ls FM radio even listenable any more?

I haven't listened to FM radio for music in years. I do listen to NPR news but that's about it.

1995?
FM  Rock radio was already in full rubbish mode for a decade already.  Rock radio died here in SoCal, by the end of the 70's.

The Classical and Jazz public stations are still  listenable. The once unique alternative stations are gone, and what's left is so-so.

My tubed,1965  Mac MR71 was recently refreshed and it sounds better than it did 55 years ago!

"radio" on the internet..........I don't think so. 

I grew up in Toronto listening to Q107 and CFNY "The Spirit of Radio". I kind of wasted my time with Q107 but CFNY was rather great back in the day, but they were slowly declining when I started listening. They are awful now. Great thing back then was the fact that the DJ’s on CFNY would program their own music.

I am now in Southern California and discovered the incredible KCRW (KCRW.com) on the FM dial. It is an NPR station and they have incredible DJ’s that are allowed to play anything they want (depending on mood). I have stayed up until 3AM may nights listening to incredible tunes. The NPR news stuff starts at 3AM so I usually turn it off then.

Every time I listen I discover a new artist or an old gem that I have to look up via their playlist and add it to my Tidal or Qobuz library. I think they also have an FM signal in Hambug, Germany.

I even bought a second FM/HD radio to listen to the KCRW 24 hour HD on air stream. However, that music stream does seem to have a mix of tunes I like. The main FM broadcast is the gem.

The cool audiophile stores in Southern California have KCRW on the tuners when I have gone demoing.

@mapman,

'I was just listening to it in the car this morning and survived.

At home, certain public radio programs are worth it but otherwise streaming has radio’s number these days in most every way when it comes to music.'


Agreed. Here in the UK there's one or two old time presenters still worth listening to - on a good day.

Why we get so much news (the usual repetitive uninformative drivel - the royals/Meghan Markle, Brexit, Covid, BLM protests etc) is never made clear.

As for the inane presenter chatter. These guys should be awarded medals for talking so much and saying so little.

I usually end up retreating to Classic FM but I'm now considering getting one of those cheap Bluetooth devices that let you stream your phone (YouTube docs/music) through your car radio. 

Especially now since my car CD player has packed in and keeps ejecting discs.

You’re right, FM sucks!  I was listening to the news on my fm clock radio and all the news was bad,  In addition, the news didn't sound real, it sounded like fake news.