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It's a shame what's happened to radio

blog.jimgrey.net

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

#61

Post by userbinator »

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.

would make phones somewhat more expensive

"somewhat" as in the ballpark of a few cents, definitely less than $1, because it's already there in the reference designs and deliberately removing it would actually take extra work and cost far more.

I remember all the no-name/generic MP3/MP4 players had an FM radio, while Apple's iPods did not. They deliberately chose not to include one, and definitely not because of cost.

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

#62

Post by soperj »

imp0cat wrote: post #43
mp107 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The 3.5mm jack is the other missing piece required for that FM receiver to work - and that's not coming back any time soon.

I've never had a phone without one.

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

#63

Post by userbinator »

prmoustache wrote: post #58

What's up with US radio names sounding like amazon chinese electronic devices autogenerated brands with just a string of random letters? Weren't they allowed to have "normal" names like anywhere else in the world?

This is a tradition over a century old: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_sign

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

#64

Post by t0mpr1c3 »

I loved pirate radio in London in the 90s. It was so vital. There was nowhere else that you could hear tracks that new unless you were at a club or the handful of record shops where DJs hung out. You could phone in and they would give you a shout out! We would record the Sunday specials on Kool FM and listen to them the rest of the week. Good times.

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

#66

Post by pgreenwood »

sien wrote: post #26
marcus_holmes wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in the UK in the 80's, and that entire generation received our music taste from BBC Radio 1. Literally the entire population of UK teens listened to that one station for ~20 years (though individuals would listen to different shows - John Peel's famous indie/punk/whatever show in the evenings was very different to the daytime mainstream stuff). In Australia it was ABC's Triple J - similar story. Everyone tu…

Community radio is still alive and well in Australia too. RRR and PBS in Melbourne are still excellent and seem to still be a fairly big deal if bumper stickers are anything to go by.

Yep and all available online as well. I listen to PBS every day.

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

#68

Post by smelendez »

Marsymars wrote: post #14

But some weird happenstance I've only recently started listening to radio, and I find it pretty good? The commercial stations are basically all unbearable, but my metro area has a half-dozen public/community/campus stations that can be enjoyable or interesting. I just drove home, and spent 20 minutes listening to a host on the radio talking to a researcher about evolved preferences for non-mates in humans. It was pre…

I enjoy the radio. I have a few stations I’ll cycle through at home and in the car. But all nonprofit/college /etc.

Most US commercial radio is very bad. I don’t really understand why the playlists are so small, and why they don’t even occasionally play lesser-known songs by the big acts. Like, why don’t classic rock stations play deeper cuts by Led Zeppelin, Pearl Jam, etc. instead of the same hit singles over and over for decades? How can that be what listeners want? People who work in retail environments with a repeated playlist usually say they hate it for obvious reasons.

It’s as if those TV stations that show The Office and Seinfeld every night showed the same five episodes every week.

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

#69

Post by lostlogin »

antisthenes wrote: post #40
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.

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 :)

If you really want a reaction here, announce that you use your phone speaker or a Bluetooth one out in public.

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

#70

Post by sefrost »

kazinator wrote: post #27

In my neck of the woods, Vancouver, Canada, nothing happened to radio. It was shit in the 1980s and it's the same today. Wait! Except for one major improvement. There is a station CJNY ("The Journey") at 106.3 FM, which is run by Indigenous people: https://www.cjnyfm.ca/about/

> In my neck of the woods, Vancouver, Canada, nothing happened to radio.

The last sports radio station in Vancouver literally closed this month!

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