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

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

#161

Post by UncleSlacky » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 1:23 PM UTC

Loughla wrote: post #119

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.

I listen to podcasts all day while working and I am JEALOUS of your access to radio 4 and sounds. There is so much just insanely killer content coming out of the BBC in those avenues.

Lots of Radio 4 programmes are available as podcasts, and it is possible to stream BBC radio outside the UK without a VPN - see the links here:

http://www.radiofeeds.co.uk/

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

#162

Post by maxerickson » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 1:24 PM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #154

inigyou wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes, but not too often, in Berlin of all places you encounter someone biking around with a massive speaker attached to their bike blaring (obviously) techno Not always a bike. Sometimes just a trolley or a handcart or a custom jerry-rigged contraption.

In the US "boom boxes" went out with the 1970s. They need to get with the times. Okay, in all seriousness: boom boxes were a thing in the 1970s and early 1980s. There are still people who use the latest generation of them, but thankfully not nearly as many. These days people cranking music in a public place are generally doing it as part of a group that all want to hear the same thing. (and in back then the group wan…

Here, in a small US town, the most frequent public music is one or two people ~destroying the speaker on their phone.

Second is probably motorcycles blasting it over the engine noise.

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

#163

Post by inigyou » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 1:31 PM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #154

inigyou wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes, but not too often, in Berlin of all places you encounter someone biking around with a massive speaker attached to their bike blaring (obviously) techno Not always a bike. Sometimes just a trolley or a handcart or a custom jerry-rigged contraption.

In the US "boom boxes" went out with the 1970s. They need to get with the times. Okay, in all seriousness: boom boxes were a thing in the 1970s and early 1980s. There are still people who use the latest generation of them, but thankfully not nearly as many. These days people cranking music in a public place are generally doing it as part of a group that all want to hear the same thing. (and in back then the group wan…

Oh I've never seen a boom box around. It's always, like, a box of car batteries and a speaker on top. Clearly DIY.

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

#164

Post by donaldihunter » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 1:33 PM UTC

I used to travel to the valley a lot. Fly to SFO, pick up a rental car, tune in to 107.7 the Bone. Are they still going?

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

#165

Post by rhplus » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 1:35 PM UTC

maccard wrote: post #85

olsondv wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It absolutely does - allegedly there’s 6 million listeners to the biggest breakfast radio show in the UK and 4 million to the second biggest. That’s 10 million in a country of about 55 million adults.

Unfortunately, they broadcast on DAB so there’s a strong chance that two car radios next to each other are buffering differently and out of sync.

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

#166

Post by zparky » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 1:37 PM UTC

donaldihunter wrote: post #164

I used to travel to the valley a lot. Fly to SFO, pick up a rental car, tune in to 107.7 the Bone. Are they still going?

looks like it! https://radio.garden/listen/ksan-fm-107-7/iWCTdfjj

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

#167

Post by deltarholamda » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 1:37 PM UTC

In 2005, right after Katrina hit, a lot of people in the Gulf lost power for a long time. All cell towers were overloaded constantly. What kept working was radio.

A bog standard Sony radio would run for a long, long time on a few AA batteries. Back then, you could also pick up the audio portion of UHF and VHF analog TV too. It was the main lifeline for news and local updates.

Radio is a fantastic technology that is being wasted. Cheap to transmit, cheap to receive, and covers a wide area. It would be great to see a radio renaissance. Maybe the Zoomers reconnecting to older technologies will revive it.

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

#168

Post by jccalhoun » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 1:40 PM UTC

mobilene wrote: post #138

I'm the OP, and I'm surprised to find this article on HN at all, let alone the front page! Many comments are focusing on music but the thing I tried to get across in the article was that good radio wasn't primarily about the music, it was about fun and connection. A good DJ kept you from just turning the radio off when you heard that same hit the fourth time today -- you wanted to keep listening because the DJ made i…

Small world. I'm sitting here in Terre Haute as I write this. I moved here about a decade ago so radio was already well on its way to the lowest common denominator before I got here. All I know about WBOW is that they turn into all Christmas music after Thanksgiving.

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

#169

Post by JohnFen » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 1:43 PM UTC

mobilene wrote: post #138

I'm the OP, and I'm surprised to find this article on HN at all, let alone the front page! Many comments are focusing on music but the thing I tried to get across in the article was that good radio wasn't primarily about the music, it was about fun and connection. A good DJ kept you from just turning the radio off when you heard that same hit the fourth time today -- you wanted to keep listening because the DJ made i…

> A good DJ kept you from just turning the radio off when you heard that same hit the fourth time today -- you wanted to keep listening because the DJ made it fun.

I'm old enough to remember when radio was king, but if that's what a good DJ does, then I suppose I've never heard a good DJ. Personally, I preferred the DJ who talked as little as possible and had good taste and variety in the music they chose to play.

But yes, we are poorer for their passing. They've been gone for a very long time, but I've still yet to see anything that can adequately replace them.

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

#170

Post by jccalhoun » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 1:44 PM UTC

My girlfriend has XM in her car so on road trips we listen to that. I'm always amazed at how terrible the djs on there are. Many of them are older musicians that I would imagine record all their segments for the week (or even month) in one day. I really don't know why they even bother paying for djs at all.