Anyone listen to Music on a FM tuner anymore?


I’m not referring to streaming, I mean an actual FM turner. I haven’t had a turner for at least 15, probably more like 20 years. I had a high-end one that went bad years ago and even then I hadn’t really used it in years. Just wondering if anyone still uses one and why?

Added info: back in my college days there were lots of reasons, some great DJ’s in the New York City area and sometimes a live concert broadcasts that were great, but those times are long gone, as is most of my hair and my 32 inch waistline.....I’m not trying to judge anyone for still listening to music on a FM tuner, just asking for the reason to do so.

Hope everyone had a good holiday season.

128x128deadhead1000

I too remember the days of commercial free, album rock stations. What an era! How did they survive at all?  I used to play my radio all night to the music. I got so much of my musical background from that format and especially the show King Biscuit Flower Hour.

We still have some good radio with a university station and a couple of listener sponsored/community sponsored stations, not to mention NPR, but I can stream those and my tuners always had reception problems. Strange with the reception thing since I live within 10 miles of the broadcasters antennas.

Do high-end manufacturers even make tuners anymore?

 

I still have my Carver TX-11 Tuner (refurbished about two years ago with new caps and such) and use it, maybe not every day, but at least once a week. There are some great college stations I can get (WNCW, WSGE), along with a nice classical station out (WFAE) of Davidson, NC. Using a Terk FM antenna and the noise floor is fine. One cool program is The World Cafe, which can introduce you to new music.  And I keep up with bluegrass via a local station that broadcasts "Knee Deep Into Bluegrass" on Sundays. No, FM won't touch CD for quality by a long shot, but keep in mind, in the 1970s, it was amazing as it grew. To me it is still a viable way to hear music. 

I listen to FM in my "technologically-challenged" 2009 A4 daily driver -- KSHE out of St. Louis.. (This car is soooo old, I even have to push in a clutch and shift the gears myself!!). When I travel out of the region, I often pull in KSHE via TuneIn, to make me feel more at home.

I don’t have an analog tuner in my main system. And, the other day I discovered that on my HT I "hid" the FM as an input choice on the Marantz AVR. So, I guess that’s a "no" on listening to FM at home.

Oh, regarding HD radio or what have you for digital...Techmoan on YouTube often has bemoaned the fact that digital stations in the U.K. are compressed to hell and in order to do more in the limited bandwidth, they are often lousy bit rates of maybe 64Kbps or less, i.e. instead of offering one great sounding stream, they'll have two or more bad ones to offer more advertising. They took a technological step forward (digital radio) and sliced and diced it to be a terrible product instead of using it to increase fidelity. Sad. AFAIK, digital radio is dead here in the U.S. There was a push to get rid of AM (550-1710) tuners in cars but with the popularity of talk radio for political discourse and carrying sports, I think that has been pushed back.