Fewer cars with AM radios...

[gr8oldies]

It is fair to say that Radio Hobbyists have always been in the minority, however that 0.1% still amounts to a good 340,000 people, and to put that in perspective, this website has 37,000 members, so we have a good pool to draw from. Regardless, I don't think of Dxing as a popular hobby, and that's probably a good thing, as those ham bands would otherwise be so congested that no-one can use them.

That is my point as well. It's harder to attract people to the hobby nowadays, but it's still doable. Also, you mention SW, but considering that the content has fallen drastically on that band, it's just not the same place anymore.I don't personally use TuneIn, but I have easy access to IHM stations and Audacy stations on my phone, and I have an echo dot.

That is unfortunately the truth. When I began Dxing, a lot of the alternatives we have today just didn't exist. Now that they do, I'm definitely happy to have such easy access, although it does make me wonder if I would be on this forum if I had the Alexa back then. The funny thing, is that humans (like myself) like to defy logic for some reason, and I suspect there will be at least some number of Dxers for the next few generations, or I hope.

Actually you can! Almost all phones have a FM chip, and at least 2/5ths have a built in FM app. Alternatively, you can download an app that activates your tuner (I have used NextRadio before), or there's an SDR app as well, but you have to buy a $40 dongle for it. You can also practice AM/SW dxing by using an Internet SDR like Kiwi for free. Okay, I'm starting to sound like an advertisement, LOL.

There was a thread on here about San Diego citizens getting "international charges" on their phones without ever leaving the country. I think @DavidEduardo knows which one I'm referring to.

That's what I said as well.

Agreed with you here. I'm typing from my phone as we speak, and I can play games or scroll Facebook for hours on end. But I was referring to the music options. Have you noticed that SXM tends to repeat itself in the playlist department?

If it wasn't that thread, there was another, either RD or Facebook. mentioning U.S. users Seeing Rogers on their phones right on the Lake Erie shoreline and getting international roaming warnings. Same with users in Michigan having their clock on their phone showing an hour behind when their phone was hitting a Chicago area tower.

 

[CTListener]

Not anymore. Now that most smartphones have eliminated the headphone jack, and thus most people are using wireless earbuds, there is no longer a headphone cord to act as an antenna, so most new smartphones either have the FM tuner function disabled, or don't have it at all.

I didn't realize that the headphone jack was disappearing across all smartphone manufacturers. My current phone is a Motorola 4G model, bought last December, and it has the jack. Is Motorola removing the jack on its 5G phones?

 

[gr8oldies]

Even back in my youth, in the 1960s and '70s, DXing was not a thing for most people, other than hams, which were about 0.1% of the population when I was first licensed in 1970. More people owned portable radios with shortwave included (usually one band, 4-12 or 6-18 MHz, usually with no bandspread) than today, but they were still an extreme minority. They allowed people to listen to the BBC, VOA, the big European and Asian services, and not much else. I don't recall seeing those on the store shelves after 1980 or so.

And now, with streaming, why would anyone bother? I rarely listen to SW broadcasts now, what with 15,000 or more available streams on TuneIn and the other streaming services. DXing via radio is an activity who's time is just about gone, and it probably isn't coming back.

I knew a handful of DXers, some who became hams. I met one of them via the letter segment of Happy Station on Radio Nederland. I messed around with SWL and DXing some, looking for top 40 music. I accidentally met a guy in my neighborhood who was a CBer before the "Convoy" craze.....I contacted him via a walkie-talkie from Western Auto. He talked locally and worked skip. I eventually got a portable radio with multibands, then a Realistic DX150A, and in 1980, a Sony ICF5900W, which was my companion through the late 90s.

 

[davideduardo]

Actually you can! Almost all phones have a FM chip, and at least 2/5ths have a built in FM app. Alternatively, you can download an app that activates your tuner (I have used NextRadio before), or there's an SDR app as well, but you have to buy a $40 dongle for it. You can also practice AM/SW dxing by using an Internet SDR like Kiwi for free. Okay, I'm starting to sound like an advertisement, LOL.

iPhones do not, and since they don't have a conventional ear bud jack, they can't be used for FM. Jacks are disappearing from other brands, too.

And most of the newer smart phones do not have FM circuitry. The initiative lead by Emmis and Jeff Smulyan some years back failed due to lack of full industry support and the feeling by phone manufacturers that users could get all the entertainment they wanted via streaming... which Telcos supported as they got usage charges out of that and not out of radio listening.

Nobody but a radio geek is going to buy an add-on adapter to get what they perceive that they get for free online.

Agreed with you here. I'm typing from my phone as we speak, and I can play games or scroll Facebook for hours on end. But I was referring to the music options. Have you noticed that SXM tends to repeat itself in the playlist department?

All music playlists repeat the songs that the majority of people to whom that kind of music appeals like the best.

 

[davideduardo]

Apple has been known to do this type of thing in order to promote their own services, and as you might expect, people have protested and filed suit. Unfortunately, Apple is still pulling this nonsense. At least you can still get on Safari, and look up a web-based SDR to mess around with.

Apple is fully supported here by the cellular phone companies, because they want usage that they can bill for.

 

[boombox4]

The future is the smartphone with apps for everything, and everything being nothing more than content. That day actually is already here, it just hasn't completely erased the old tech way of doing things quite yet (radio, TV, cable TV, satellite radio, etc.). In 20-30 years there will be no TV stations, probably no radio stations, no satellite radio (or TV) to speak of, and cable will be only an internet provider for Luddites the way DSL is now.

It won't be needed because everything will be 5G. The entertainment dash in the car will be no different. Just a bigger version of a smartphone.

We're also in an era where content is everything, and everything is content. You on the radio are competing with a gazillion other, diverse content providers on TikTok and YT and every other social media website that has any form of content. Every content provider is competing for the consumer's time with gazillions of other content providers, and the consumer has only so much time to pull them away from their latest conspiracy video or goofy distraction on TikTok to listen to a 'radio station' play music they can already get somewhere else.

I don't like the future in some ways. I actually liked AM and FM radio, I had no problem with actual newspapers (I worked for one for a while), and I worked in the radio industry for 20 years. But what I think about progress isn't going to change it.

I think cars having no AM radios is a sign of how things are progressing. Eventually FM will be next. It's the day of the app and the day of big tech trying to make everything proprietary, mobile phone delivered and subscription modelled.

The only thing slowing it down is the current state of the economy, which is still reeling from the pandemic.

 

[Lester_the_NightFly]

Another possibility the EV group is eliminating AM is to prevent warranty work on AM reception problems. "It's noisy or it keeps getting weak then strong again..."
Also I'd think the cost of filtering the EMF noise from the rest of the vehicle, (at the various sources), could get expensive.

The other conversation of becoming subscription bases vehicles... wow, how much money does a corp need to take from their customers.

 

[Kelly A]

Another possibility the EV group is eliminating AM is to prevent warranty work on AM reception problems. "It's noisy or it keeps getting weak then strong again..."
Also I'd think the cost of filtering the EMF noise from the rest of the vehicle, (at the various sources), could get expensive.

The other conversation of becoming subscription bases vehicles... wow, how much money does a corp need to take from their customers.

All valid points. Adding to the first one: For as much as people think manufacturers don't care about the performance of in-vehicle entertainment systems, those people couldn't be more wrong. Vehicle manufacturers put customer experience while in the car as a top priority. If something sounds awkwardly inferior to all the other choices, they indeed may avoid having a customer stumble across it. As has been mentioned here; The vast majority of Millennials and Gen-Z, don't even know AM exists.

Regarding the last point: Heard on the radio just yesterday, that BMW is going to start charging $18 a month for the used of seat heaters. What they haven't learned apparently; is it's always harder to take something away from customers, than it is to throw it in as an option or standard equipment for the life of the vehicle.

 

[gr8oldies]

I think it. would be a mistake to completely eliminate free over the air broadcasting. Folks complaining about Big Tech? Wait until ATTVerizonYouTubeChartercast controls all audio, including what you have to pay to hear it

 

[michael hagerty]

All valid points. Adding to the first one: For as much as people think manufacturers don't care about the performance of in-vehicle entertainment systems, those people couldn't be more wrong. Vehicle manufacturers put customer experience while in the car as a top priority. If something sounds awkwardly inferior to all the other choices, they indeed may avoid having a customer stumble across it. As has been mentioned here; The vast majority of Millennials and Gen-Z, don't even know AM exists.

Regarding the last point: Heard on the radio just yesterday, that BMW is going to start charging $18 a month for the used of seat heaters. What they haven't learned apparently; is it's always harder to take something away from customers, than it is to throw it in as an option or standard equipment for the life of the vehicle.

BMW tried a subscription model to allow Apple CarPlay or Android Auto in its vehicles a couple of years ago. They abandoned it and went back to free in six months. I thought they’d learned their lesson on that one.

 

[Kelly A]

BMW tried a subscription model to allow Apple CarPlay or Android Auto in its vehicles a couple of years ago. They abandoned it and went back to free in six months. I thought they’d learned their lesson on that one.

Apparently not.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Also I'd think the cost of filtering the EMF noise from the rest of the vehicle, (at the various sources), could get expensive.

It's not a problem. Just don't listen to K-Love.

 

[ZantennaG1]

iPhones do not, and since they don't have a conventional ear bud jack, they can't be used for FM. Jacks are disappearing from other brands, too.

Even iPhones used to have one, but now it's all about the "Air Pods"!

... which Telcos supported as they got usage charges out of that and not out of radio listening.

A big corporation that doesn't want any competition? Why am I not suprised? --- As an aside, they have done a great job of pretending that those subscriptions don't eventually add up, but for some people it does. $7/month here, $5 there, $9 for that, etc. So the PR that these Telcos as well as the various streaming services do is amazing.
--- I think it would be worth having the FCC look it over, but I imagine they won't, since phones have EAS alerts and stuff already.

Nobody but a radio geek is going to buy an add-on adapter to get what they perceive that they get for free online.

True. Not every phone, however, would require something like this, but it is an option.

All music playlists repeat the songs that the majority of people to whom that kind of music appeals like the best.

Absolutely, but whatever FM does, SXM manages to double or triple that. I once heard Gerry Rafferty thrice (yes, 3!) during a simple 15 minute commute. Good thing I like him, or I would've gone insane. I think this was on Yacht Rock or Classic Rewind, if I remember correctly.

Would you say that most stations have about 200 tracks on hand, or is it some other number?

 

[davideduardo]

Would you say that most stations have about 200 tracks on hand, or is it some other number?

It varies by format.

CHR may be around 80 songs outside of special shows like mixes, etc.
Hot AC might be under 200
AC 300 to 350
Adult Hits (Jack and friends) 600 to 800.
Classic Hits: 400 to 600

It depends on the number of currents played per hour. Current based formats like CHR, Churban, Urban, Contemporary Country, Regional Mexican, Spanish language CHR will have a small group of songs that play very often, and thus need fewer recurrents and very little gold. So, smaller library.

Classic rock, Classic hits, Adult Hits, Spanish Adult Hits, Classic Country have more songs as they don't play high rotation currents.

 

[ZantennaG1]

It varies by format.

CHR may be around 80 songs outside of special shows like mixes, etc.
Hot AC might be under 200
AC 300 to 350
Adult Hits (Jack and friends) 600 to 800.
Classic Hits: 400 to 600

It depends on the number of currents played per hour. Current based formats like CHR, Churban, Urban, Contemporary Country, Regional Mexican, Spanish language CHR will have a small group of songs that play very often, and thus need fewer recurrents and very little gold. So, smaller library.

Classic rock, Classic hits, Adult Hits, Spanish Adult Hits, Classic Country have more songs as they don't play high rotation currents.

Thank you for the list!

 

[davideduardo]

Thank you for the list!

Obviously, every station adjusts the list to their market and the results of their research and music tests. But those are good "generalized" estimates.

 

[kwthom]

You could always leave the Apple cult and worship the true god of Android, you know.

Sure, and I could become Amish and buy a horse and buggy for transportation. Pretty unlikely for either.

It's not like the Google cult is any better.

I presently am using the Google Pixel 6. No tuner access in the Verizon version.

Install the Nextradio app to determine whether or not you have access to your tuner on your smartphone.

 

[Kelly A]

It's not like the Google cult is any better.

At least any Google cult is much higher in number than radio nerds. Consumers buy the brand of phone they're used to, or prefer the user experience. Anyone here that assumes consumers are looking for broadcast radio reception from their phone, is living in an alternative universe.

 

[ZantennaG1]

It's not like the Google cult is any better.

I presently am using the Google Pixel 6. No tuner access in the Verizon version.

🤣 Come join the Samsung cult then!

Install the Nextradio app to determine whether or not you have access to your tuner on your smartphone.

This is what I do as well!

 

[michael hagerty]

This conversation popped up in a friend's Facebook thread, and I think I found what is causing a lot of confusion.

The Chrysler Pacifica has AM. But, for radio, it shows SiriusXM and whatever band the AM/FM radio was last on. So, you see "FM".

https://youtu.be/PDbgmTzQ6-g?t=903

You actually have to push the button marked "sources" at the top of the menu to see both of the bands for OTA radio:

https://youtu.be/PDbgmTzQ6-g?t=1001