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In 2005, right after Katrina hit, a lot of people in the Gulf lost power for a long time. All cell towers were overloaded constantly. What kept working was radio.

A bog standard Sony radio would run for a long, long time on a few AA batteries. Back then, you could also pick up the audio portion of UHF and VHF analog TV too. It was the main lifeline for news and local updates.

Radio is a fantastic technology that is being wasted. Cheap to transmit, cheap to receive, and covers a wide area. It would be great to see a radio renaissance. Maybe the Zoomers reconnecting to older technologies will revive it.

I'm the OP, and I'm surprised to find this article on HN at all, let alone the front page!

Many comments are focusing on music but the thing I tried to get across in the article was that good radio wasn't primarily about the music, it was about fun and connection. A good DJ kept you from just turning the radio off when you heard that same hit the fourth time today -- you wanted to keep listening because the DJ made it fun. It made homework and hobbies feel a lot less lonely. A Spotify playlist sure as heck can't do that.

There’s a human connection element to old radio that streaming will never replicate. And I worry that it’s gone from modern automated radio too.

It used to be if you were driving down the road and heard a song you liked

Hearing a song you liked on the radio hit harder then playing it yourself because you knew that there was another human nearby at that moment in time that had picked it out and played it. You were physically tethered to them through invisible waves through the sky. Lonely road trips felt less lonely. Late night work shifts felt less alienating because there was somebody ELSE working late.

It is a shame. I think it’s especially a shame for children and young people.

A counter to radio remaining relevant is “I can listen to whatever I want, via this digital technology”.

Fine - but young people don’t yet have a complete mental map of what culture they enjoy.

In the UK, funding for libraries and the arts (public radio, the BBC) has been increasingly cut in the name of austerity. I think that’s true in the US too.

Despite this, young people have an unprecedented amount of access to culture. Or, at least, any form of culture that can be digitally replicated.

Soulseek and Anna’s Archive are wonderful projects. But they only have as much utility as the person using them can put into the search bar.

We’re increasingly entrusting cultural education - what to put into the search bar - to algorithms that are designed not (as the BBC’s mission statement is) to “inform, educate, and entertain”, but to retain attention.

Even worse: many of these (eg, Spotify) hide real access behind subscription fees. If you grew up broke, like I did, you will understand how inaccessible this real access is.

The most motivated young people will continue to find the workarounds piracy offers, and to find other routes for cultural education.

Any young person who isn’t in that upper percentile of motivatedness might increasingly be left out. You can attribute that to a choice they have made - I think that’s wrong.

I think the joy of broadening one’s horizons is available to all, and is also difficult to learn and a strain to continue to practice. I think it must be taught.

I think this is especially true and important when everyone has a constantly-available option of algorithmically-selected pleasantness.

Human radio DJs are not optimized for pleasantness, or to serve you relevant ads based on your conversations with them. At their best, DJs are educators.

Anyone who grew up listening to radio knows that, and knows the pleasure that comes from learning not to change the channel when something new and uncomfortable-feeling comes on, just in case it ends up being something you fall in love with.

I used to travel to the valley a lot. Fly to SFO, pick up a rental car, tune in to 107.7 the Bone. Are they still going?

Here in NZ we have a wonderful publicly-funded ad-free radio station RNZ! (Radio New Zealand.)

The main channel "RNZ National" is a mix of news bulletins [1], panels featuring interesting people [2], and episodes of the numerous high-quality podcasts they produce [3].

The really channel one is "RNZ Concert" through - it's just msuic. They have a best-in-class audio team who record concerts (e.g. choirs, orchestra, or anything else) as well as getting famous artists in to their studio to record their own music or a cover. Played for free all the time with no ads! It was super exciting as a kid in a community choir when we got the chance to be recorded by RNZ, and then find out roughly when it would be on so we sat by the radio in anticipation all day waiting for it to play. It also made getting to the finals of choir nationals [4] extra exciting knowing your performance there would be played nationwide.

[1]: Interestingly, despite us having reasonably good private competition for news here, the government-funded news source was recently votes the most trusted in the country - I reckon it's because they aren't beholden to advertisers: https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/04/17/rising-trust-should-keep-p... [2]: Regularly including top politicians like the prime minister and the leader of the opposition, top academics, CEOs, investors, and the like [3]: https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcasts [4]: Yes competitive classical choir is a thing here, and it's treated just as seriously as rugby or any other code. You might travel will your high school choir all the way across the country to perform at Finale. https://nzcf.org.nz/events/nzcf-events/big-sing

But some weird happenstance I've only recently started listening to radio, and I find it pretty good? The commercial stations are basically all unbearable, but my metro area has a half-dozen public/community/campus stations that can be enjoyable or interesting.

I just drove home, and spent 20 minutes listening to a host on the radio talking to a researcher about evolved preferences for non-mates in humans. It was pretty interesting, and not something I'd have stumbled upon otherwise.

The removal of FM radio from cell phones was a big mistake. It should never have allowed. Radio is very useful in emergencies.

Lately I have been getting back in to internet radio, mostly via Elisa in KDE. Here is my favorite internet stream: https://hawaiireggaenetwork.com/

The frequencies are alive with music in Brazil. Among the broad (and excellent) variety of local music are three stations that play an eclectic variety of foreign music from around the world. One station features a lot of rare or more unusual recordings of music from the 60s through the 2000s. Sure you’ve heard Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” a million times on the radio but you probably haven’t heard the version by Heartbreak Klub, an Australian rock-pop band. Or one of the live recordings of “Going to California” with John Paul Jones’ extended mandolin solo.

It’s great because they stream online so when I’m back home and don’t know what to listen to, it’s always an option.

For those interested - https://itapemafm.com.br/

My sad guess: radio will make less and less money, until the point owners view the spectrum as more valuable than the revenue left to extract from it, and ATT or the like will buy them out (after buying out the FCC) and use it for something else.

I loved pirate radio in London in the 90s. It was so vital. There was nowhere else that you could hear tracks that new unless you were at a club or the handful of record shops where DJs hung out. You could phone in and they would give you a shout out! We would record the Sunday specials on Kool FM and listen to them the rest of the week. Good times.

I remember few years ago listening to a radio interviewer with popular folk singer, the interview was over the phone so host at the end said that some day this singer should visit them in studio for proper interview, to which the singer replied: "If I visit you in studio for interview, will you play some of my songs?", to which the host with slight embarrassment admitted that they are not allowed to play outside the playlist.

5G Broadcast is too little too late to the party but seems like a nice idea to preserve the medium. My phone has 3,5mm jack but no FM Tuner...

In a way it’s the same phenomenon as TV channels with fixed programming replaced by cable and the streaming video. Newspaper vs curated feeds. There is an exploit vs explore tradeoff in all of these. The newer versions lean heavier on exploit, so explore suffers. Explore is the ‘broadening horizons’ bit that some other comments refer to.

Automation / machines tend to make things more efficient and we shouldn’t shy away from automation, but they can also reduce the human connection. I think the same thing will happen with AI generated art - l human generated art can be a spiritual experience meaning you can connect with another human through art - but if a masterpiece like Cypress Trees in Wheat Fields is AI generated, there isn’t a connection with the human artist. Consequently we must consciously turn to other places to keep human connection strong.

Yeah, I too long listened to radio after being a DJ in college. WXRT in Chicago was my go to. It's still running and I just listened to maybe 30 minutes: so many ads! I do enjoy the DJ banter and local references but with all the ads it ain't worth it.

It's not quite the same, but I do like firing up https://radio.garden/ on occasion and rotating through international channels (after getting around the geoblock in the UK). Theres a random Arctic Outpost AM broadcasting from Longyearbyen I stick on for background noise.

College radio is still a thing. I've discovered some good music via WRUV (UVM). WERS (Emerson College) dropped the Rockers reggae show when they changed their programming back in 2013, but I should try streaming again and see what it's like these days.

> I don’t have XM radio

Well, that's where a lot of this type of content is (seemingly, at least) alive and well right now. Satellite appears to be here to stay, and can provide tremendous value on long drives. Particularly if you're doing a lot of them.

I'd love to see more FM stations return to human DJs, and human curated playlists. But until/unless that happens, we still need somewhere for those skills to be utilized and refined.

There was a great college radio in my city growing up, the commercial shit though; I don't want to hear the same songs everyday.

I'm so thankful for the BBC.

I listen to Radio 4 through the day when I'm working on things that don't need my full concentration.

It's the alarm that wakes me at 0630 and I often listen to the news before bed.

Adverts drive me insane. It's a national treasure and I'd pay the licence fee again just for R4 + Sounds.

I quite like the "new" WKRP (in Cincinnati of course), it doesn't seem to be a corporate cookie-cutter kind of station, and it plays the kind of thing the TV version would probably play today (and they even use the same jingles):

https://www.iheart.com/live/wkrp-10724/

I listen to radio a lot. NTS, FIP, Concertzender. It's a great way to discover new music and have some human presence.

Recently a DJ with excellent music taste and a deep radio-perfect voice died. I was devastated when I got the news. The two remaining radio shows in his slot were something I'll remember forever. One unbelievably raw, as it was only two days since he died, the other beautiful, as everyone came with music and stories to remember him.

You don't get this connection over streaming.

RIP Bob Rusche

Hm I actually heard some great and rare metal on FM radio in Philadelphia the other day -- and I was SURPRISED because I thought radio was dead too

I just Googled and it turns out it was https://wkdu.org/ 91.7 FM, Drexel University college radio! Woohoo something is alive out there !!

And I just found the playlist of the exact show I listened to, on Thursday July 16th - https://wkdu.org/playlist/71388

I've been working on a streaming platform for musicians as a passion project for the last decade partly because the analog radio shows have become a dying breed. Web-based indie radio shows are lots of fun because they're very close to the best radio shows from my own youth when most radio DJ:s still were curators and experts in the music they played. And they have the feeling of community and genuine passion for the hobby.

There's definitely still demand for quality radio shows but I guess it just makes more money if you play whatever the big studios pay you to play. But its the same thing with television as well; many indie channels on YouTube produce MUCH better content than anything you can see on the traditional TV or Netflix.

The only radio show I ever particularly liked was Jeff Gilbert's "Brain Pain" in the late 80s, on KCMU 90.3. He played metal music, particularly from the local Seattle bands.

What was fun about it was his irreverent sense of humor, the silly contests he'd run, the ads that made no sense, and all the drugged out band members he'd invite to the station.

I still have several cassettes of Brain Pain. Lost treasures, I presume. I wound up buying many of the albums he spun.

Very disappointed with the US FCC's ~2020 decision to REQUIRE EMAIL for a 1920s technology (access to, via their 10yr-cycle licensing online nightmare).

I recently went to renew my legal callsign, and apparently now email is a required attribute; if an email from them "bounces" then you get your callsign revoked.

My PO Box is no longer enough for them. I don't use email anymore. Radio silence.

>"Onair decorum prevents honest expression of how I really feel..."

>So I guess it's a gonna be a final:

>73//silentkeyKG5???//onmyfinalrogerALLCLEAR>>>rogerroger

----

Ya'll can go to hell, too.

Was sad to hear about the fate of WMHD. Growing up in the US around that time college radio and left-of-the-dial stations were the only places you'd get introduced to different stuff.

In my neck of the woods, Vancouver, Canada, nothing happened to radio. It was shit in the 1980s and it's the same today.

Wait! Except for one major improvement. There is a station CJNY ("The Journey") at 106.3 FM, which is run by Indigenous people:

https://www.cjnyfm.ca/about/

Good radio died in the mid 80s.

Most people today can hardly remember when radio was curated live. Perhaps if you were near a small station you might have had the experience. Most major markets were completely corporate by the early 90s.

I know, my first career pick was radio, and by the time I was in college at a college radio station in the late 90s. That career path was dead unless I wanted to be in marketing or sales, which I had no interest in.

Little factoid about my username, it was my pirate station call letters from when I was running my own small station with a hand built FM transmitter in the 90s.

Is it disk jockey? As an IT nerd I am a disk jockey. Radio guys are disc jockeys.

Like as in spinning discs.

Can someone be a disc jockey and not know they are not disk jockeys? Not sure. Or maybe I'm mistaken

Human DJs at still around on college radio.

KUHF used to run classical music programming nearly exclusively up until 2011. Since then it's been relegated to their HD-2 channel and ran by some computer algorithm. If all you have is an old analog radio there is genuinely nothing to listen to around here.

Still a few great ones hanging around, like WBER in Rochester: https://wber.org/

Shout out to WFMU. Listen, donate.

I was still listening to Jim Ladd and Uncle Joe on Sunday nights… maybe 15-20 years ago. They’d play a whole album, say Dark Side of the Moon and tell all the stories about it, sometimes even with recorded interviews they’d done.

Today there’s KCRW locally and it’s good though getting blander.

I am too young to know about US radio in the 80s or 90s, but I enjoy some of the local and independent stations. I even collected some of their streams after I gave up Spotify: https://yaky.dev/radio/

I cherish BBC Radio.

For those of is living in and near Seattle (and as of recently San Fransisco) KEXP is still on the air and is still amazing as ever (if not even more so).

(2009)ish

And a very American/mainstream-centric view of things. Radio (especially from the view of things in 2009) in more niche/underground circles was and in some regards still is a driving force of music curation and community in other parts of the world like the UK, parts of the EU and beyond.

Does radio have to be on the FM band? Do we count streaming like via YouTube, twitch and other platforms the same as Radio? I'd say yes. And in that regard, the spirit of radio and the format/feel the author recalls still very much exists.

Jim Grey and I knew all the same people at WMHD yet somehow never ran into each other. I was an annoying high school student. Ron Dippold (he ran usenet votes for a long time) was there, among others.

When I was digging through old VHS tapes, I digitized a couple TV spots and put them on youtube; passing them along to Jim.

Best advice I got when I got to San Jose was from an old recruiter - she must have been 30!

She said the Bay Area is big, but the Silicon Valley is small.

I think about her advice a lot.

The radio world is even smaller. I tried out at WZZQ when I was in high school, but didn't make the cut.

1982 KMEL 107.1 out of San Francisco.

This is peak old man yells at cloud.

There's so much good radio to be had since the arrival of the internet. Not even talking about online-only, but actual radio stations who also stream. Maybe there's less cool broadcast stations in any given area, but our overall exposure via internet is incredible. Just search for free-form radio. If you have a college in your area, you probably have interesting radio and DJs on the airwaves.

The article ends with giving up, ipod + KPFA news, which just seems wild. Never has there been a time where there's more music available.

I never got into the habit of listening to "the radio", in the sense of an AM or FM station broadcasting over the air on some frequency in a general metropolitan area. I remember listening to the radio stations my parents liked to listen to in the car as a kid. But by the time I was old enough to drive myself, I had already owned an mp3 player for a while, and if I wanted to listen to music in (my parents') car I could plug it into a cassette deck adapter - it's not like any local radio station near me was gonna play the Final Fantasy VII OST or a mix that went from Eve 6 to Jethro Tull to Blind Guardian to an bluegrass version of the Bubble Bobble theme I found on OCRemix. Plus, no commercials.

And if I wasn't actively driving a car at the moment, I probably had something I could be doing with a computer, perhaps involving a YouTube video, or just listening to my own extremely idiosyncratic music choices, that was more interesting than a local radio station, even if I technically owned some kind of device that could receive an FM signal.

Soon enough I had a smartphone and then a smartphone with a mobile internet connection whose cap was generous enough that I didn't need to think hard about how I was using it. And it turns out that having the entire internet available to me on a handheld device subsumes everything I might get out of listening to a radio station - including the modality of listening to audio while I'm doing something else, which might well come from an internet radio station anywhere in the world.

It occurs to me when I listen to a podcast while I'm working out at the gym or driving a car today (via my phone) that the actual auditory experience of this isn't drastically different than how people were consuming talk radio shows decades ago (down the fact that many of them have ads). The techniques for speaking in an engaging way to an audience, or having an engaging conversation between multiple people, are still valid; many podcasts I listen to address listener messages on the program, just like a weekly radio show might do - some even try to replicate the experience of a listener calling in live on a phone.

The business models that work today are of course drastically different than the ones that worked on radio decades ago, and the fact that audience isn't at all limited by physical location means that the sorts of audio content that gets streamed over the internet today are systematically different from what would've been the case on a radio show. I think this is mostly for the better though - more variety, more democratic access to the medium, and no FCC to regulate what you can and cannot legally say on regulated radio spectrum.

As far as I'm concerned, everything that's good about the content of AM/FM radio has been replicated on the general internet, and I have no particular reason to care if the radio signal carrying it to my ears comes from a licensed FM station or the 5G connection from my phone to a cell phone tower.

>I signed off the air for the last time in 1994 [...] radio has changed drastically, and it just wouldn’t be any fun for me today.

I don't agree with this premise. FM Radio is definitely more corporate today, but I grew up in the 90s and my memories of FM radio are not fond.

For my whole life it has always been materially the same, shitty, experience: occasional good songs interleaved with mediocre ones and a hefty dose of annoying unskippable ads.

The difference is that when I was a kid we didn't have streaming or even mp3 players so we just had to put up with the ads. Today I can just play songs locally off my phone via Bluetooth. No ads, no DJs, just the music I enjoy.

I'll never forget Dennis Erectus on KOME 98.5 (the wet spot on your dial) in 80's Silicon Valley.

"Video killed the radio star."

I was always a fan of talk radio. In the late 80s and early 90s there were so many diverse and interesting talk radio shows. And many times they were local and accessible, I was able to get on the air several times. But then Rush Limbaugh exploded and eventually angry right wing politics took over everything except sports and NPR.

A whole bunch of local stations got bought up by a web sales optimisation company. They do a really good job tbh. They leave the radio station in tact but just advertise their ability to make websites + google seo + advertise via radio and billboard in one package. If it keeps the station going its a nothingburger.

Theres also a local christian radio station I am only aware of because the guy fixing my fence was blasting it on his stereo. They were taking donations the entire time. I am sincerely not interested but they seem to deliver what their listeners want too.

Meh, haven't missed radio in ages. If I have no control over the content, then the medium isn't for me.

What's up with US radio names sounding like amazon chinese electronic devices autogenerated brands with just a string of random letters?

Weren't they allowed to have "normal" names like anywhere else in the world?