Is your local radio station this bad?

[Mr Peabody]

I quit the local stations, I pay the subscription fees for Sirius radio and listen to what I like

[Bent Ramrod]

Sounds exactly like our own talk stations, both Tucson and Phoenix. Amateur Hour until they fade at sunset. Dead air, two commercials (or show and commercial) gabbling at once, truncated commercials/announcements, and my favorite, the first couple-three words of whichever radio host is making me “this incredible offer” repeated; “Are you...Are you trapped in your Time Share (You Pathetic Sap)?”

Like “Jimmy Two-Times” in Goodfellas who always says everything twice.

But, hey—this is the Historical Dialectic operating in Real Life. We’ve gone from an agrarian to a manufacturing to a technological to a service to a lousy service economy in only 250 years. Now with a $13.50/hr Minimum Wage, for the same unthinking going-through-the-motions.

[lancem]

I live in an area blessed with no radio stations. It makes washing the windshield on the trucks so much easier with the antenna removed

[schutzen-jager]

here in the Peoples Republic of N.J. the local am news station that supplied weather, traffic, school closings, community news + etc. for past 6+ decades was taken over by FOX news sports + is terrible + useless - the state based fm news station is totally biased, liberal, progressive fake news that can not even get traffic + weather right -

[uscra112]

Hypothesis: AM talk was successful as long as it had the revenue Rush brought in. Rush is gone, and the business model isn't viable anymore.

[hoodat]

Part of the problem for you guys who THINK that you have no radio stations is the new radios that modern cars and trucks have. The auto tuners and "seek" won't stop on a weak station, and you can't fine tune them.

I've got an old 1968 Ford 3/4 ton, with the standard AM radio, and in the evening that thing will receive darned near any station on this side of the Rocky Mountains. I'm pretty sure that it sometimes gets old signals of Wolfman Jack that are still bouncing around up in the ionosphere. jd

[Murphy]

I don't spend enough time in a vehicle or setting that I need a radio these days. I have them, just don't use them. In my little neck o' the woods, what few local stations we have you can pick up most anytime. Sadly, they wind up with a D.J. who's ego won't fit in a Super Walmart. Talk show's never really caught on, it is what it is. About the only use I have for one, are the Swap Shop hourly morning broadcasts. Anywhere between 7:00am-9:00am. After that, there's nothing out there for me.

In regards to talk show hosts. I'll pass thank you. I've had friends who became so wrapped up in them, you couldn't have a decent conversation without them interjecting what 'so & so' say's every 5 minutes. I wound up having to give a few of them a good leaving alone.

When I hear or think of the word radio, music is the first thing that comes to mind. I'm 69 years old now. I grew up to the age of 13 in a large city and Rock & Roll was my daily bread for music. My parents moved us to the country while I was in the middle of being 13. *SHOCK*! I couldn't get a Rock & Roll station on the radio until nearly 10:00pm, bummer man, bummer. Then, during the day it was country music. I honestly don't recall any talk shows. 13-14 year old kids in those days wouldn't have listened to them anyway. We'd of been too busy running trot lines, chasing racoons, etc.

Finally, the age of recording our own tapes for listening pleasure came along. I haven't done much listening to a radio program of any kind for decades now. But that's just me. MP3 files on disc (140-160 songs per disc) saved me from silence while in a vehicle or my shop casting/reloading. Today's country music, ain't. I wouldn't know Rock & Roll by todays standards if it bit me in the butt.

News & current event's. I watch about 90 minutes of televised news per day. I watch both sides from a national source, and one from a smaller station located about 120-140 miles away. The smaller one tells me more about what's going on in my local area than the other two.

Radio? Good for back ground noise if I'm really bored.

Murphy

[super6]

WBT the blow torch of the south, AM and FM, I do remember wolf man jack on wing am radio Ohio, The guy was a junky. Used to party with him.

[hoodat]

Dennis Prager is a good talk show to listen to. Also Tom Sullivan. Nobody can replace Rush though.

I'm a rocker, and haven't really warmed up to Christian music, but I spend a lot of time with Christian talk shows.

With radio in general, I enjoy being able to listen and still do something like reloading, rather than being glued to a screen. jd

[pete501]

Does anybody remember K-FAT 94 and a half?

[Reg]

I used to do a lot of late night driving and sometimes all night driving. The one I miss most is Art Bell. Like him or not he kept you wide awake and completely entertained. Currently if you have Radio Garden on your phone and run it through any blue tooth device, even on your car, Richard Syrett out of Canada will keep your blood pressure up.

[Winger Ed.]

Stations around the DFW are a mixed bag.

There's a conservative news talk station that's pretty good.
A couple all sports, some church ones, a couple in Spanish, and that brain numbing rap.

At night, you can get stations from Mexico that don't reduce their output watts in the evening.

The only type that's missing is that music from Southern Louisiana.
From what I can figure out- it's someone strangling a cat 24 hours a day.
I've thought about tuning in and using it instead of a predator 'critter caller' tape.

[uscra112]

When I was a kid I discovered that very early Sunday mornings, when most AM stations were off the air, I could pull in XERF in Villa Acuna Mexico on a cheap Philco 2-tube receiver in eastern Massachusetts. I do believe that XERF broadcast in the 100+ kilowatt range, not being subject to American (or perhaps any other) FCC regulation.

[725]

My area stations are really good. Have had those momentary blank spots on other stations, but not here so much.... Rob Carson & Dan Bongino keep me sane.

[MT Gianni]

First week of June 1976 a friend and I went to fish Henry's fork of the Snake. We passed through Idaho Falls and had our spare repaired. We tooled through Rexburg about 11:20 and hit the river. About 1:00 someone had told us the Teton Dam broke. We fished til we had limited out and headed back to Blackfoot, ID with a 75 mile or more reroute. We had no working radio in that car. I will always try to keep up with the local news in a car when travelling. It might save your life.
I listen to our county owned radio stations often. They are short range and operate off a grant to inform county residents in an emergency. When not informing for 1 minute on the hour and half hour, they play country music from the 50's, 60's and 70's with no DJ or commercials. It is the only way I stay sane during election campaigns.
If I am home I listen to podcasts or books from the library through the Libby app. My personal version of hell would be having to listen to talk radio.

[alfadan]

When I was a kid I discovered that very early Sunday mornings, when most AM stations were off the air, I could pull in XERF in Villa Acuna Mexico on a cheap Philco 2-tube receiver in eastern Massachusetts. I do believe that XERF broadcast in the 100+ kilowatt range, not being subject to American (or perhaps any other) FCC regulation.

ZZtop had a song "heard it on the x" about XERF. The Doc Brinkley story is pretty entertaining!

[jaysouth]

Download the Iheart radio app on your phone and listen to virtually any radio station in the country. In the mornings, I spend a couple of minutes listening to WMAL(DC) or WABC(NYC) to remind me how much I miss rush hour traffic in the big city. Mostly, I listen to Libby (recorded books) or Spotify (podcasts and music)

[rockshooter]

just for fun, checked the AM band with my Icom 7300, about 30 stations out there receivable in Boise, ID
Loren

[Idaho45guy]

I used to do a lot of late night driving and sometimes all night driving. The one I miss most is Art Bell. Like him or not he kept you wide awake and completely entertained.

Yep! I get off work at 11 pm, and if I'm driving my 4Runner, I listen to comedy or Fox news on Sirius. If I'm in my old HHR, then I will turn on Art Bell's replacement, George Noory on Coast to Coast for a few minutes, then usually switch to a country FM station.

I will rarely listen to Noory for more than a few minutes since 95% of his guests are blasphemous kooks that are into numerology, psychic energy, spiritualism, remote viewing, or other such beliefs that focus on the Dark Arts and spiritual matter.

It's been decades, but I seem to recall that Art had more interesting guests that focused more on cryptozoology, alien abductions, Bigfoot, and conspiracy theories.

It's rare that George will have a guest on that is interesting and not clearly insane, which is a sad legacy to Art Bell.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

To all of you that miss Rush Limbaugh, search for The Jesse Kelly Show. While he is fairly new to radio, he has that certain something that Rush had, IMHO.
His show is on 8PM on a AM station in south-central MN. But I don't think that's "LIVE", check his website for stations and times in your area.