Does Anyone Actually Listen To A Real Radio Anymore, Or Even Own One?

Discussion in 'Movies & Entertainment' started by Yvonne Smith, Oct 21, 2022.

  1. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    The only actual radios that we have are the old (really old !) clock radio in the bedroom, and the radio in the Ford Ranger, and we do not listen to either one of these.
    Neilson Ratings, who does the surveys, sent me 2 survey forms to fill out for what radio programs, if any, Bobby and I listen to. It is a regular little diary, so I can put when we listen, what station, or what program, each day.
    I will fill them out for each of us until next Wednesday and then send the information back to Neilson.

    Bobby listens to early morning radio on his iPad, using IHeart Radio, and sometimes to other programs of talk radio later during the day.
    The only station that I listen to would be either Pandora or Spotify, and with those, I only use it for my music playlists and stations.
    I do listen to some video podcasts, but I do that with youtube or Rumble, or something similar, and it looks like internet podcasts count for the survey.

    When I talked with the Neilson person on the phone, she said that many people do not even have an actual radio that they listen to anymore, so it is not just us that only listens online.
    That started me wondering (since we are all seniors) whether people here use a real radio, or listen online.
     
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  2. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I listen to the radio when I'm driving. Although we have Sirius in the Ford Echo, I'd rather listen to a local station. We have several radios at home, and I'll sometimes listen to our local Millinocket station, but not often.
     
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  3. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    We only have 2 stations one liberal the other conservative politics. Sometimes I will listen to the liberals just to stop the politics for a while.
    Hubby says he has toi listen to the radio for his tinnitus every night to go to sleep. I told him to run a fan for noise.
     
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  4. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    Only radios we have are our AM/FM CD Player in our Durango and boat. Only listen to CDs in both. However, we have also got an Emergency "crank-up" flashlight and radio in one.
     
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  5. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    I have two battery powered radios just in case the power goes out. There is a radio on my Bose player. I used to listen country music on it but since there is no more country music, I listen to CDs on it.

    I also think TV will eventually be a thing of the past. More and more people are getting their news and entertainment from the internet.
     
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  6. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Me--never. My husband listens (crank it up!) to a local classic rock station in his Jeep. For years he had Sirius but they got aggravating and overpriced so he finally canceled them.
     
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  7. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Yvonne probably forgot but I have a real, bonafide radio out in the shop. It’s a combo CD player, AM and FM receiver and yeah, I’ll spin the dial and whatever comes up is what I listen to except rap or heavy metal. Sometimes I do not even know why I turn it on because I can’t hear anything over whatever machine I’m working with.

    Generally though, as Yvonne wrote, I will listen to talk radio via IHeart because I can get virtually any talk radio station that is associated with IHeart across the globe but it just so happens that there are a couple of local stations featured so I listen to those in the morning.
     
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  8. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    It's been a while but I used to collect old tube-style floor radios. I still have one of them that receives BBC broadcasts, which I used to listen to all the time.

    Other than that, I listen to XM, except when I'm traveling, in which case I listen to the local FM stations. I've mentioned before that it's weird to listen to the exact same stations I do at home when I'm away on vacation...it's as though I'm missing the experience of being out of town.
     
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  9. Al Amoling

    Al Amoling Veteran Member
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    I have one that I bought about 40 yrs ago but don’t listen because where I live now has lousy reception
     
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  10. Thomas Stillhere

    Thomas Stillhere Very Well-Known Member
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    Radio was finished a long time ago when they fired all the disc jockeys and automated all the radio stations. This is why we have so much crap on the airwaves from different sources. Today if you pay the studio fee you can go in and record anything you like no matter if you could sing or not. The majority today cannot sing if their lives depended on it. In the old days the stations promoted a talented person and his or her record and it worked great like that. I see some groups every now and then accidentally on late night TV and I never heard of them and that usually is a good thing. I wonder what this world will look like just 50 years from now, if of course it survives that long. As for the music I have everything I would ever want to listen to stored but use youtube music free version because google has me still on the list as a paid game maker and they closed down that service after a lot of people paid for the license. I guess they figure they owed me and I closed the paid account for the music but it is still giving me all the extra things without any advertising or disruption. They don't make mistakes when it comes to counting their money. My favorite was spotify until they started pushing that blm crappola by putting advertisements on my paid home page, it made me so mad after building so many playlist and years of using spotify I logged in and had them cancel my account and I haven't been back. The person that was handling the shut down of the account apologized but I didn't want an apology, I just told her if they want to push that crap do it with their own money not mine. Afterwards of course everyone now knows what a sham it was and theft.
     
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  11. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    When I'm driving. I used to be a constant channel switcher, searching for the station that was playing the best song at the time. You could do it with push button car radios without ever looking at the radio.

    On this new truck you choose radio stations by touch screen. You have to look at the screen now. Sometimes a touch doesn't work unless you hit it just right. It's not safe to drive and be a channel surfer now. I've almost given up the radio because of it.

    I can't get very good reception in the house. I miss having a clock radio as an alarm. I don't trust one to get good reception at the time it's supposed to come on.

    Used to listen to AM radio when they played music. Then it became all talk back in the 70's. Mostly sports in the south. Do they still have AM?
     
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  12. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    I listen in the car. It is set to three channels--our local one, a classic rock and PBR. Mostly though, I like to listen to dramatic movie sound tracks.
     
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  13. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I don't know about everywhere, but our radio station here in Millinocket, Maine has AM and FM. The FM station is their main station, playing classic rock, but they use their AM station for local stuff like local news, varsity sports games, and that kind of thing.
     
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  14. Thomas Stillhere

    Thomas Stillhere Very Well-Known Member
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    Good question about AM, I am pretty sure they still have AM but probably only very small stations out in the middle of no where, it is not a money maker but you could have your own broadcasting station with the winamp player package. I have a decoder set top box for my old TV and it has a Radio station scanner but I have never seen any Radio scanning howto for the Radio frequencies. It could be disabled or there aren't any stations near enough to pickup. I know a couple years ago I was able to receive a few Baton Rouge stations and boy was there some awful music. There was one young dummy that worked where I was working and he played all that loud screaming garbage that would scare away a wild animal. Might be a good thing there is no more radio.
     
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  15. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Okay, just because I’m a grumpy old man, I just ordered a bluetooth receiver / amplifier w/ AM/ FM radio which I will no doubt utilize but the main function other than the radio portion I’m looking for at the present time is for it’s bluetooth capability and amplifier and why? I already answered that question but to reiterate, I’m a grumpy old man and grumpy old men do what we have to do to keep our reputation intact.

    Ya see, there’s this tweaked out white fella who walks up and down the street at all hours playing some very loud and raunchy rap stuff which is loud enough to drown out anything I’m listening to whilst i’m sitting on the porch. It’s so loud in fact, that I can distinctly hear the words when he’s a block away and it’s not like he’ll just make one or two passes but sometimes several within an hour hence, my plan.

    I’m going to set things up with some 12” speakers/woofers on the porch and perchance whilst I’m listening to the radio, when the gentleman in question starts his trek complete with his booming rap stuff up the street, I shall hit the buttons about the time he gets to our home and instead of rap he will get an earful of the Hallelujah Choir or perhaps Stars and Stripes Forever or maybe the cannonade portion of the 1812 overture or even some Count Basie.
    Note: I got the speakers out of an old console system and have been keeping them in my shop for about 10 years and wondering why I was keeping them.

    I’ve already offered the guy a good headset which he brushed off so my plan is now a go. I have already asked my neighbor across the street for his permission to invade the atmosphere with the countering noise and the reply was a laugh and an emphatic yes so, come on Amazon!

    Now, what will happen when the guy gets the message? Why, listen to the radio in the morning and also get a microphone for it so I can tell the kids to get off the grass which is what we grumpy old men are supposed to do.
     
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    Last edited: Oct 22, 2022

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