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- Hacker News
- 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.
by petepete - I listen to podcasts all day while working and I am JEALOUS of your access to radio 4 and sounds. There is so much just insanely killer content coming out of the BBC in those avenues.by Loughla
- Also listened in the car but since they've recently shut down the LW tower I can't receive it anymore in the midlands, only occasionally get FM signal.by veltas
- 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
by chubot - Nonprofit radio stations are the last vestige of the old days. NPR, college-run stations, and public access.
- 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.by mlmartin
- My town has a listener-supported community radio station with all volunteer DJs who play whatever. I love tuning in and getting random music. And, unlike the robo stations, I rarely hear anything I've heard before. It's the only music station I have programmed in on my car. (My car is 26 years old--does the terminology still work? Maybe I should say "favorited". :) )by beej71
- 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.by dvh
- It depends on the station.
The BBC often does as you say and even if the interview is down a phone line they will play a record. Some shows have the musicians playing live. Other UK stations do similar.
by pasc1878 - 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
- Hey,
I can receive RNZ on shortwave on the East Coast of USA! About 10,000 miles away if we count the signal bouncing multiple times between the ionosphere and the ground.
by kanbankaren - 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.by t0mpr1c3
- 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/
by waveforms - Agree. The only problem about radio is requiring wired headphones to serve as antenna.
Do flagship Snapdragon SOCs still have radio? Thinking about next GOS compatible Motorola-branded device, the first device GOS will support with Snapdragon.
by user2722 - I have a car with it - even HD - and I thought I would use it more.
But every time I try it out, the stations are playing a loud advertisement.
by m463 - If I remember correctly, wasn't that because you can't fit proper antenna into the phone?
Something-something antenna 1/4 of the wavelength physics. And FM wave is roughly 3 meters long.
When people carried antennas (headphone cords) around it was handy, but not a lot of people would carry antenna now
by lesostep - If you mandate FM for this reason what else will you mandate? Morse code scanning for SOS?
Cellphones got cellphone emergency broadcasts before they lost FM radio, so they still show emergency broadcasts.
by inigyou - I don't think I ever used the FM feature on my phone, except purely to test out whether it worked. I wouldn't make phone purchasing decisions based on whether or not it had a FM radio. A regulation requiring it in the ostensible name of safety would make phones somewhat more expensive and I'm skeptical that it would even help improve safety in an emergency significantly.by JuniperMesos
- 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.
by Marsymars - I enjoy the radio. I have a few stations I’ll cycle through at home and in the car. But all nonprofit/college /etc.
Most US commercial radio is very bad. I don’t really understand why the playlists are so small, and why they don’t even occasionally play lesser-known songs by the big acts. Like, why don’t classic rock stations play deeper cuts by Led Zeppelin, Pearl Jam, etc. instead of the same hit singles over and over for decades? How can that be what listeners want? People who work in retail environments with a repeated playlist usually say they hate it for obvious reasons.
It’s as if those TV stations that show The Office and Seinfeld every night showed the same five episodes every week.
by smelendez - 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.
- The BBC hasn't been cut in the name of austerity. It isn't funded by general taxation it's funded by the licence fee, which has only risen, however not in line with inflation. This is basically because nobody wants to pay it, and indeed a huge number of people have stopped paying it.by adammarples
- > Fine - but young people don’t yet have a complete mental map of what culture they enjoy.
Spotify and the likes will suggest new and different things for people to listen to. Apple has a special app just for classical music, which is the highest level of musical culture.
> 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.
They have advertisements for those who don't pay the subscription. Radio has always had advertisements also. And nobody is too broke to afford Spotify. Every broke young person I've known have had a Spotify subscription, they're dirt cheap.
For the past 25 years, I've turned on the radio about once a year, and every time it's been just sewage. Whether that's government produced sewage or corporate produced sewage. The quality of podcasts and music streaming is on a quality level which radio never reached.
> 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.
Very much agree.
by carlosjobim - > In the UK, funding for libraries [] has been increasingly cut in the name of austerity.
Focusing on one thing here, for convenience. The problem remains that costs are up far in excess of budgets - austerity be damned! We are forced to prioritise, cutting the generally useful but "non-essential". (There is often a legal duty to the essential things)
https://ifs.org.uk/publications/how-have-english-councils-fu...
Is a great breakdown. To illustrate my argument see Table 1. Real-terms spending per person by service area, various years (2024–25 prices)
> Within total service spending, per-person spending on children’s social care services [] increased by 11% in real terms. Spending on adult social care [] was also relatively protected, falling by only 2%. This meant much larger cuts to other services: more than 40% in the case of housing, culture and leisure, and highways and transport, and nearly 60% cuts to planning and development.
We cut what _could_ be cut, and that's a prioritisation call.
edit: now in https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/fixing...
Great rabbit hole for my Wednesday morning! :D
by Ntrails - 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.
by mobilene - My son got used to listening to the local classic rock station i100 and one thing that is really fun is that the DJ's are local performers and celebrities. The station promoted an event for Ronnie James Dio last weekend
https://mastodon.social/@UP8/tagged/dioday
and this guy and another DJ were there with their own bands
https://mastodon.social/@UP8/116954456921377276
Even though the station is run by remote control much of the time and the sales manager recently got poached by the Buffalo Bills it's so much fun to get to know these people in real life. (I appreciate it how Billy, pictured, plays alternative rock, kinda like Green Day, even if the station's playlist got closed out around 1992)
by PaulHoule - Check out bandcamp. It’s artist focused and they have shows with DJs that focus on highlighting new releases.
I even subscribe to one for Metal for $10/months they’ll give you a new album every month like one of those old CD clubs. Interviews and listening parties too.
If you are looking for a sense of community like radio used to have, it’s a lot closer than podcasts IMO. Everyone has a podcast but this is something else.
by mingus88 - Radio also was your connection to your city and the city's youth communities. Which are now fragmented, subcultures, and frequently dominated by someone trying to make the scene into their living. As far as I know, nothing has filled that community void, and community itself is dying.by bsenftner
- I miss DJs with taste and encyclopedic knowledge of their music would challenge their listeners, educate them, expose them to new things. Variations on themes, new artists, connections with old ones. Now, I guess they read the blurb and hit the button on the canned program.
Shouts to Pierre Robert (rip), John DeBella, Cyndy Drue, etc at WMMR and WYSP (rip). They still let Jacky Bam Bam play the real stuff sometimes; at least the bots take a break for his show.
by imglorp - BBC 6music has a lot of great DJs, Chris Hawkins being my favourite with plenty of banter for a 5am show. While it's just a Friday late night show: Ashley Storrie on BBC Radio Scotland and don't be surprised if you hear the same listeners sending in messages on both stations. But then, they aren't commercial stations with less pressure. Whenever I have to listen to an Austrian (where I live) station I get bored. Even the public funded stations have commercials or, even more annoying, un-labeled advertising for the lottery.by TomK32