It's a shame what's happened to radio • Hacker News Board

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#31

Post by mixmastamyk » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 4:09 AM UTC

stackghost wrote: post #22

mixmastamyk wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unskippable? I turned the station at the first sign of commercial, and still do. If one of those "radio-wide commercial minutes" per hour, I'd try the public station, or made a selection from the ten-disc changer. ;-) Nowadays I have a USB drive, though I understand that's rare. Can hardly find a (car) radio that supports modern sizes these days, probably by design.

>Unskippable? I turned the station at the first sign of commercial, and still do. If one of those "radio-wide commercial minutes" per hour, I'd try the public station, or made a selection from the ten-disc changer. ;-) Yes, that's an accurate description of the hassle of trying to avoid unskippable ads.

I skipped ’em. Hassle is kinda strong and doesn’t bother me that much, don’t expect more for free.

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#32

Post by vel0city » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 4:10 AM UTC

pixl97 wrote: post #21

stackghost wrote: post #3

>I signed off the air for the last time in 1994 [...] radio has changed drastically, and it just wouldn’t be any fun for me today. I don't agree with this premise. FM Radio is definitely more corporate today, but I grew up in the 90s and my memories of FM radio are not fond. For my whole life it has always been materially the same, shitty, experience: occasional good songs interleaved with mediocre ones and a hefty d…

Most stations sucked, but there were some more fun counter culture stations. I remember KGLE (KEGL?) Out of DFW pulling shit on their radio shows like saying the city banned smoking in cars and people flooded city government phone lines with complaints and rants, which had a lulz component that we wouldnt see again till the 4chan days.

KEGL, The Eagle ROCKS! Back on the air again after a failed attempt to make it yet another sports talk station.

They also had an ad-free (or at least low as, I don't think I've heard any) version of The Edge on their HD2 stream.

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#33

Post by BLKNSLVR » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 4:13 AM UTC

nicksergeant wrote: post #5

Still a few great ones hanging around, like WBER in Rochester: https://wber.org/

Adelaide, South Australia: https://threedradio.com/

Fiercely local, fiercely independent. Has been great for new music discovery for me for years.

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#34

Post by mixmastamyk » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 4:15 AM UTC

JuniperMesos wrote: post #20

waveforms wrote: post #12

The removal of FM radio from cell phones was a big mistake. It should never have allowed. Radio is very useful in emergencies. Lately I have been getting back in to internet radio, mostly via Elisa in KDE. Here is my favorite internet stream: https://hawaiireggaenetwork.com/

I don't think I ever used the FM feature on my phone, except purely to test out whether it worked. I wouldn't make phone purchasing decisions based on whether or not it had a FM radio. A regulation requiring it in the ostensible name of safety would make phones somewhat more expensive and I'm skeptical that it would even help improve safety in an emergency significantly.

How much would an additional frequency cost to add to a sophisticated radio?

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#35

Post by mixmastamyk » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 4:19 AM UTC

I was still listening to Jim Ladd and Uncle Joe on Sunday nights… maybe 15-20 years ago. They’d play a whole album, say Dark Side of the Moon and tell all the stories about it, sometimes even with recorded interviews they’d done.

Today there’s KCRW locally and it’s good though getting blander.

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#36

Post by runarberg » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 4:26 AM UTC

For those of is living in and near Seattle (and as of recently San Fransisco) KEXP is still on the air and is still amazing as ever (if not even more so).

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#37

Post by Avicebron » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 4:26 AM UTC

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #10

(2009)ish And a very American/mainstream-centric view of things. Radio (especially from the view of things in 2009) in more niche/underground circles was and in some regards still is a driving force of music curation and community in other parts of the world like the UK, parts of the EU and beyond. Does radio have to be on the FM band? Do we count streaming like via YouTube, twitch and other platforms the same as Rad…

I have yet to see a streamer match what Click and Clack did on the radio..

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#38

Post by mp107 » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 4:30 AM UTC

JuniperMesos wrote: post #20

waveforms wrote: post #12

The removal of FM radio from cell phones was a big mistake. It should never have allowed. Radio is very useful in emergencies. Lately I have been getting back in to internet radio, mostly via Elisa in KDE. Here is my favorite internet stream: https://hawaiireggaenetwork.com/

I don't think I ever used the FM feature on my phone, except purely to test out whether it worked. I wouldn't make phone purchasing decisions based on whether or not it had a FM radio. A regulation requiring it in the ostensible name of safety would make phones somewhat more expensive and I'm skeptical that it would even help improve safety in an emergency significantly.

Most smartphones do include most of the FM radio circuitry in the chip used also for Bluetooth connectivity for example. It's just a choice of the manufacturer to do not implement it completely, sometimes in hardware, sometimes in software. Several years ago there was SpiritFM application for Android that allowed to use FM radio on smartphones that sometimes never supported FM radio... oficially. So the only missing piece is sometimes only the software. As a result I think it wouldn't cost somewhat noticeably more to have that feature.

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#39

Post by Uhhrrr » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 4:32 AM UTC

runarberg wrote: post #36

For those of is living in and near Seattle (and as of recently San Fransisco) KEXP is still on the air and is still amazing as ever (if not even more so).

Yes! Eclectic, and if you text or call, a human will often respond.

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#40

Post by antisthenes » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 4:34 AM UTC

olsondv wrote: post #25

parpfish wrote: post #2

There’s a human connection element to old radio that streaming will never replicate. And I worry that it’s gone from modern automated radio too. It used to be if you were driving down the road and heard a song you liked Hearing a song you liked on the radio hit harder then playing it yourself because you knew that there was another human nearby at that moment in time that had picked it out and played it. You were phy…

Or at a stop light and the car next to you is listening/singing to the same song. Never happens anymore.

If I turn up my volume loud enough, then the car next to me is going to be listening to the same song I am :)