Who still listens to the car radio, as in broadcast music?

[bnw]

I still do. Have a CD player and cassette tape player on the car stereo but never use them. No USB though which pisses off the kids so they can't blare their music through the speakers. I like not knowing what will play next and with four stations to choose there is usually something tolerable playing.

 

[RhodyRams]

I only listen to independent radio stations..can't stand the fact that iheartradio, Cumulus , and all the other media conglomerates are taking over local stations

 

[bnw]

I only listen to independent radio stations..can't stand the fact that iheartradio, Cumulus , and all the other media conglomerates are taking over local stations

I know what you mean. I grew up listening to talk radio and the genre was at its zenith in the mid to late '90s until Slick Willie changed the FCC rules to allow cross media acquisition and monopolization of local media markets. Within a few years all the local independent talk stations were bought out by the big boys and either simulcast or shuttered. Only access to such radio is via internet now and that sucks. Those stations were vital participants within local communities be it commercially, politically and through public service. Local airwaves now are nothing more than a plantation or a company store. It has been a great loss.

 

[Selassie I]

We have one of the World's best talk radio stations here in Orlando. FM station with all local hosts. The afternoon drive host has been #1 in our market for over 30 years straight... the morning hosts have been #1 for over 20 years. This station also has a killer Sunday morning program that plays OLD SCHOOL Country from 9am till noon.

If I'm not listening to those programs, I'm listening to one of our 2 Sports Talk radio stations. We have a local station and an ESPN station.

During the ridiculously long commercial breaks... I listen to music on XM.

That's my Monday - Friday commute listening schedule.

At home it's usually Pandora. All music.

When I'm out in the boat it's either XM or music from one of our devices. My head unit doesn't require a USB or Aux cord... it connects wirelessly to any device. Not my favorite feature when I have our boys with us. Their taste in music is a little different than ours at times LOL.

 

[dieterbrock]

I just don't have a passion for music any more. I listen to sports talk radio, 2 FM stations (1 Out of Philly and 1 National) and 1 FM station (NY based)
I had to drive to Lancaster PA yesterday and halfway there I lost reception on the 3 stations so I spent the last 45 minutes in dead silence

 

[Prime Time]

Have a CD player and cassette tape player on the car stereo but never use them.

Same here. I still have cassettes I recorded from the 70's and 80's that work fine. That's usually what I listen to.

During the ridiculously long commercial breaks

Every 5 minutes or so there are 5 to 6 minutes of commercials on AM radio. No thanks! ESPN is a wasteland especially since I have zero interest in baseball or basketball. The wife has satellite radio in her car and swears by it.

I just don't have a passion for music any more.

That's sad but understandable. The music industry went down the toilet around the late 80's. Thanks MTV.

 

[dieterbrock]

Same here. I still have cassettes I recorded from the 70's and 80's that work fine. That's usually what I listen to.



Every 5 minutes or so there are 5 to 6 minutes of commercials on AM radio. No thanks! ESPN is a wasteland especially since I have zero interest in baseball or basketball. The wife has satellite radio in her car and swears by it.



That's sad but understandable. The music industry went down the toilet around the late 80's. Thanks MTV.

Mobile phones are more of a culprit for me. The car ride to work used to be a decompress time. Now forget it. Being in sales I cant afford to miss a phone call/text message/email. Only time I wont be on phone in car is if I have one of my kids with me. And even then I've had to take "emergency" calls from time to time.
The world has changed so much in the last 20 years, its truly amazing

 

[Prime Time]

Mobile phones are more of a culprit for me. The car ride to work used to be a decompress time. Now forget it. Being in sales I cant afford to miss a phone call/text message/email. Only time I wont be on phone in car is if I have one of my kids with me. And even then I've had to take "emergency" calls from time to time.
The world has changed so much in the last 20 years, its truly amazing

Don't have one. I don't want to be connected all the time. The landline phone is bad enough. Just now I was trying to eat my lunch and got two phone calls in a row.

I understand that cell phones have their advantages but it seems that people have gotten phobic about always being able to be in contact. Even when I'm out walking my dog I see people walking or riding a bicycle while yakking on their phones. The whole world did just fine for centuries without them.

 

[dieterbrock]

The whole world did just fine for centuries without them.

And internet....
Some things we just cant live without

 

[bnw]

And internet....
Some things we just cant live without

I've discovered if there is enough lobster around I can get by fine without the internet.

 

[Mackeyser]

I've been saved from iheartradio by NPR. Shows like The1A, Marketplace (the NPR business program), The Takeaway, BBC Newshour (that's maybe my favorite), Fresh Air, On Point and All Things Considered. And, honestly, the show "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" is hysterical.

When I want music, I just use a bit of my cell data to stream Pandora.

Tampa radio sucks.

I won't pay for XM anymore because a) they have commercials now when the whole point of satellite radio as it was sold to consumers initially was to NOT have commercials and b) rather than partake of special pricing, the ONLY way to get the NFLNetwork on XM is to pay the full whack of $20 a month. I could pay $30 for 6 months or an extra $15/mo... JUST for the NFLNetwork. Don't think so... and ESPN on XM was just...awful.

 

[LumberTubs]

I haven't listened to music radio in the UK for years (since Mark and Lard left Radio 1 for the ROD members from Britain - those two were hilarious).

I'm 35 but my taste in music is over 60 so I'm not missing anything. If I happen to catch some modern music, it all sounds the same to me and don't get me started on RnB - holy crap that stuff is awful and is especially guilty of churning out the same old crap over and over.

Although its old, my taste in music is also varied. I can go from listening to Metallica one minute and then John Prine the next (he's a genius).

 

[Dodgersrf]

I listen to mostly sports talk radio. I spend a lot of time in my truck at work.
Usually hit XM country (NOT Bro-country) and Rock stations, if they go on too long talking about the NBA

 

[bnw]

I listen to mostly sports talk radio. I spend a lot of time in my truck at work.
Usually hit XM country and Rock stations, if they go on too long talking about the NBA

I can't stand listening to anything dealing with Mutantball.

 

[Dodgersrf]

I can't stand listening to anything dealing with Mutantball.

It's a shit sport. Everyone goes to the playoffs, so the regular season is a bunch of kids playing just enough to not get hurt.
The days of Magic and Byrd kicking there teammates asses if not playing hard are long gone.

 

[bnw]

It's a crap sport. Everyone goes to the playoffs, so the regular season is a bunch of kids playing just enough to not get hurt.
The days of Magic and Byrd kicking there teammates asses if not playing hard are long gone.

The baskets have NEVER been raised since the game was invented in 1891. Obviously players are much taller now. A 10 feet tall moron would be the highest scoring player ever. Hence Mutantball.

 

[RamFan503]

I still listen to it if I'm on a long trip. I just keep hitting the seek button until I find something I like. I used to listen to a lot of talk radio but it is all a bunch of angry old men and women these days. Screw that.

 

[threesox84]

I still do. Have a CD player and cassette tape player on the car stereo but never use them. No USB though which pisses off the kids so they can't blare their music through the speakers. I like not knowing what will play next and with four stations to choose there is usually something tolerable playing.

Only sports talk radio for me in the car. I'm an audio engineer so I'm an absolute unabashed sound snob and I hate how music sounds on my cheap car stereo. Would rather just not listen at all!

 

[BatteringRambo]

[/QUOTE] That's sad but understandable. The music industry went down the toilet around the late 80's. Thanks MTV.[/QUOTE]

@Prime Time , geezus my phone kept typing (@) Pringles. Peter, off my distant memory,@X's bro.. If I may... Please (if you have time and feel so inclined listen to, in no particular order)... Mad Season , Wolfmother, Tool, Temple of the Dog, Filter, Queens of the Stone Age, Army of Anyone, Highly Suspect, Baroness, Clutch, Chevelle (esp last album) and especially Days of the New!!!!! I could go on and on, man. I'm just a rocker, love finding and absorbing new bands not excluding all the vintage Classic Rock. And at 36 I still spend hours finding more albums and band but some favs;, Paul Kossoff solo 38 minutes Time Away (full jam), Zeppelin -Dazed and Confused 28 mins off Song Remains The Same), Mr. Ingle's Iron Butterfly - In -A-Gadda-Da-Vida 17 mins version ,The Outlaws- Green Grass and High Tide 23 mins, and so on forever) and off the map bands of that era. Pura Vida, Amigo. -BatteringRambo.

@Alan always posted some great shit in the music of the day thread, too. Props.

 

[threesox84]

Same here. I still have cassettes I recorded from the 70's and 80's that work fine. That's usually what I listen to.

That's hilarious, so do I! I wasn't around in the '70s and I was just a pup in the '80s so many of my cassettes are older than I am and still work beautifully. Meanwhile most of the CDs I bought during the post-cassette/pre-mp3 late '90s are long since dead.

That's sad but understandable. The music industry went down the toilet around the late 80's. Thanks MTV.

It wasn't MTV's fault, it was the sunset strip and greedy club owners who started making young bands pay to play in the mid '80s. Soon that pay-to-play shit (google it) became the norm across the country.

So the bars and clubs that used to serve as breeding grounds for underground movements (which is where a lot of the great bands came from) became hostile to those same young people. Meanwhile, radio stations were rapidly conglomerating and losing their local presences.

So new bands and young artists had to find a viable new way to reach people but they didn't have one. Thankfully the internet has recently started to become that outlet -- but for a long while there wasn't really any replacement for the clubs -- so the bands and movements died off, which created a massive void in young, compelling talent.

During the lull between viable clubs/local radio and social media (say circa early/mid '90s through the aughts) A&R guys had no one new and no material to scout and so they died off, too. Since then record companies have been trying to generate their own "products" from scratch rather than actually discovering someone that had genuinely and organically found their voice.

I'm hopeful that ubiquitous internet access and social media will provide an adequate replacement for what the clubs used to be and we'll see more and more talented "internet artists" getting a shot with big labels that have muscle behind them.

Just my 2¢ as to why modern radio suuuuuuuuuuuuuucks.