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It's a shame what's happened to radio

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

#101

Post by jraph »

Marsymars wrote: post #84
JuniperMesos wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I don't think I ever used the FM feature on my phone One killer feature for phone-sized portable FM radios is live sports! Some sports that have TV broadcasts but no radio broadcast will pipe the broadcast audio over an FM channel within the stadium. Of course for sports that have a radio broadcast, you can tune directly to it. Depending on the sport, it's really nice to get player background info, or some sports h…

I suppose Auracast could be used for that, which is a broadcast audio feature of Bluetooth Low Energy [1].

My Bluetooth pods have it. I'm not sure how well it's supported, I don't think I've ever entered a place that uses it (or I didn't notice), so I could never try it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auracast?oldid=1346244865

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

#102

Post by chickensong »

This is peak old man yells at cloud.

There's so much good radio to be had since the arrival of the internet. Not even talking about online-only, but actual radio stations who also stream. Maybe there's less cool broadcast stations in any given area, but our overall exposure via internet is incredible. Just search for free-form radio. If you have a college in your area, you probably have interesting radio and DJs on the airwaves.

The article ends with giving up, ipod + KPFA news, which just seems wild. Never has there been a time where there's more music available.

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

#104

Post by Ntrails »

gabriel666smith wrote: post #75

It is a shame. I think it’s especially a shame for children and young people. A counter to radio remaining relevant is “I can listen to whatever I want, via this digital technology”. Fine - but young people don’t yet have a complete mental map of what culture they enjoy. In the UK, funding for libraries and the arts (public radio, the BBC) has been increasingly cut in the name of austerity. I think that’s true in the…

> In the UK, funding for libraries [] has been increasingly cut in the name of austerity.

Focusing on one thing here, for convenience. The problem remains that costs are up far in excess of budgets - austerity be damned! We are forced to prioritise, cutting the generally useful but "non-essential". (There is often a legal duty to the essential things)

https://ifs.org.uk/publications/how-have-english-councils-fu...

Is a great breakdown. To illustrate my argument see Table 1. Real-terms spending per person by service area, various years (2024–25 prices)

> Within total service spending, per-person spending on children’s social care services [] increased by 11% in real terms. Spending on adult social care [] was also relatively protected, falling by only 2%. This meant much larger cuts to other services: more than 40% in the case of housing, culture and leisure, and highways and transport, and nearly 60% cuts to planning and development.

We cut what _could_ be cut, and that's a prioritisation call.

edit: now in https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/fixing...

Great rabbit hole for my Wednesday morning! :D

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

#105

Post by trinix912 »

veltas wrote: post #90
petepete wrote: post #89

I'm so thankful for the BBC. I listen to Radio 4 through the day when I'm working on things that don't need my full concentration. It's the alarm that wakes me at 0630 and I often listen to the news before bed. Adverts drive me insane. It's a national treasure and I'd pay the licence fee again just for R4 + Sounds.

Also listened in the car but since they've recently shut down the LW tower I can't receive it anymore in the midlands, only occasionally get FM signal.

I could pick the LW up at night in my car from Slovenia!

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

#106

Post by ACCount37 »

user2722 wrote: post #71
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/

Agree. The only problem about radio is requiring wired headphones to serve as antenna. Do flagship Snapdragon SOCs still have radio? Thinking about next GOS compatible Motorola-branded device, the first device GOS will support with Snapdragon.

SoCs - not really.

FM radio support is a part of a Bluetooth chip, an audio codec chip, or even a standalone IC.

In modern high end SoCs, even the 5G modem is largely evicted from the SoC itself. Only the digital processing happens in the SoC - while ADC/DAC and anything analog lives in its own IC.

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

#107

Post by gabriel666smith »

Ntrails wrote: post #104
gabriel666smith wrote: post #75

It is a shame. I think it’s especially a shame for children and young people. A counter to radio remaining relevant is “I can listen to whatever I want, via this digital technology”. Fine - but young people don’t yet have a complete mental map of what culture they enjoy. In the UK, funding for libraries and the arts (public radio, the BBC) has been increasingly cut in the name of austerity. I think that’s true in the…

> In the UK, funding for libraries [] has been increasingly cut in the name of austerity. Focusing on one thing here, for convenience. The problem remains that costs are up far in excess of budgets - austerity be damned! We are forced to prioritise, cutting the generally useful but "non-essential". (There is often a legal duty to the essential things) https://ifs.org.uk/publications/how-have-english-councils-fu... Is…

Yeah - I used "austerity" as a slightly sloppy shorthand in my comment. My two closest local libraries were closed due to cuts made during "the credit crunch" by the coalition government (from memory!), when "austerity" was the buzzword, so I felt it'd communicate most broadly (to HN's international userbase) the phenomenon I was gesturing at.

From what I can understand, these sources are saying: "because costs are up, those past cuts have not yet really been reversed, especially not in terms of real-terms funding per-capita, or funding for 'non-essential' services".

Super bleak reading - it's a very dark rabbit hole!

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

#108

Post by JuniperMesos »

Marsymars wrote: post #84
JuniperMesos wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I don't think I ever used the FM feature on my phone One killer feature for phone-sized portable FM radios is live sports! Some sports that have TV broadcasts but no radio broadcast will pipe the broadcast audio over an FM channel within the stadium. Of course for sports that have a radio broadcast, you can tune directly to it. Depending on the sport, it's really nice to get player background info, or some sports h…

I have never had any interest in live sports and I was genuinely unaware of this use case.

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

#109

Post by adammarples »

gabriel666smith wrote: post #75

It is a shame. I think it’s especially a shame for children and young people. A counter to radio remaining relevant is “I can listen to whatever I want, via this digital technology”. Fine - but young people don’t yet have a complete mental map of what culture they enjoy. In the UK, funding for libraries and the arts (public radio, the BBC) has been increasingly cut in the name of austerity. I think that’s true in the…

The BBC hasn't been cut in the name of austerity. It isn't funded by general taxation it's funded by the licence fee, which has only risen, however not in line with inflation. This is basically because nobody wants to pay it, and indeed a huge number of people have stopped paying it.
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