5 ms·
The death of radio is a damn shame.
by 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
The death of radio is a damn shame.
- queuebert 2y agoOn the upside, we'll be slightly safer from alien invasion when we stop blasting RF into the void.
- jl6 2y agoOr maybe the RF leak is what will get noticed as a distress signal so that benevolent aliens can come and rescue us from our pitiful worchless, zitless existence.
- Workaccount2 2y agoI turned on the radio for kicks a few weeks ago, just to see what it was like nowadays. Ads. It's all ads. Like 10 minute blocks of ads interleaved with radio hosts reading promo weather and promo traffic, followed by ads, then maybe a song. Then more ads.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y agoDid you need an account to tune in? I haven't listened to the radio in years because they closed down my stations! WBRU and WBCN!
- galleywest200 2y agoCheck out a listener-powered station such as KEXP at 90.3 (Seattle) or 92.7 (SF/Oakland). If you live outside of these regions they stream at KEXP.org or on their mobile app. You can also listen to the last two weeks of shows at https://www.kexp.org/archive/ https://www.kexp.org/archive/.
- nicksergeant 2y agoYep, still going strong here in Rochester, NY as well with WBER: https://wber.org https://wber.org
- freddie_mercury 2y agoI've listened to plenty of listener powered stations. They don't have ads. Just weeks of effectively ads when they are begging for donations. I'd rather have an ad. Plus every listener powered station I've ever listened to has tons of shows I don't care about or even tolerate. Streaming doesn't have the same issue. Just as an example: your KEXP appears to play country, jazz, and electronic, reggae, and metal. I think a lot of people aren't going to be interested in all of those options.
- dingnuts 2y agoI listen to KUTX and KEXP and appreciate that there are shows hosted by different DJs that play different genres at different times of the day, and week. On Friday afternoons KUTX has had a old school dance show. I don't really listen to funk or disco but I always enjoyed the energy of that show on Fridays, and have come to associate it with the weekend and get excited when it's on I'm not interested in everything KUTX plays, but I'm way more interested in the variety they offer and the chance to discover new artists like Adrian Quesada, JUNGLE, or Khruangbin, who I otherwise never would have discovered, than I am in whatever twenty year old mainstream dreck is on iHeartRadio's single-genre no DJ shuffle broadcast
- ruraljuror 2y ago> I don't really listen to funk or disco but I always enjoyed the energy of that show on Fridays, and have come to associate it with the weekend and get excited when it's on I had the same experience when I regularly listened to wfmu. The human connection is a really wonderful quality of broadcast radio.
- UncleOxidant 2y agoDid not know that KEXP had an Oakland repeater. It would be nice if we could get one in the Portland area.
- euroderf 2y agoIn the same vein, listener-supported WFMU.
- reilly3000 2y agoWhile I’m a long time fan of KEXP and KCRW, I just can’t say enough good things about KYRS. It’s a local broadcaster with dozens of eclectic shows by volunteer DJs who lovingly curate music and content. It’s broadcast out of our central library downtown and has a rather unreliable radio tower that had a tendency to go down during big storms. The programming is brimming with enthusiasm and positive energy, and has helped me discover music that simple wouldn’t get played anywhere else. I love how human the DJs are, they sometimes ramble, or miscue a track, maybe wander a bit far from the mic. It feels completely organic and in stark contrast with your average media in 2024. Check out their stream on https://kyrs.org https://kyrs.org
- sehugg 2y agoAlso WWOZ (https://wwoz.org/ https://wwoz.org/) from New Orleans.
- corranh 2y agoAlso Seattle interestingly, C89.5 has a great live stream. No commercials, owned by Seattle Public Schools, and partially run by high school students.
- JKCalhoun 2y agoI think there's a secret pirate in me that wonders if the time is right....
- 0_____0 2y agoIn Boston the college radio stations are a lovely and weird respite from the Cumulus and Iheart scourge. Weirdly enough Canada seems to have better and less grating radio, anecdotal from my experience in BC.
- pclmulqdq 2y agoASCAP/BMI charge radio stations a lot for a license to play music. Spotify's licensing costs are pennies for the same reach as a local radio station. It's no surprise that the expensive distribution channel is packed with ads.
- soygem 2y agoAmen. I also hate ads so much it's unreal.
- tumnus 2y agoKCRW out of Santa Monica is an extremely good station. But,like most, probably the exception that proves the rule.
- omoikane 2y agoMaybe it depends on the station? Classical California (KDFC) has few ads. Also, since classical music are relatively long, you get fewer interruptions between songs.
- lostlogin 2y ago> Ads. It’s all ads. Sounds like the internet. And TV.
- shiroiushi 2y ago>Sounds like the internet. Not when you have an ad-blocker.
- kleiba 2y agoHaving lived abroad for some years, I can attest that this is definitely worse in the US than elsewhere. There's definitely ads (less host-read promos, maybe), but it does not seem so overwhelming. I noticed the difference quite drastically once I moved back.
- varelse 2y ago[dead]
- bena 2y agoIt may be, but to be fair, I either stream music via Pandora or listen to Podcasts. Sometimes, I'll play specific music I have on my phone. Basically, my phone has replaced every function the car stereo had. And for long trips, streaming beats terrestrial radio. After an hour or two, you'll have to search for new stations as you leave the range or the previous tower. Then you'd better hope there would be a station you could tolerate in some places. Podcasts are superior to talk radio. As they're curated by you. Etc, etc. The major thing we've lost is the specific curation done by some stations. Top 40 radio is what it is, but some stations existed to play things outside the charts.
- DaveExeter 2y agoHow so? Ok, sometimes it's nice to begin the day with a friendly voice. Like a companion, unobtrusive. But you can get that from podcasts.
- fredsmith219 2y agoThe song needs to be updated to reflect our current reality.
- pjmorris 2y agoIt's not over yet; I just bought my college radio station's (WKNC) t-shirt.
- Matticus_Rex 2y agoWKNC represent! I DJed there in undergrad from 2007-2010. Great station.
- Eumenes 2y agoThere's NPR (not my thing) and some AM stations with interesting local talk shows. I still listen to baseball games on AM radio.
- tptacek 2y agoCounterpoint: radio, even independent/college rock radio in the heyday of independent/college rock, sucked ass compared to what we have now.
- dylan604 2y agoCounterpoint: no it didn't. Independent/college radio was full of music (even if you didn't care for it) that was curated by people that gave a damn. They are/were better than whatever your algo thinks it can do.
- tptacek 2y agoI have significantly more and better sources of human curation now than I did when I was listening to college radio.
- dmonitor 2y agoSelf-curated or do you have a good source for human-made playlists?
- tptacek 2y agoI feel like basically all I listen to is human-made playlists and recommendations from humans? RYM might be a good place for you to start, but you can also just do the obvious thing of starting from a couple playlists you like and finding other playlists by the same people. Eventually you'll find people who seemingly do this full-time. Really weird for me to see people talking about how bad "the algo" is. Do people just open up Apple Music or Spotify and tell it "find stuff for me to play"? I know that's a thing it will do, but it never occurred to me that I'd actually want it to do that.
- ziddoap 2y ago>Do people just open up Apple Music or Spotify and tell it "find stuff for me to play"? I know that's a thing it will do, but it never occurred to me that I'd actually want it to do that. I do this with Apple Music. And, to be honest, "the algo" has been really good. The "create a station" feature has introduced me to a few dozen artists at least.
- latentcall 2y agoIt’s not dead. Lots of good stations around. I recommend KYGT-LP out of Clear Creek Colorado. Lots of good stations also broadcast online it’s amazing.
- criddell 2y agoI think so too but I'm conflicted. I wouldn't want to give up my infinite jukebox that I have on my phone, but at the same time I think the loss of shared culture is real. American Graffiti is the movie that first made me think about it. The DJ (Wolfman Jack) is a central character in that movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ9Gp6Qc8LQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ9Gp6Qc8LQ
- snakeyjake 2y agoNo FM radio station outside of a college campus has ever succeeded without ads and any form of media that I cannot pay for and receive ad-free is trash to me. And as far as college radio goes, I'm don't need a new pothead to tell me how revolutionary Kind of Blue is every time the old one graduates. Even public radio has ads. They use a fancy word instead of "ads" though back when I dumped any form of media from which I could not banish ads Archer Daniels Midland was one of public radio's largest sponsors... for... reasons.
- seszett 2y ago> No FM radio station outside of a college campus has ever succeeded without ads and any form of media that I cannot pay for and receive ad-free is trash to me. Quite a few public radio stations in Europe don't have ads. They're paid by taxes and you receive them ad-free.
- numbsafari 2y agoIn the US there is a requirement to make “public service announcements” every so often. Most of them are pre-written in a book by the board and you just read them. I found one about the nutritional benefits of pork rinds and another about the versatility and utility of duct tape and just read those. Many of them were clearly commercial in nature. I forget if we were allowed to make our own.
- amanaplanacanal 2y agoI recently discovered an independent station in my town that has no ads, and real local DJs that play whatever the hell they feel like. I assume it's run as a labor of love. The music is refreshingly diverse. Deep cuts, artists I've never heard of, and popular songs from long ago that don't easily fit into a genre like "classic rock."
- throaway250 2y ago"And as far as college radio goes, I'm don't need a new pothead to tell me how revolutionary Kind of Blue is every time the old one graduates." lol. yes. I am a dj on college radio and i hear & see this all the time. It's mildly amusing, but it also makes me the "wierd critical guy," because I have a deeper knowledge of music than them. But you might be missing the fact that college radio isn't all college students. It's just public radio.