Another technology I hardly use bites the dust?

[ftldave]

I hardly ever listen to FM radio these days - prefer Internet radio stations at home and MP3s in my auto. But looks like FM radio may go the way of dial phones and 8-track tapes if this trend spreads.

NORWAY WILL BE FIRST COUNTRY TO SHUT DOWN FM RADIO

Norway will shut down FM radio in the country beginning in 2017, Radio.no reports. The Norwegian Ministry of Culture finalized a shift date this week, making it the first country to do away with FM radio entirely. The country plans to transition to Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) as a national standard.

[G.K.]

shame really.

An old MW radio with a 9v battery would give 3 or 4 months of portability.

[Fozzer]

Long wave, Medium wave, and Short wave for me.

..all on my 1930 Superhetrodyne Radio, big cabinet, with 5 glass valves, a tuning condenser, big transformer, big speaker, and lots of carbon resistors and wax capacitors.....old fashioned joy!

All still working!

Also got a few WWII army communication receivers...BIG and heavy!

Paul...Radio Moscow...etc...etc... ...!

[Jetranger]

What I'm tired of on any Radio these days is all the Car Commercials, blarring the stupid ads from Junior Samples used car lot.

come on' down your Job is your Credit no credit checks

then if your lucky you get to hear some music for 2.5 minutes and more Car lot commercials for 15.5 minutes and then repeat.

Wanna hear a traffic report,, 1st ya gotta listen to all about the radio station and the DJ's horse around for 10 minutes then you get to hear a traffic report for 7 seconds.

I like to listen to old Rock from the 50's 60's 70's but,,, 40 sum odd years later, I'm actually kinda getting tired of listening to the same old tunes over and over and over,,

just brings back too good of memories of a time when it was better , and we had real Talent that could actually play a real musical instrument and had talent that could actually sing and had a voice - unlike todays 1/2 naked NO Talented whatevers , can't really call the singers, they have no voice, can't call them musicians they can NOT actually play a real musical instrument cause they have NO real talent to promote.

They can however jump around on stage 1/2 naked lip syncing and acting like trash and somehow that now considered Talent

Todays country Music is about as badd, not even worth listening to, or watching.

Radio AM/FM will soon become a thing of the past, like black/white TV , and 8-tracks

Wolfman Jack , Signing Off , take care dudes !!!!


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99z-H_NEccU[/youtube]

[Apex]

Radio? Ah, that thing in your car. For me it's my CD's or nothing when driving. Last take at radio driving, many years ago when my car cassette player (didn't have a CD player in the car at that time) broke. Aauugghh!!! Just like JetRanger said, commercials, commercials, and the same ol', same ol' rock tunes on this one oldie station. The only thing that got oldie on it was the sheer repetition of the tunes they played. Just how many times do they expect me to listen to "Pretty Woman" before I really get turned off. To say nothing of repetitive stuff like The Four Seasons. I guess they didn't consider the Beatles et al as oldies. The oldies back in the oldie days of radio at least had some variety.

[Romulus111VADT]

What I'm tired of on any Radio these days is all the Car Commercials, blarring the stupid ads from Junior Samples used car lot.

come on' down your Job is your Credit no credit checks

then if your lucky you get to hear some music for 2.5 minutes and more Car lot commercials for 15.5 minutes and then repeat.

Wanna hear a traffic report,, 1st ya gotta listen to all about the radio station and the DJ's horse around for 10 minutes then you get to hear a traffic report for 7 seconds.

I like to listen to old Rock from the 50's 60's 70's but,,, 40 sum odd years later, I'm actually kinda getting tired of listening to the same old tunes over and over and over,,

just brings back too good of memories of a time when it was better , and we had real Talent that could actually play a real musical instrument and had talent that could actually sing and had a voice - unlike todays 1/2 naked NO Talented whatevers , can't really call the singers, they have no voice, can't call them musicians they can NOT actually play a real musical instrument cause they have NO real talent to promote.

They can however jump around on stage 1/2 naked lip syncing and acting like trash and somehow that now considered Talent

Todays country Music is about as badd, not even worth listening to, or watching.

Radio AM/FM will soon become a thing of the past, like black/white TV , and 8-tracks

Wolfman Jack , Signing Off , take care dudes !!!!

The scourge of the Carolina's is an idiot named Kevin Powell from Foothill Ford. This moron literally SCREAMS his entire commercial trying to use the Billy Mays style in your face type ads. This guy hasn't a clue and ends up driving off listeners to every station that is foolish enough to run his ads.

He was sued because one Halloween ad started with a blood curdling scream. It scared some poor old woman so badly that she suffered a heart attack while driving thinking she'd hit someone.

His latest is using the old Ric Flair "Wooooo!" and he's pissed off so many listeners that they've started a petition to get his obnoxious ads removed from air time. It won't work of course; but once everyone is so fed up that they've gone to satellite or internet radio and the radio stations have no one to listen and their revenue is gone as well as their jobs; Maybe, just maybe they'll figure out the problem.

[expat]

"A statement released this week by the Ministry of Culture confirms a switch-off date that was proposed by the Norwegian government back in 2011. The government has concluded that the country is capable of meeting all the requirements necessary for a smooth transition to digital."...............


So it will be a compete cock up then.......................

Matt

[ftldave]

You can't blame the government for what happened to rock-and-roll music on radio stations in the USA. It was all total corporate stupidity, well explained in John Mellencamp's 2009 editorial:

The State of the Music Business

"During the late 80s and early 90s the industry underwent a transformation and restructured, catalyzed by three distinct factors. Record companies no longer viewed themselves as conduits for music, but as functions of the manipulations of Wall Street. Companies were acquired, conglomerated, bought and sold; public stock offerings ensued, shareholders met. ... The artists were being sold out by the record companies and forced to figuratively kiss the asses of their corporate overlords at the time these record companies went public. In essence, the artists were no longer the primary concern; only keeping their stockholders fat and happy and "making the quarterly numbers" mattered; the music was an afterthought. ... Record companies soon discovered that ... they only needed to concentrate on about 12 radio stations; there was no longer a business rationale for working secondary markets that were soon forgotten -- despite the fact that these were the very places where rock and roll was born and thrived. Why pay attention to Louisville -- worth a comparatively few potential listeners -- when the same one spin in New York, Los Angeles or Atlanta, etc., was worth so many more potential listeners?"

I know Mellencamp's spot on correct because I heard it happen, when radio became pretty much a waste of electricity. If you recognize that in corporate culture, despite its claims otherwise, "Same is good. Different is bad" -- then you can understand why you hear the same songs played over and over and over. They believe your brain isn't big enough to handle anything beyond that.

[Anthindelahunt]

The whole gamut of entertainment,has become one big ad.

Anthin.

[Hagar]

All this talk of ads makes me appreciate the good ol' BBC despite its faults. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2

It was originally planned to switch radio broadcasting in the UK from analogue to digital by 2015. These plans have now been postponed indefinitely. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/10520514/Reprieve-for-FM-as-Government-abandons-digital-radio-deadline.html

[G.K.]

I'm with you Hagar, BBC radio 2. A mixture of old and new music with some good DJ's like Johnnie Walker. Ken Bruces "Pop Master" quiz is good stuff too........I struggle a bit with Jeremy Vine though

I reckon digital radio is a backward step as is all digital music. A digital radio uses about twice the power of an old FM/MW radio, not necessarily a problem until you want portability.

One of the biggest drawbacks with digital music is how people now listen to music. Vinyl LPs encouraged folk to listen to a whole album or side. The tracks that didn't have instant appeal were listened to along with the rest. In the long run these tracks were quite often the best pieces of music. IMO a piece of music that has grown on you is loved for longer.

[Fozzer]

I wake up every morning to BBC Radio 4 news...>>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4

News from all around the World, with no adverts and no music....just News!.... ....!

......unlike the BBC Television News which slowly drowns in unnecessary and highly annoying music and animations!... ...!

My trusty Radio Set is my source of background entertainment all day long.

I often listen to the various radio stations via my Television and "Freeview" radio channels...>>>> http://www.freeview.co.uk/whats-on/channels

I like "Radio". It means that I can do other things whilst listening to it!

Paul... ...!

[Azframer]

Well I am a talk radio guy myself, I am 100% political outside the sim world. I do not bring my politics to this forum and will not even bite on politics here. I have respect for what we have and don't want to spoil it.


Rick

[ViperPilot]

Although the majority of the music comes from the ol' iPod, our Radio still gets a good amount of use in the house. There's always local Sports babble to listen to, and our Classical (NPR) and Jazz stations are very good. And I gotta have the AM side too, to listen to the Baseball game!

[expat]

After reading a bit about this, I can understand Norway's reasoning. They have 5 FM stations and only 2.5 million cars. Try that in the UK or Germany for example and the figures will be very different. I have to say I listen mainly to my own music in the car, but I am a news addict and on the hour, I tune to the local FM station and when the British Forces Radio broadcasts Radio 4 I also tune in. I don't think FM will be given up very soon in the rest of Europe or the USA.

Matt