Radio Gaga

[Mr. DS]

No, not the over the top entertainer, rather the idea Queen set forth in their song of the same name.  Radio was once a hub of entertainment the world worshiped but sadly seems to have died.  IOW, everything that song warned against came true didn't it?  Most shows that once made us laugh have gone off to satellite radio and left us with a rather safe and boring counterpart.  Every station now has a regular same old 40 song rotation, oddly even the ones that aren't top 40. 

Personally I have no clue how anyone can listen to it. I served as an on-air DJ for about 5 years parttime.  I NEVER got how someone could honestly call up and request Stairway To Heaven or Freebird back then not to mention now.  I currently have XM which offers up some good song rotation.  My wife and I both agreed we probably wouldn't want to go back to free radio simply because of the reason I listened to above.   If I had the choice between XM and no radio, I'd choose "no radio".  At work I tend to keep youtube up so I can choose my own songs or I either use my I-Pod. 

Do you listen to the radio?  If so which format (free or satellite)?  When do you usually listen to?   How often do you listen?

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

I have a satellite radio because I drive a LOT for work.   But at home, I';m very lucky. Portland, Oregon has some great radio for the types of music I like.  There are 2-3 stations all doing really good stuff.  But I'm aware thats rare.
-Ed

[Jack]

I never listen to the radio at all.  Haven't for years.  At home I mostly download stuff I like and transfer it to my PS3 and then play it on my stereo.  Our cable TV provider has a whole bunch of music channels, and sometime I'll listen to one of those.  They're okay, but they get repetitive fast.  We listen to Pandora internet radio sometimes too - just type in a song or several and it creates a radio station based on your tastes.

[Flick James]

I don't listen to terrestrial radio much anymore except for talk, mainly because I am so utterly bored by what the music stations do anymore. I don't have XM. I listen to music and whatever podcasts I like on my iPod in the car.

I grew up listening to radio, and no, it's nothing like it was. Once rock and roll hit the scene, and coincidentally at the same time that radios in cars became common, an amazing thing happened. From the 50's to the 70's, radio DJ's were akin to rock stars in their area. Young people attributed as much status to their local DJ as they did to their favorite artist. The 80's had some of that, but by that time the rockstar status of the DJ was starting to go away, partly due to the coming of the music video age, in which artists were "made" from their videos and not as much from their radio airplay. Quite appropriately, "video killed the radio star."

Another thing that the music video age destroyed: rock magazines. Before music videos made artists faces easily seen by everyone, people could only see what their favorite rockstars looked like by going to the newsstand and buying Rolling Stone, Cream, Hit Parade, and a host of other magazines. Rolling Stone is about all that's left. Back then, there were scores of fanzines and that's how you got to know your rockstar. MTV killed that era, and now they won't even play any f**king music videos. On top of that, they're owned by ViaComm, who also owns VH1, CMT, and BET. Yes, that's right, they own EVERY major channel devoted to music. In other words, ViaComm controls mainstream music.

Every change in society carries with it advances as well as sad losses of things that were once wonderful. People can market their own music now without having to be solicited and at the mercy of record labels in order to be heard. At the same time, mainstream music suffers because it's controlled by a single corporation and what you get is going to be whatever they think is marketable and will cost them the least amount possible and entail the least amount of risk in order to turn a profit.

Remember, we're not living in a capitalist economy anymore. It's a corporatist economy, which is different. Our entertainment industry reflects that.

[lester1/2jr]

there are some really good college radio stations here in Boston. The boston College station plays really out there avant garde stuff most nights and I usually tune into that, often while i'm watching movies.

[The Burgomaster]

95% of the time my radio is tuned to WEEI (850 AM) , which is a 24-hour Boston sports talk station.  The only time I change the channel is when the station is covering a sporting event that doesn't interest me (such as college basketball).  My music-listening is mostly done on my iPod, where I have complete control.  And, yes, I have both STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN and FREEBIRD on my iPod!

[Criswell]

I only listen to CDs in my truck. I used to have a Ipod Playing thing but due to some stupidity on my part it got stolen.

[indianasmith]

I'm a talk radio junkie.  I never was much into radio for music purposes.

[Paquita]

We listen to the radio in the car, and sometimes I'll play an online thing like Pandora at home.  We also play those music only stations on cable sometimes too.. does anyone else get those?  They cycle through photos and mostly crappy trivia on screen about the band that's currently playing, or if the band is so obscure that there isn't even crappy trivia about them they show something like trivia on cassette tapes. 

There's a pretty good mix of radio stations here so I can switch back and forth if I get tired of them.  I also have the radio on all day at work, but it's not digital and sometimes there's a lot of interference downtown, so when I get a clear station in, I don't dare change it because it's hard to tell if I have the dial in the wrong place or if it's just normal downtown interference. 

It's good enough for me.  I've never had an ipod or experienced xm radio though, so maybe I just don't know what I'm missing.

I used to listen to the Dr Demento show on one of the local stations Sunday nights, but I don't think they play it anymore.

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

I have to say I love the idea of radio... I still imagine the night DJ talking out to the world and sharing music.  It's still there in the college stations. But I'd love to go back in time and stay up all night listening to Symphony Sid, or an old late night show on in Omaha called "Headphones Only" from when I was a kid. 
In Portland theres a show called Area 54 thats on from 12-2 on weekends ,they do cool chill music.  I love listening to them when I am up.

[claws]

I don't listen to the radio anymore. Last time was around 1991/1992.
I got all the music I like here on iTunes, and I don't care about people like Howard Stern.

[HappyGilmore]

Since Howard Stern and Opie and Anthony went to Satellite, I pretty much stopped listening to terrestrial radio.  Here in Philly we did have a great dj named Kidd Chris, who was kind of a shock jock of sorts.  But then he got fired over a song a listener sang on the air, and they replaced him with Danny Bonaduce.

Nowadays, I rarely listen to the radio.  When I do, it's limited to 610 WIP-AM, the all sports station, as well as 88.5, our local college station.  I like the college station cause it plays the best combination of music, ranging from Stevie Wonder to Sinatra, to Weird Al, to Slim Whitman and Beethoven.  So you get a mix of great rock, jazz, classical, comedy, etc.

[Trevor]

I normally listen to Highveld Stereo www.highveld.co.za which is a Johannesburg based station. Like so many other radio stations, they seem to play the same damn songs over and over again but you get past that.

[Trevor]

I'm a talk radio junkie.  I never was much into radio for music purposes.

Try www.702.co.za for the best talk radio here. 

[Killer Bees]

I don't even remember the last time I actively listened to the radio.  It is complete and utter sh!te in this country.  When I lived in Canada, I listened to internet radio Radioio.com.  They were fantastic.  No ads, and just new music from people I'd never heard of and others I knew but their new stuff.  No Britney or rap in sight. That's wehre I found Frou Frou, Merrie Amsterburg, John Mayer, Alex Lloyd, Delta Goodrem, Travis, Richard Ashcroft, Jeffrey Gaines and a whole host of others that I never would have been exposed to without that station.

It used to be free, but now I think you have to subscribe. Which is fair enough but I wouldn't listen to it enough to justify the fee.