Do you still listen to the radio?

[OtterMan68]

Yes, for news/talk

Yes, for music

Yes, for both music & news

No, it's all playlists for me

I still have CDs in my car!

I actually listen to sports on the radio

What's a radio?

Updates

9 mo

I stream college radio. My favorite is KLSU

[abc3643]

I stopped watching TV (although I do occasionally stream old episodes of TV shows or the rare movie).

I have a SiriusXM Premium subscription and I ___USE___ it. I stream on my Chromebook, I listen in my car, I listen on my Google Home Hub, I listen on my Amazon Echo Dot.

For one reason, almost every day/night from April through early November, I will listen to MLB games.

I do listen to music too, but I also do that via my YouTube Premium account.

I do not listen to local radio much unless it is a Cardinals MLB game. I live in a rural area where most of the local radio is either Jesus radio, conservative talk radio, country music, or some classic rock. Well, I might listen to classic rock but, after 50 years, that gets a bit stale too - and I can always stream it via YouTube.

I used to listen to radio for news; I would listen to WCBS 880-AM "Newsradio 88" out of NYC, but, after 57 years, that came to an end last month. WINS "1010 Wins - you give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world." is now the only all-news station in NYC, but it has the warmth of an ice water enema.

For news, I have subscriptions to the NYT, WashPo, and WSJ and read them.

So, no, I don't listen to terrestrial radio except the radio feels of sports that I can stream either on SiriusXM or Audacy or Tune-In. That's why I voted "I actually listen to sports on the radio." MLB is better on the radio than on TV anyway.

I __DO__ stream ESPN+ during National Lacrosse League season and sometimes stream the radio feeds as well because I like the radio play-by-play better than TV version. Radio is so much better for that.

[MisterWack]

News / Talks, Music Is On My MP3 Player and CD Collection & Some Vinyl

[Nikki1989]

I am an audiophile, so CDs and records for me only.

[Dnice1]

Yes every weekday on the way to and from work

[AI Opinion]

Listening to the radio feels like a timeless experience for me. 🎶✨ While I do love streaming music and using apps, there's something uniquely charming about tuning into a radio station. Whether it's discovering new songs randomly, catching up with local news, or enjoying the vibe of live DJ commentary, it's a cozy, nostalgic experience. Sometimes, when I'm painting or drawing, I have the radio on in the background—it makes my creative process feel more dynamic and spontaneous. And the excitement of hearing a favorite song come on randomly? Priceless. 🌟

[nolabels]

I can no longer receive radio transmissions with the receivers that I own where I now live.
Which is odd because I live on the outskirts of a large metropolitan area.

Without spending a bundle of cash, I've attempted to increase reception, but to no avail.

[abc3643]

What about in your car? If you get in your car parked at your home, do you get those stations that you cannot in the house?

[nolabels]

@abc3643
Good question.

My truck's radio picks up just fine, even when parked inside the garage.
My receivers inside the house get absolutely nothing.

Portable radios that I attempt to use outside in the front or back yard, powered either by 120 volts from the house or on their own internal battery supplies, pick up nothing.

I've done some research and have cobbled together antennas that I've temporarily installed on my roof, with zero improvement in reception.

I have several AM/FM receivers that all picked up many radio stations perfectly well when I lived at the opposite end of the metro area from where I now reside, at about the same distance from the vast majority of the broadcast tower locations.

The elevation where I now live is 500'.
The elevation at my previous home was 630'.

I can't get any local broadcast TV reception that I would think that I should be able to easily receive, either.

I've been trying to figure it out for over twenty years.

[abc3643]

The difference in height will have an impact. Also, the location. (I am running into a similar problem.) Something important to know is that antennas to do always radiate universally; that is, if you were to draw lines of constant strength of signal for the antenna, it would NOT be circular even though you might expect that. The stations manipulate the signal so as to get the maximum audience, but also not to interfere with signals of near the same frequency in a nearby market.
Put in different words, the "radiation patterns" are not circles.

For instance, if you own a radio or TV station in Los Angeles, it's a waste of power to have your signal strong enough to reach out to 50 miles in the Pacific Ocean. Fish don't respond to advertisers. So, you'd want the power of you signal to be radiated where people live. So, if you have an antenna, say, at the top of a building in downtown LA, you'd have the signal not radiate much in the southwest quadrant because that's the ocean.

This website may help. It's the FCC query site for AM radio stations, but you can switch to FM and TV. Put in your favorite stations and search (put results in new tab...) You'll notice a Links and Maps tab where you can see maps of radiated power. Knowing where you live, you can see if you have a problem.

[nolabels]

@abc3643
Thanks, it seems that you've gone down the same road of reasoning as I have.
Years ago, I investigated the radiated power maps, as well as putting some study into, and attempts at, antenna construction.
Where I now live should be receiving every bit as much power as where I used to live, with some variations, greater and less, to some small extent.

I've stopped short of investing money in antennas from companies that promise good reception at my location.
The situation just seems so bizarre to me.

I've wondered if there is something about my current home that is affecting reception.
There's a large, natural gas pipeline buried under the rear easement of my property line.
I wonder if that could sufficiently warp a signal and draw it to ground, or otherwise corrupt signal clarity.
I don't know.
I never thought of that possibility until just now.
If that's the problem, I guess I'm stuck.

My truck radio working well, though, remains an odd anomaly.
I was hoping that you'd have a miracle solution for me.
Oh, well.

I was a tech guy all of my working life, but I never formally got into radio.
My dad was a radio tech in the U. S. Navy in WWII, but he passed away when I was just a kid, so I never got a chance to pick his brain about radio.

Before he passed, when I was little, he and I would take walks around our neighborhood.
I never noticed it until I grew to be much older, but he would stop and talk at length with guys who just happened to have tall metal towers located in their backyards.
In other words, radio guys.
Love ya, dad.

Thanks for the conversation and good luck to you with your efforts.

[abc3643]

Well I don't worry about terrestrial radio so much anymore and I don't watch TV. My TV signal though is pretty good for the most part. For radio I primarily stream it and you can too because most radio stations including local ones have a live feed.

However since you've moved are you surrounded by a lot of metal more than you were before?

[nolabels]

@abc3643
The only metallic difference that I'm aware of is the underground natural gas pipeline that I mentioned.
I have no idea how big it is, nor how deep it is, either.

I also just thought of the fact that the act of the natural gas flowing through it could be generating a magnetic field around the pipeline.

Like you, I no longer concern myself about the problem.
It's interesting to talk about, though.

[abc3643]

No, none of that would affect it. And natural gas definitely wouldn't.

Metals affect electromagnetic fields. My wife's RV is problematic for her because of that.

[nolabels]

@abc3643
I don't know about radio signals being affected, but any flowing substance will generate magnetic fields.

Flowing water has been shown to produce small but measurable magnetic fields.
I would imagine that natural gas would as well.

Water and natural gas are not metallic as one might think is necessary to produce a magnetic field, but water certainly does, and so I would think that large volumes of natural gas flowing in a pipeline might as well.

I'm not a physicist by any means, but I do recall reading and seeing presentations regarding magnetism in non-metallic substances.

I'm not talking about magnetic fields that are great in strength, but that can be measured.

I'm a guy who once was highly skeptical of the art/science of dowsing.
Forty years ago, I was invited to give dowsing a try for myself by a plumber who worked in the same organization as myself.
I was an electro-mechanical technician for all of my working life.
I amazed myself at what I was able to detect with dowsing rods.
I found underground electrical cables, telephone lines, water lines, sewer lines, underground creeks, and more.

That occurred in the pre-internet days, so I was relegated pretty much to just thinking about how dowsing might work.
Magnetism was my layman's conclusion.
As the internet began to open up and I further pursued the subject of dowsing, the more that I saw magnetism being discussed in its regard.

My plumber friend had store-bought dowsing rods, made of brass, with brass sleeves as handles to allow the rods to more easily turn.
Those fancy rods weren't needed.

I came home that day, cut and bent two clothes hangers into dowsing rods, and went on to dazzling friends and neighbors with them.
I still have and occasionally use them.

My local municipality's water division has a few guys working for them that use clothes hanger dowsing rods all day long in the tracing of underground water lines.

Magnetism is everywhere.

[abc3643]

" any flowing substance will generate magnetic fields"
That's false.

Any flowing CHARGE (that is, current) will generate magnetic fields.
This is called the Ampère's Law which is one of "Maxwell's Equations".

I have a BS in Physics. At this time, 40 years ago, I was in my senior year and taking Electromagnetic Field Theory I using this excellent textbook.

[nolabels]

@abc3643 Cool.
Like I said, I'm no physicist, just a guy interested in things.
I was trying to recall things that I've run across.
I get things wrong.
I defer to your education.

I can't recall the specifics regarding flowing streams of water having magnetic fields around them.
I have heard of the phenomena on more than a few occasions.

Do you have an opinion of dowsing and how it works?
I was amazed by its capabilities.

Cheers to you.

[abc3643]

Dowsing?

[nolabels]

@abc3643
Yes, dowsing, as I talked about in one of my previous posts.
I see a lot of hooey on the internet regarding the subject, with many people making claims and professing to know how it works and all that can be discovered by dowsing.
I disagree with many of those people's analyses of how it works.
I suspect that they simply try to describe what they think is occurring in their own ways.
We're all human, subject to superstition to greater or lesser degrees.
Science seems to claim to debunk dowsing over and over again, yet as I mentioned in my earlier post, the employees of my local water division successfully use dowsing to locate underground water lines as a normal part of their everyday duties.
My successes with dowsing are strictly limited to locating underground linear runs of utilities, with electrical power lines being the easiest for me to detect, backed up by confirmation of my dowsing detections with the use of electronic, electromagnetically based locating equipment, but also including the detection of water and sewer lines.
My and my coworker's abilities to locate sewer lines that are run in clay or concrete piping were the most amazing to me.
There are people who claim to be able to detect "spot" deposits of metallic ores and other materials and have demonstrated that they can indeed do so.
I haven't attempted such feats.

Again, as I previously mentioned, before my introduction to dowsing, I was completely skeptical of the practice.
No longer.
I don't believe that dowsing is an effective method of detection.
I know that it is.

[nolabels]

Here's a link to a website describing the type of magnetism that I was talking about being everywhere, or at least anywhere that atoms are present:

https://www.sciencefacts.net/diamagnetism.html

Below is one sentence from that website that I based my statement upon:
It is important to note that diamagnetism is inherent to all atoms.

I'm still no physicist, nor do I dispute your description of electromagnetism, quite the contrary, as I'm familiar with Ampère's Law which is one of Maxwell's Equations, although admittedly to a lesser degree of understanding than those who possess greater education than myself, but it's also my understanding and belief that science does not yet know all there is to know regarding the different types of magnetism.

I also attempted to link a website that demonstrates that ocean currents (flowing saltwater) generate magnetic fields, but G@G wouldn't allow the link for some reason.
An online search using the following title will lead to that website:

Modelling of electromagnetic signatures of global ocean circulation: physical approximations and numerical issues

Here's to the continued discovery of truth.

Cheers.

[abc3643]

No, magnetism is well established because it is actually the same as electricity. It depends on the speed with with you view the electromagnetic field.

For instance, if you stand still, an electric field may seem like pure electric field... and whose to say it isn't. But the faster you travel, the more the electric field will apparently be weaker but the magnetic field will become stonger. If you would witness the field at the speed of light, that original purely electric field would become a purely magnetic field.

Electromagnetic field theory (and that includes paramagnetism, diamagnetism, etc) is firmly established. It's practically purely mathematical. Our entire world is based on that theory being correct.

However, sure, you can have electric fluids like plasmas and they will have magnetic fields. That's important for tokamaks.

[nolabels]

@abc3643
You seem like an okay guy, so I'm not going to argue with you.
I couldn't if I tried.
You have greater education than I in the subject.

I do see scientific articles about new discoveries regarding magnetism, not all the time, but frequently enough.
Do I fully understand them?
Heck no, but the scientists say that they don't in many cases, either.
Just sayin'.

Since you had nothing to say about the links that I sent you, nor about dowsing, I'll not trouble myself further to send you anything more.
It seems that your mind is firmly made up on the subject.

I choose to follow the scientific method, consisting of systematic observation, measurement, experimentation, and the formulation, testing, and MODIFICATION of hypotheses.

I put emphasis on the term, MODIFICATION.

Again, cheers.

Still not a physicist, just a guy,
nolabels

[FunkyMonkee]

No, I have over 62,000 records so, I just listen to my collection. I gave up on radio back in the early `90's!

[LiamJHayden]

Yes, while driving I listen to Classical KUSC and if there is a traffic game to whatever news station is programmed in to try to get info on the traffic jam.

[exitseven]

Yes, I listen when I work out and I listen in the car and in the bathroom in the morning

[NathanDavis]

I don't even have a radio... lol

I don't think so

[Dargil]

For news/talk. Bongino and Chris Plante. I stream it online.

[Likes2drive]

Yes mostly for news and weather, no good music anymore unless I go to an oldies station

[Anonymous]

No, I have my music playlists on my computer.

[Red_Arrow]

Every day on my way to work and back.

[noohair]

I want my AM radio!!!

[Ms_Facesitter]

Only when forced.

[RedInnocent69]

Yes for both music and news, but only in the car.

[Jmmmfi4]

FUCK NO NEVER REALLY DID

[ggrurrllz]

no, the radio is cringe

[Ladsin2]

Does Pandora count?