Does anyone listen to the radio anymore?


My tuner has been collecting dust the last few years. Got me thinking, how many  audiophiles even listen to the radio anymore when there are so many other options available?

cdc

In my car I listen to KNKX (Jazz Blues and NPR News) and at home stream Jazz 24 in the kitchen and dining room.

I love radio, although I often listen while doing something else like driving, working on a project in my shop, or other chores.  We have many good options here in  SoCal with two classical stations, one jazz, NPR, and Pacifica on standard FM.   I also enjoy a couple of HD digital channels (with no commercials) playing pop oldies and be-bop jazz.

For some reason the old tube tuners sound great, even on AM.  I have a mono system in my garage shop with a Fisher Series Eighty tuner/preamp and homebrew 6B4 SE amp driving a single Klipsch Heresy. Sounds lovely.

I’ve been streaming 90.3 KEXP Seattle for years. Good quality sound as well (for streaming). Mostly “alternative” but they have a variety of other music programming too. 

I listen to KPIG (Freedom California) and a Blues station from Altea, Spain that broadcasts in FLAC, both via Roon.  The first has real, live, disc jockeys.  I miss DJs.  I grew up in LA during the 1960s with outstanding AM and FM rock radio stations, then moved to San Francisco and listened to KSAN.  Back in LA now.  In the car I listen to sports radio and NPR.

As my home system has improved, radio has deteriorated.  

All in all, radio today is a pretty sad landscape.  

Finally, I loved WKRP on TV.

 

 

Portland (Oregon) has a pretty good Classical music station, which sounds nice coming out of my Mac MR78 (with companion piece MPI 4, a useful diagnostic tool).