FM radio

[A.J. Bertin]

One of my other interests besides roadgeeking is a love for FM radio - primarily Top 40, Adult Contemporary, Hot Adult Contemporary, Soft AC/Standards, Urban/R&B, and Smooth Jazz stations. When I travel, I love to research in advance the FM stations in those destinations that I think I'll want to listen to - and then I'll enjoy listening to them. I'm obsessed with music and the different playlists that stations have. It's fun when I hear an obscure song on the radio that most stations hardly ever play anymore. I get such a kick out of that. I admit I don't really care about AM radio; FM is what I enjoy. I also have SiriusXM radio in my car for the time being, but I try to stay on top of what the FM stations are playing as well.

There's a radio discussion forum that I actively participate in: http://www.radiodiscussions.com/smf/

Does anyone else share this hobby?

[agentsteel53]

too much talking on FM.  also on satellite, except during the night hours.  then it kicks ass.  all music, no DJs, no commercials.

[Truvelo]

Satellite wins hands down for me - no need to retune every time you drive out of the transmitter's range. Only problem is finding rental cars that have it without having to pay extra.

[1995hoo]

I usually listen to XM except for the local traffic reports. XM has a traffic station, but its usefulness declined big-time when they combined DC with Baltimore and Atlanta and ran the reports "on the 1s" (local station WNEW-FM also airs theirs "on the 1s"), and I was never as confident in their reports as I was in the local FM reports anyway.

One thing I really like about XM is being able to pick up the Nationals and Capitals games on the radio pretty much anywhere in North America except for the distant north. Yeah, sometimes it's the other team's feed, but at least I can hear the game.

[kphoger]

My wife and I have fun thumbing through the FM band, because her mom's music (what she grew up with) fits right in between my dad's music and my sister's music (what I grew up with); more times than not, only one of us will know a song.

[agentsteel53]

hey combined DC with Baltimore and Atlanta

what a seemingly random mix.  why not throw in Seattle and perhaps Shanghai? 

[KEVIN_224]

There's a radio discussion forum that I actively participate in: http://www.radiodiscussions.com/smf/

Does anyone else share this hobby?

Yes! I've been a regular member of that place for at least 6 years or so!

[Takumi]

I listen to FM mostly in the office at work. In my car I either play CDs or hook my phone into the auxiliary port of the stereo and stream Pandora internet radio. (Yes I have unlimited data.)

[Alex]

Been a satellite radio subscriber since 2005, haven't looked back at FM ever since. Too much talking, ads, and song repetition to go along with limited playlists.

hey combined DC with Baltimore and Atlanta

what a seemingly random mix.  why not throw in Seattle and perhaps Shanghai?

The traffic/weather channel merges are bad. It was great when I could listen to just Tampa and not have to listen to Miami as well. FWIW, only Los Angeles and N.Y. retained their sole status.

[A.J. Bertin]

I especially love hearing the jingles on different stations - especially from places away from home. I know most stations are owned by corporate conglomerates, so the individual stations don't often have much say in how they are programmed, but still... I enjoy staying in touch with what the stations are playing.

One of my dream jobs is to be the program director for an FM station. I absolutely love radio. The commercials can be annoying, but I just get a kick out of learning about all sorts of different stations - especially discovering formats like Rhythmic AC, Standards, or Smooth Jazz which are pretty rare anymore.

[1995hoo]

hey combined DC with Baltimore and Atlanta

what a seemingly random mix.  why not throw in Seattle and perhaps Shanghai? 

No kidding.  Adding Baltimore, sure. A lot of people commute between the two, and on a longer-distance trip you'll pass the two within a reasonably short amount of time (unless you hit traffic). But beyond that, if they HAD to add a third, Philadelphia would have made more sense (for the same reason of being somewhat in a logical sequence).

But what had made XM's reports useful was the continuous loop. Didn't matter if you missed the FM reports–XM had one without waiting ten minutes. Not anymore.

I used to find XM reports more useful than FM when I'd travel because they used road numbers instead of local names nobody from outside the area knows. (That also shows a tension in the XM reports–unlike local FM reports, they need to serve more than the commuters.) But what eventually made me lose faith was simply a lot of strange wording and the like that gave me no confidence that the people who wrote the reports knew what they were talking about. (The reporters surely didn't–they were just reading off a screen in Northeast DC.)

[elsmere241]

Now that the sports-talk (and political-talk) stations have migrated here from AM to FM, I find I don't listen to them as often.  Before I'd go "flip-flip-flip" on the FM, then switch over to AM and listen to one or two stations there before going back to FM.  Since the talk stations are on FM now, they have two or three seconds to grab my attention before I flip past them.

[jeffandnicole]

hey combined DC with Baltimore and Atlanta

what a seemingly random mix.  why not throw in Seattle and perhaps Shanghai? 

No kidding.  Adding Baltimore, sure. A lot of people commute between the two, and on a longer-distance trip you'll pass the two within a reasonably short amount of time (unless you hit traffic). But beyond that, if they HAD to add a third, Philadelphia would have made more sense (for the same reason of being somewhat in a logical sequence).

I used to listen to the Philly reports all the time.  Now, I rarely do.  The tri-city reporting sucks, and Philly is pared with Boston and Pittsburgh.  Even if I was traveling from one city to another, the 5 hour time distance makes the reports for the other cities useless.  Philly-Balt-DC definitely would have made sense.

I'm an XM regular as well.  The ironic thing for me is I find I switch stations more often on XM than I ever did on FM, just trying to find a song I want to listen to.  Maybe it's because I know I will probably at least find music on every station.  But I also think on the XM channels, the type of music any one station plays can greatly vary throughout the day.  It still fits the channel's description...there's just a lot of variety that can be included in the description.

[agentsteel53]

FWIW, only Los Angeles and N.Y. retained their sole status.

two cities for which the traffic report is made much shorter by listing the roads which aren't congested.

[jwolfer]

One of my other interests besides roadgeeking is a love for FM radio - primarily Top 40, Adult Contemporary, Hot Adult Contemporary, Soft AC/Standards, Urban/R&B, and Smooth Jazz stations. When I travel, I love to research in advance the FM stations in those destinations that I think I'll want to listen to - and then I'll enjoy listening to them. I'm obsessed with music and the different playlists that stations have. It's fun when I hear an obscure song on the radio that most stations hardly ever play anymore. I get such a kick out of that. I admit I don't really care about AM radio; FM is what I enjoy. I also have SiriusXM radio in my car for the time being, but I try to stay on top of what the FM stations are playing as well.

There's a radio discussion forum that I actively participate in: http://www.radiodiscussions.com/smf/

Does anyone else share this hobby?

No static at all

I wish radio were better.  They can not compare to XM as far as variety.  The music playlists are the same 20 songs over and over no matter the genre of music.  There is so much more available to play.   And now the local flavor is gone.  The music is programed and they have no local input.  The same stations are everywhere.  Here in Jacksonville we have Jack FM and there is Jack FM in a number of cities.  They just put a little local flair in the announcements.  Like "Broadcasting from a dumpy little shack on the other side of the ditch"  ( In Jacksonville the Intercoastal Waterway is called the ditch by locals.  There are people who live at the beach that have bumper stickers saying " we don't cross the ditch" [don't get me started on that].)

I hear promos for I heart radio... but I cant see having an app to listen to another crappy station from Omaha... Now if they start having good stations in different cities. I could see it being real completion for Pandora/XM.  And from what I understand radio had an easier time with rights to play artists.


Radio needs to make some changes to remain viable.   20+ years ago AM went mainly to news/talk/sports and music moved to FM

[cpzilliacus]

I love XM, though I also listen to all-news WTOP Radio (D.C.), and sometimes over the net to all-news WCBS in New York and its sister, all-news KNX in L.A.

Wish XM would cut a deal with CBS to allow WCBS and KNX to be on their channels, and that Hubbard (owner of WTOP) would do the same.

[agentsteel53]

They can not compare to XM as far as variety.  The music playlists are the same 20 songs over and over no matter the genre of music.

even XM has some variety issues, if you listen to a single station for long enough.  for example, why does the Boneyard fixate so much on about 20 Led Zeppelin songs, out of their catalog of over 100?  this includes staples like Black Dog, Kashmir and The Ocean, and also The Rover, a really nice obscure song that is probably a favorite of a particular Boneyard producer. 

but why not Since I've Been Loving You, just as an example I pulled out of thin air of a great Zeppelin song that also fits Boneyard's format (heavy rock, not shy on songs over 7 minutes long).  I get the idea that Zeppelin songs are expensive, so they sprung for 20 of them, figuring no one would notice that 80 are missing.

[cpzilliacus]

They can not compare to XM as far as variety.  The music playlists are the same 20 songs over and over no matter the genre of music.

even XM has some variety issues, if you listen to a single station for long enough.  for example, why does the Boneyard fixate so much on about 20 Led Zeppelin songs, out of their catalog of over 100?  this includes staples like Black Dog, Kashmir and The Ocean, and also The Rover, a really nice obscure song that is probably a favorite of a particular Boneyard producer.

If I never, ever hear Black Dog again, that won't be soon enough.

AOR ran that track into the ground (along with a lot of other stuff recorded by Zeppelin) in the 1970's and early  1980's.

[cpzilliacus]

One of my other interests besides roadgeeking is a love for FM radio - primarily Top 40, Adult Contemporary, Hot Adult Contemporary, Soft AC/Standards, Urban/R&B, and Smooth Jazz stations. When I travel, I love to research in advance the FM stations in those destinations that I think I'll want to listen to - and then I'll enjoy listening to them. I'm obsessed with music and the different playlists that stations have. It's fun when I hear an obscure song on the radio that most stations hardly ever play anymore. I get such a kick out of that. I admit I don't really care about AM radio; FM is what I enjoy. I also have SiriusXM radio in my car for the time being, but I try to stay on top of what the FM stations are playing as well.

There's a radio discussion forum that I actively participate in: http://www.radiodiscussions.com/smf/

Does anyone else share this hobby?

No static at all

One of more than a few Steely Dan tracks that have become, well, iconic. 

[agentsteel53]

If I never, ever hear Black Dog again, that won't be soon enough.

AOR ran that track into the ground (along with a lot of other stuff recorded by Zeppelin) in the 1970's and early  1980's.

having grown up well past that era... I just can't imagine commercial radio playing so many good songs (not just Zeppelin, but other bands which survive as "classic rock", like the Doors, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, etc etc) in such frequent rotation.  I think the last song that got heavy airplay which I really enjoyed was Adele's "Rolling in the Deep", and that's just one song... Zeppelin has maybe 50 songs of that quality, and about 20 of them ended up being FM radio staples. 

meanwhile, FM radio of the immediate present is fixated on vapid auto-tune crap.  I don't think I've heard a single band break into regular programming with quality track after quality track since approximately Soundgarden's "Superunknown"... which is nowadays considered classic rock.

[cpzilliacus]

If I never, ever hear Black Dog again, that won't be soon enough.

AOR ran that track into the ground (along with a lot of other stuff recorded by Zeppelin) in the 1970's and early  1980's.

having grown up well past that era... I just can't imagine commercial radio playing so many good songs (not just Zeppelin, but other bands which survive as "classic rock", like the Doors, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, etc etc) in such frequent rotation.  I think the last song that got heavy airplay which I really enjoyed was Adele's "Rolling in the Deep", and that's just one song... Zeppelin has maybe 50 songs of that quality, and about 20 of them ended up being FM radio staples.

I once rather liked Led Zeppelin (and according to one story, the name of the band originated with the late Keith Moon, drummer of the Who (by far my favorite band of those that originated in the 1960's)).  But after AOR on FM played LZ's tracks from the early and mid-1970's over and over and over again (sometimes the same two or three of their tracks every hour), I got really tired of their music (even though they were a very gifted band and much of their catalog was (and is) creative and fun).

While the Led Zeppelin tracks were being repeated into the ground, please consider that album-oriented radio (AOR) programmers (who I grew to dislike with a passion):

(1) Never aired anything by Jimi Hendrix;
(2) Pink Floyd was limited to a few tracks from The Wall and (rarely) Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here (I was never especially a fan of Pink Floyd, but they are definitely part of what I consider AOR);
(3) The Doors were rarely heard (perhaps because Jim Morrison died early in the 1970's);
(4) Even the Who (still recording studio albums then) got relatively little airplay; and
(5) Nothing - ever - by Elvis Presley (those bastards). 

Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones (also certain tracks by Mick and the boys were repeated far too much) were quite dominant, along with certain tracks by groups like Supertramp, Rush and Heart.

Even though MTV (which started in 1981) had a positive influence on radio (since it was not under the control of those damned AOR programmers), the excessive repetition continued for a while after that (for one thing, penetration by cable TV was pretty limited in most of the U.S. in the early 1980's), but some acts that would never have had a chance under AOR programming did make it thanks to videos on MTV (even the Who did a video or two on MTV).

meanwhile, FM radio of the immediate present is fixated on vapid auto-tune crap.  I don't think I've heard a single band break into regular programming with quality track after quality track since approximately Soundgarden's "Superunknown"... which is nowadays considered classic rock.

Sad.

EDIT: Added discussion about what aired on AOR in my much younger days.

[cpzilliacus]

How about a channel that plays rock and roll - all of it - from Bill Haley & His Comets all the way up to what comes out of the studios now (but no rap, please).

An expanded Jack FM - while flipping the middle finger to those demographic-obsessed radio programmers?

[1995hoo]

I got utterly sick of Led Zeppelin during my third year of college when one of the guys with whom I shared an apartment (living in University-run housing, so this guy was assigned to join the other three of us who knew each other) turned out to be utterly obsessed with their music and listened to it constantly. He never would have struck you as a Zeppelin fan, either; nerdy-looking soft-spoken guy from Chesapeake, Virginia, with a serious southern drawl, a father who drove a Vista Cruiser (seriously), and a brother they all called "Earl T.".....it sounds like a serious redneck stereotype, I know. This guy played Zeppelin so incessantly that I still have not listened to a single Zeppelin album all the way through even a single time since then, and this fall will be 20 years since I shared an apartment with that guy.

That's not to say I always turn off their music if it comes on the radio. That really depends on what song it is.

In terms of the radio, back in the mid-1990s initially MIX-101.5 was one of the better radio stations in Raleigh, but they branded themselves as "the best mix of the '70s, '80s, and '90s." Only thing was, they never played any of the bands you'd expect to hear from the 1970s–Zeppelin, Boston, the Eagles, the Stones, etc. A few of us complained and they promptly changed it to "the best mix of the '80s, '90s, and today." (What the heck does that even MEAN during the 1990s? How do "the '90s" differ from "today" when the time period is from August 1995 to May 1998?) Their playlist became the standard "MIX" crap–constant Hootie and the Blowfish, Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow, Blues Traveller's "Runaround," the Wallflowers' "One Headlight," that Celine Dion Titanic song, and a few other things repeated endlessly ad nauseam. Ugh. The funny thing is, since then it seems like every damn radio station with "MIX-" in the name plays all that same stuff as though it were still up-to-date and popular. As I say, ugh.

I've taken a real liking to the E Street Radio channel on XM partly because I love Springsteen (on my iPod, 1,657 of a total 6,651 tracks are Springsteen, for 38.75 GB out of a total 86.10 GB) but also because they play some Springsteen-influenced or -related stuff. The occasional "Cover Me" show where they play other artists' covers of Springsteen songs can be a good way to find some new music.

[Brandon]

^^ Never heard a MIX station like that.  We have a station called "The Mix" - WTMX 101.9 FM here in Chicago, but they are mostly newer music (2000s and 2010s).

I find I listen to Sirius XM mostly when I'm out of the Chicago area.  Sirius XM is on-par or slightly below, in some cases, to the local stations (AM and FM).  This may sound a bit snobbish, but most radio away from Chicago sucks IMHO, and I can't stand most of the syndicated hosts.  Give me the local ones instead!

[agentsteel53]

constant Hootie and the Blowfish, Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow, Blues Traveller's "Runaround," the Wallflowers' "One Headlight," that Celine Dion Titanic song

yep, that's basically what turned me off of radio in the mid-late 90s.  that and Matchbox 20, who are just about the most terrible band ever.

sad, because Rob Thomas is really quite talented... the song he did with Santana is excellent.  but his main project is miserable and angsty and somehow avoids spectacularly all that is cool about being miserable and angsty (see: Nirvana, who really were a great band, worthy of all the hype).