Is The FM tuner obsolete?

WEBN got bought out in the same way that WMMS did in Cleveland. WEBN was a fairly good station in the 1970’s but it never rose to near the level that WMMS did. Both stations are so compressed anymore, I don’t know how anyone can listen to either. There was a pretty good station out of Northern Kentucky University called WNKU but they couldn’t operate within budget and it was dissolved by the University. So, besides the banal, middle of the road classical station WGUC, we have WAIF, a diverse community station with a very weak signal.

I use my tuners every day.   I have a Magnum MD102 and a Fanfare FT1a which is in rotation right now.   Plenty of FM where I am,  just outside Boston.    I get Rock 101 in Manchester NH , 94 HJY in Providence ,  and everything from Boston to Worcester.. .   Plenty of stations 

The FM tuner in my Marantz NR1200 was one of the key reasons I purchased it, but recently I picked up a used Marantz PM8004. Sounded better than the NR1200, but I missed listening to FM, so I found a used Marantz ST6000.  I suppose I could have run the NR1200 as a pre-amp into the PM8004 to still have the FM and streaming, but it just seemed simpler to pick up a used ST6000.

College late 1970s Terre Haute radio station WPFR played, Martian Boogie every Friday night.  That’s my best memory of FM radio.  By 1988 I got my first ARC preamp and have never had FM radio since.  In the car it was 8 track, cassette, CD, satellite, iPod, and now memory stick.  Like broadcast TV no patience for all of the commercials.