Hotel California or Barracuda, if all else utterly fails....

 

nat

 

[KuruPrionz]

1 hour ago, Nowarezman said:

Radio in the car is still a habit.  KMFA in Austin is a great classical station funded by members.  KUT is an NPR station - still love Fresh Air, All Things Considered, Radiolab, Texas Standard. 

 

And on some station, somewhere along the FM dial, some station is still playing Hotel California or Barracuda, if all else utterly fails....

 

nat

 

I can handle a fair amount of Barracuda but I'd be most pleased if Hotel California went away forever. To quote John Prine "Nothin but a big bunch of nothin, driving me insane".

[jazzpiano88]

On 11/27/2022 at 2:41 PM, Anderton said:

AM radio has been taken over by political and sports talk. I sometimes listened to Phil Valentine , a conservative talk show host in Nashville who was open-minded, had a great sense of humor, and was a Cubase user. But, he wasn't into the vaccine, got covid, and died. I stopped listening to AM radio after that when he was replaced by people who constantly made factual errors (not "opinion facts," verifiable facts), so I gave up. And there are zero liberal talk stations, so that makes it hard to get hopelessly biased opinions from both sides 

 

FM radio is what you describe - classic rock, modern rock, hip hop, or modern country. There's a classical station and an alternative station that favors local musicians, but that's pretty much it.

 

For hearing music, AFAIC it's all about the internet, especially sites from outside the US, and recommendations from friends. Terrestrial radio is basically a dinosaur at this point.

 

There are some AM powerhouses that are still worth listening to for great local content.   WGN, WHO.  KGO was also good but they just turned into a Gambling Addiction Free Needle Supplier in San Francisco.

[bill5]

Rarely. I don't live in "the boonies" but not in/near a big city so choices are downright tragic:

 

- A classic rock station or two which might be worth an occasional listen if their libraries weren't absurdly small, I swear these people seem to think that the whole genre only includes about 20 or 30 songs, played over...andoverandoverandoverandover...what I'd give for a station that played older stuff that wasn't already beat to death.

- Token rap station (hard pass) 

- A "modern country" (i.e. not really country at all) station or two - occasionally it's tolerable just as background music really but nothing I'm much into

 

Really that's about it. I used to listen to a classical station at night when I went to bed until they closed down. It's all so sad IMO. When I was growing up there were various rock stations, pop/top 40, jazz, R&B/soul, country, classical, etc. We can largely thank Clear Channel and all similar corporate POSs for this. 

 

PS that's FM, btw. I never really listened to anything on AM except a ball game if I was driving somewhere. Not into the talking head stuff, whether it's political or sports or whatever. I mostly found them annoying as hell regardless of their viewpoint.

 

PS #2: Oddly I find streaming services are going the same route. I'm about to quit Pandora because no matter how I try to tailor stations, ultimately I get the same songs over...andoverandoverandoverandover.... 

 

 

[Notes_Norton]

I listen to the classical music channel of our local public radio station if I take short trips in the car. Often it's too light for me as some of the DJs think Classical is for relaxation. I prefer the "heavy metal" end of Classical.

 

For longer trips, I have a digital Walkman, with 10,000 or so tunes on it, ripped mostly from my CD/LP collection with a few downloads that I purchased. I have it set in random play.

 

I don't mind the ads on the radio, but few music stations we have play the same stuff over and over and over and over again.

 

Notes ♫

[KenElevenShadows]

Sometimes. I sometimes like the randomness of broadcast radio. I also occasionally listen to sports radio on AM, just to switch it up a bit.

[Greg Mein]

Radio is only listened to in the truck where most trips are around town short anyway. There is a classic rock station from Vegas and another from St George that come in decent most of the time here. Yes, it's the same worn out stuff but traffic reports are helpful if I'm headed to Vegas.

 

I have a USB stick full of tunes in the truck as well which is very convenient and gets used a lot on longer trips but now the phone is also becoming more of an option as well. On cross country trips it's nice to download some podcasts or playlists but it requires pre-prep and I often drop the ball on that. 

[RABid]

In the very late 1980's I quit playing music and went back to school. For a decade I avoided listening to music because it made me want to play again, and I needed to focus on school and eventually the new job. So, I totally missed the 90's musically. You know what? I am still missing the 90's. In my area oldies station play 60's, 70's, and 80's. Another group of stations play music from 2000 on. It seems that no one in my area includes the 90's. It is like the forgotten decade of music. 

[surfergirl]

We have a NOAA weather radio. It's only used for emergencies. 

[Anderton]

4 hours ago, RABid said:

[the 90s] It is like the forgotten decade of music. 

 

Well, we did get Nine Inch Nails, Madonna, Public Enemy, and Prince. But a lot of the music of that era was kind of angst-ridden. Maybe it's not forgotten... maybe people just want to forget it 😆

[RABid]

6 hours ago, Anderton said:

Well, we did get Nine Inch Nails, Madonna, Public Enemy, and Prince.

My bands played a lot of Madonna and Prince in the 80's. Public Enemy had their first BIG release in 1987. I will give you Nine Inch Nails. While they formed in the late 1980's their first big release came in the 90's.

[surfergirl]

10 hours ago, Anderton said:

 

Well, we did get Nine Inch Nails, Madonna, Public Enemy, and Prince. But a lot of the music of that era was kind of angst-ridden. Maybe it's not forgotten... maybe people just want to forget it 😆

I had a 90's problem in 2019. My mother who graduated from high school in 1999 was getting married and we where playing at the reception. We didn't know any 90's songs. We ended up with Hootie and the Blowfish and Jewel. We added some Jack Johnson who is more of 2000's, but a local. Then we mixed in our other stuff. My grandpa did 4 songs that took care of the surf music.

[Nowarezman]

Lotta great electronic music from the 90s.  That was the decade I got into electronic music - not the 80s (unlike everyone else seemingly.)   

 

90s electronic bands/projects like The Orb, Underworld, Amon Tobin, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Autechre, Orbital, Future Sound of London, Meat Beat Manifesto, Bola, Air, tons of these sorts of acts - I still listen to all that stuff pretty regularly.

 

It's the golden age of electronic music for me - not sure how many other people think of the 90s that way, 'tho.  

 

nat

 

 

 

[Anderton]

2 hours ago, Nowarezman said:

90s electronic bands/projects like The Orb, Underworld, Amon Tobin, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Autechre, Orbital, Future Sound of London, Meat Beat Manifesto, Bola, Air, tons of these sorts of acts - I still listen to all that stuff pretty regularly.

 

It's the golden age of electronic music for me - not sure how many other people think of the 90s that way, 'tho.  

 

That underscores RAbid's point of why you don't hear it on terrestrial radio in the US- it wasn't even played on terrestrial radio in the 90s! I really don't think electronic music got the kind of traction here that it got in Europe and elsewhere. But I agree that the 90s and early 2000s were a good time for electronic music. I always thought "James Brown is Dead" kicked off techno, and that was 1991. Most of my live performances in the electronic genre was late 90s - early 2000s.

 

 

 

[Nowarezman]

The only electronic track I can remember hearing on the radio in the 90s (KGSR in Austin was the go-to station for me) was Little Fluffy Clouds by The Orb.  Anyone else ever hear this tune? 

 

If you're not familiar with the tune, can you guess who the two people are in the sampled interview bits? (the first sampled interview clip is about 15 seconds in right after the British radio voice bit).  

 

I still love this clever little track -

 

nat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[zukskywalker]

Now this is a first!!!

thanks for the plug DAVE! This board has now just brought me to tears!  “Could use more funding”…greatest understatement of all time! The jazz and justice non-profit broadcast radio struggle is phenomenal.

 

When worlds collide: or wait’ll you get a load of the 50,000 Watt synth!😎 thanks mpn!

[zukskywalker]

I didn’t start this thread so this  might expand into another thread but since we’re talking about broadcast radio… how  do I legally “cross post” from MPN to terrestrial FM radio and the station website?  There’s a lot more here than YouTube and copyright protected content and I’m already guilty to a tiny extent but the wealth of fresh content makes it a must-do. (Some of you guys have already been on the air!😎)