Wayne Parham Messages: 18774 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
I listen to radio all the time. I have a bunch of tube radios and I love to use 'em. I also listen to radio in the car, but probably more often to cassettes.
One of my cars has a CD player and USB input, so I listen to digital audio in that car, but the others are old-school analog, which I love too.
So maybe radio is a generational thing. Maybe the younger crowd prefers digital streaming formats and platforms, and rarely uses radio. But for those over 40, maybe being accustomed to the personalities and the "user-experience" of radio - turn it on and dial in the station - keeps us comfortable with using it.
Rusty Messages: 1175 Registered: May 2018 Location: Kansas City Missouri
Illuminati (3rd Degree)
I just tried listening to AM on the car radio this morning, (Sunday). After maybe decades of neglect. Well, maybe I'll have to try in the evening and a weekday. Sports schlock, holy roller and a couple Hispanic music choices and that was all she wrote. I have an old tubed Bakelite Philco radio from the 60's that I need to resurrect. It's AM only but if I can ever find any half arsed show to listen to. That could be fun to hear it coming through the old time piece.
Wayne Parham Messages: 18774 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
FM tube table radios are kind of rare. I have several tube radios, mostly AM-only but probably a half-dozen that tune in SW bands. Only one of my tube radios picks up the FM band though.
Rusty Messages: 1175 Registered: May 2018 Location: Kansas City Missouri
Illuminati (3rd Degree)
Well it appears I have a Black Mamba on my hands. I was wrong on all counts. Not a Philco, not Bakelite, not 60's. It's a 1957 Motorola 57R table radio. Picture not representative of the current condition. It's filthy inside and out. No breakage though. I brushed off the initial crud. All the tubes look in good shape and the speakers pushes in and out freely. What is a good cleaner for the circuit board? Very retro baby, a la Austin Powers.
I don't think I have even turned the AM or FM radio on in my car. I listen to Sirius or Pandora. I got tired of the........bad jokes that the radio personalities told.
There is a radio personality duo that has a short spot on the T.V. news show I watch in the morning. Those guys are god-awful dorks, so I feel you on that one.
Mulcahy Messages: 38 Registered: May 2021 Location: Queens, NY
Baron
I agree that traditional real-time stations have been on the wane for a few decades. At the same time, radio has shape-shifted to livestreams. It will live on while adapting.
Where there are cars, there will be radio listeners. At the very least, people will tune in when other options go janky and they don't want to drive in silence.