Ask Lemmy

I have found almost all radio status near me play a mix of 12 songs and ads. Tuning in to any station was likely to result in ads and not music.

My radio is tuned to static so I can get into my car without being forced into hearing an ad while my Bluetooth connects and I can start playing a book.

I listen to BBC Radio because it's still excellent. BBC Radio 6 is my go-to daily station which specialises in new music and has DJs who are passionate and have a lot of freedom, but the station also follows John Peel's A-B-C format which keeps things nice and grounded. Also, BBC Radio 3 for jazz and classical (unlike Classic FM, which only plays movie soundtracks) and BBC Radio 3 Chill which is self-explanatory.

ABC's Triple-J deserves an honourable mention. Student radio can be good as well.

The local commercial stations are all homogeneous slurry, lowest common denominator saccharin slop where every shred of character and local identity has been eradicated. I grew up listening to Rock FM (Lancashire) and Trent FM (Nottingham), both were cheesy but authentic local pop stations that have been thoroughly Borged into ultra-branded and means tested chaff.

I still listen to FM radio and, if you'll please pardon me tooting my own horn, I also help make some of it as part of a long-running weekly talk show. (I've been off the air for the past couple weeks, but I'm back next week.)

I was a listener to the station and the program for a long time before I joined up. I still listen to radio often, and the medium continues to mean a great deal to me.

Just whichever NPR affiliate comes in clearest on a drive.

I stream my local college radio station while I work. There's charm in hearing the student DJs kind of stumble through everything as they play a wide assortment of music.

In my car, yes.

nope. Even when i drive, I listen to music on my phone. Haven't listened to the radio in....... over a decade.

I listen to NPR everyday. I listen to college radio stations where young people awkwardly talk about young people topics and the music they play stretches my tastes. Radio is human and alive. Where ever you are, acquire a radio and scan with your little fingers and listen with your ears.

No.

I was an NPR supporter for years but now I find them to be more in line with being a voice for corporate Democrats and the status-quo.

The rest of the radio is a wash.

I’ve lived in Japan for 30 years but listen to an Australian radio station every day while working. It keeps me loosely connected with the motherland. Mostly music, competitions, gossip and generally useless information, very little news or current affairs.

I can’t concentrate while listening to albums or playlists of music I select, but somehow radio just becomes comfortable background noise .. if that makes any sense.

I drive a truck for work; the radio is absolutely a lifeline for me. Usually just local weather/traffic updates for whatever city I'm passing through, maybe the news if I stumble upon an NPR station in time for All Things Considered. I stick to my music/audiobooks all other times though.

Unless I'm passing through home. Listening to my hometown stations helps me get out of "work mode" at the end of my rotation.

No.

My personal rule is that I do not consume any media where I have to see or hear adverts.

When I'm in someone else's car that's an exception and they can listen to whatever they want, it's their car. But if I'm driving? Absolutely not.

Hell yes I do. There's a great local rock station here.

Where I live (The North of Scotland), there's really only about 6 FM radio stations. I tend to stick to the BBC, and alternate between Radio 4 (mostly grown up, politics/current affairs and some plays/comedy), Radio Scotland (regional news and 'Get it On', a music request show with a daily theme), Radio 2 (lightweight entertainment and phone-ins aimed at a middle age demographic) and that's pretty much it. I also listen to Radio X on my Alexa, but it's basically a 90s indie playlist with adverts, so not sure that counts.

There's one radio station near me that's halfway decent to listen to every now and again but the host that's normally on when I'm driving just plays the same 5-7 songs on loop most days.

Also the adverts are insane, they'll maybe get through 2 songs before going to 10 mins of ads then come back for one song and go into some radio competition before going back to ads again.

i use internet radio all the time

I do, public service radio every day, all day.

Yes, we have community radio here, and I listen & also contribute a little $ each month.

ETA: there used to be one good commercial station too, alternative rock, but they got bought out by a bigger conglomerate and now are a Spanish station, and unfortunately not a Spanish alternative station, that would be awesome but no, just a pop station, a clone of the others we already had!

Nope. Never. It's like 20% music, 10% talking, and 70% bullshit advertisements. They lost me 20 years ago when I got satellite radio. Now I just connect my phone to my vehicle for my entertainment.

I've got a good college radio station in the area. They don't just play the same songs on repeat but play a good mix of alternative rock. Awkward student DJs and minimal ads.

If I am in the car and its a long drive, I usually play music off my phone. But if its a shorter drive or I'm not feeling the music, its my local NPR station, always.

Really enjoy WXRV 95.9 The River Boston. You can stream from a number of sources.

I love listening to CBC (the Canadian NPR). It makes me feel more connected to my community, keeping up to date with local news I would not otherwise have known.

Also university and coop radio stations are great for discovering new music.

Where I live there is exactly one good radio station and I listen to it every day.

My car radio is tuned to the 80s/90s station. When I start my car if a song is playing, I'll listen. If an ad comes on, I'll mute it, and usually forget to unmute it again. Sometimes I hear two or three songs in a row before an ad. Sometimes I remember to unmute it, and maybe hear another song.

I could make an effort to have music in the car, but I don't care that much about it. I'm okay with silence.

Yes, I switch between a few OTA stations. Usually just on as background noise. There's a couple of NPR programs that I sometimes try to listen to.

Rarely. And I'm a ham.

Internet radio, all the time. It often just streams in the background on a Yamaha internet connected speaker.

Yeah, every day. BBC 6 music is where it's at.

No, but my dog does. I put the radio on when I'm not home because the background noise helps her keep calm.

In the car. They don't steal my information. There are no pop-ups. There is no subscription. Yes, I have to listen to ads, but I they have to pay their workers somehow. Often its public radio which has no ads and some good programs.

Yes! But usually only when I’m driving. It’s either NPR or a local alternative station out of TJ. The local station is one of the only places I have heard Social Distortion, MxPx, Green Day, and some new rock band. It’s pretty fucking great.

I have started carrying cds in my car again, too. I’ve found quite a few great albums for $1-3 at thrift stores (great for Blu-rays too) or ripping CDs I borrow from the library. I also have a small mp3 player loaded with a bunch of music I’ve ripped or downloaded.

And I have AppleMusic for anything else.

Every day. The morning show wakes us up, there is radio in the car, and in my hobby room, while there is neither cellular nor wifi access, the radio still works.

Yes, in the car. But I immediately change frequency when it comes to ads or start to talk too much about useless stuff (for example for some reason at 9am most channels need to waste 15 minutes of people's lives by reading gpt-generated horoscopes)

It's a way to listen to something different all the time, otherwise if I choose Spotify it always the same stuff

Although some radios are like 50 tracks on loop with pre-recorded talk segments pretending to be live.

AM news radio every morning.

Very often yes, but I wouldn't ever again if the only channel I listen to went under.

CKUA, it's donor sponsored. The variety of programming is why it's not just the excellent variety of music played but the spoken word, poetry, interviews, The Road Home segment, and more.

The rest here is top 50 slop FM or cuckservative AM indoctrination for farmers.

Occasionally I use Shortwave on Linux while I do house chores for web radio. Again, similar idea but foreign donor sponsored channels from other countries besides Canada. CKUA is also in their channel list.

There's 1 listener supported classical station and 1 listener supported news station, the rest are garbage constant ads or worse

My phone Bluetooth is off by default so if I'm just going for a short drive I will listen to my local station. The music selection is generally decent and I don't mind the chatter. I'll also switch over for traffic reports if I'm stuck. I'm sure they're just looking at google maps but it saves me having to do it.

The local community college has(d?) a good rock station with no ads but I am just out of range of their transmitter since we moved so I have not been able to listen for the last couple years.

In the US, the HD stations also don't play as many or any ads, I don't know how they are funded but its pretty cool. Mostly deep cuts or out of vogue genres. There are a couple of cool local jazz, blues, oldies or others.

Occasionally I'll put on the radio either in the car or at home, but it's not very common these days.
My boyfriend listens to the radio in the car and he regularly finds new music that way.

Only in the work truck... unfortunately