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Car Radio Button Questions for David and Others

Steve Green NEPA

Steve Green NEPA

More and more dash radio buttons have gone out of style as you read this, but I figure I'd ask. And I'll limit the parameters to what I presume most of us are used to operating. -- the 5-buttons.
All right. Make it 10. 5 AM and 5 FM.
@ David:: I'm asking under the rigid belief that the first button is the most used, and maybe even with the number worn off ; the main source in every vehicle ever to start up. And the second one is the alternate 'better than nothing' default. And if the rest were somehow graphed on a readout, the arrow would fall off the cliff during the 3rd one -- the 'desperation' option button.
Is that the case, from what you've seen over the years in your travels? That P4's and 5' buttons are mostly abandoned since the factory settings?
@ Others: Do you arrange the pre-sets that way -- in order of choice ? And do some of you radio geeks like me maybe even set the buttons to where the stations would've appeared on an analog dial?
A NYC example for the latter might go WFAN - WABC - WCBS - WINS - WNJR.
Just curious. Your mileage may vary.
Tag! You're it!
 
When people on here refer to "P1" or "P2", it has nothing to do with the buttons on the car dashboard. It's P for "Preference".

Most cars recent cars have omitted physical buttons for radio presets, opting instead for a touchscreen, so it's almost an anachronistic question.

My car is one of the no-buttons type. I have zero AM presets set in my car. The FMs are in the order I added them, which is sort of random. At least two of the presets have changed formats since I bought the car, but I didn't remove them (yet)
 
My setup is pretty much the same as @PTBoardOp94. My car also doesn't have physical buttons, but lists the frequency of each preset across the bottom of the screen for me to touch. Mine are also random, not in the order of most often selected and not all are still relevant from when programmed. My 1st button is always the station I go to when I get into the car most times. I don't recall what's on the 2nd preset. 3rd happens to be my 2nd favorite station. Preset 4 is there because it was the Christmas station one year so I added it to the presets, though they haven't played holiday stuff in a few seasons. I'm usually always listening to "button" 1, "button" 3 or streaming from my phone. I also quite often scan through the dial to see what's there or check out the programming on various stations. I don't have any AM presets, only really listen to 1 station on AM and that's on rare occasion and it's always the one that comes on when I switch from the FM to the AM band.
 
I have no AM presets and six FM presets. The AM presets are in ascending frequency order -- 88.1, 94.7, 95.3, 100.5, 105.3, 106.7 -- and all are listened to during the course of an average week. If you asked me which I listen to most, I'd say 100.5, narrowly, but since three of the others are in the same format (country), a lot of button pushing takes place. Conveniently, #1 is classical, #6 is oldies.
The rest of my presets are SiriusXM channels, including all the MLB play-by-play channels, which will go into hibernation in early November. Musically, they range from country to classic rock to classical to R&B.
Car is a '13 Chevy, virtual buttons showing frequency.
 
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Steve Green NEPA said:
More and more dash radio buttons have gone out of style as you read this, but I figure I'd ask. And I'll limit the parameters to what I presume most of us are used to operating. -- the 5-buttons.
All right. Make it 10. 5 AM and 5 FM.
@ David:: I'm asking under the rigid belief that the first button is the most used, and maybe even with the number worn off ; the main source in every vehicle ever to start up. And the second one is the alternate 'better than nothing' default. And if the rest were somehow graphed on a readout, the arrow would fall off the cliff during the 3rd one -- the 'desperation' option button.
Is that the case, from what you've seen over the years in your travels? That P4's and 5' buttons are mostly abandoned since the factory settings?
@ Others: Do you arrange the pre-sets that way -- in order of choice ? And do some of you radio geeks like me maybe even set the buttons to where the stations would've appeared on an analog dial?
A NYC example for the latter might go WFAN - WABC - WCBS - WINS - WNJR.
Just curious. Your mileage may vary.
Tag! You're it!
Click to expand...
On my actual vehicles, I will arrange stations by favorite/genre, so I have four rockers followed by a few country stations, and an NPR affiliate, also by signal strength. Therefore P1 is not only my favorite station because of the content, but I never have to worry that it will go out on me whilst in town.

Although both vehicles have 12 presets a band, I'll list the top 5 as per OP's request and for readibility.

AM is chronological for Dxing purposes:
P1 is 560, good signal, and I like the content
P2 is 600, similarly good signal, but meh.
P3 is 650, best signal, but I really only tune in on Saturdays anyways.
P4 is 670, moderate to poor signal, but decent content.
P5 is 760, great signal, good content.

FM is based on whether they're any good to listen to, and if they come in well.
P1: 101.9, great signal, great music
P2: 102.5, local enough signal, slightly better selection of music.
P3: 93.3, sometimes good signal, but I like the music.
P4: 105.1, good signal 75% of the time, good music.
P5: 106.7 generally great signal, but not always my taste.

Meanwhile, on my portable radio with presets, it is strictly by chronological order for Dxing.
So, 560, 600, 630, 650, 670, and 88.1, 88.7, 89.1, 89.7, 90.1, for example.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
More and more dash radio buttons have gone out of style as you read this, but I figure I'd ask. And I'll limit the parameters to what I presume most of us are used to operating. -- the 5-buttons.
All right. Make it 10. 5 AM and 5 FM.
@ David:: I'm asking under the rigid belief that the first button is the most used, and maybe even with the number worn off ; the main source in every vehicle ever to start up. And the second one is the alternate 'better than nothing' default. And if the rest were somehow graphed on a readout, the arrow would fall off the cliff during the 3rd one -- the 'desperation' option button.
Is that the case, from what you've seen over the years in your travels? That P4's and 5' buttons are mostly abandoned since the factory settings?
@ Others: Do you arrange the pre-sets that way -- in order of choice ? And do some of you radio geeks like me maybe even set the buttons to where the stations would've appeared on an analog dial?
A NYC example for the latter might go WFAN - WABC - WCBS - WINS - WNJR.
Just curious. Your mileage may vary.
Tag! You're it!
Click to expand...
If I -did- still live on Long Island, and if I -did- have a radio that had push buttons, I would arrange them in order of frequency and my current list would be:
AM: WFAN-660 / WABC-770 / WCBS-880 / WEPN-1050 / WHLI-1100
FM: WINS-FM-92.3 (later this month!) / WNYC-FM-93.9 / WCBS-FM-101.1 / WFAN-FM-101.9 / W284DG (WHLI translator)-104.7
 
I barely listen to FM radio nowadays, 90% of my radio listening in-car is via 5G and an Echo Auto unit. So my presets are:
1. BBC Radio 1
2. BBC Radio 2 (you can see where this is going)
3. BBC local radio station (because BBC Radio 3 is very serious hard classical and not to my taste)
4. BBC Radio 4
5. blank
6. blank

There are other FM stations I could put on the presets, but I'd be putting them there solely because they exist, rather than because I might conceivably ever want to listen to them.

All my AM presets are blank. As others have said, P1 stands for Preference 1 and is used in radio to describe a hardcore, dedicated fan of the station - always calls in, enters the contests, attends the station events, etc.
 
Just noticed an irritating typo -- irritating because of this board's strict time limit on corrections -- in my post. The presets I referred to after mentioning that my AM presets were empty were, of course, my FM presets.

I've also noticed that I missed the OP's "5 and 5" stipulations. So I'll revise my lists to reflect "what if" rather than reality.
AM would still be blank. There is nothing I'd want to listen to on that band here in eastern Vermont that doesn't have an FM simulcast/translator. FM, assuming I kept the presets arranged by frequency, would be:
88.1 WNCH Norwich, VT, classical
94.7 W234BN Claremont, NH (translator of WCNL Newport, NH) classic country
100.5 WXXK Lebanon, NH, country
105.3 WJEN Killington, VT, country
106.7 W294AB Hanover, NH (translator of WHDQ-HD2 Lebanon, NH), oldies and Red Sox baseball

I had to drop another local country station, 95.3 WXLF Hartford, VT, from the list to get down to five. It would still be tuned manually on occasion if this were a real radio, though. I also occasionally manually tune 94.5 W235CC White River Junction, VT (translator of WHDQ-HD3), for ESPN sports talk and New England Patriots football.
 
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I only listen to FM really. I have FM 1 I only listen to because NYC has few choices in music: 1. Z100, 2. New 102.7, 3. KTU, 4. The Block, 5. Q104.3 6. Alt 92.3 (which will soon be 1010 WINS)
 
My Mazda doesn’t use numbered presets. It lets you set Favorites (no limits on how many). I simply arrange them in order of frequency. FM first (even in order of HD1, HD2) and after I get to the top of FM then I add the AM presets.
 
This is a thread that should be in the DX and Reception forum rather than here. But I'll add my presets here:

I have a 2019 Hyundai Elantra with the base stereo system. It has 40 presets for either AM or FM stations (No XM or Sirius) regardless of order in groups of 5. I really only use the first few sets with the first set being the main FM stations I listen to:

89.3 WAY-FM translator in Jackson, TN (CCM)
90.7 WZKV (K-KOVE) Dyersburg, TN (CCM)
92.3 WHHG Milan/Jackson, TN (Classic Rock)
100.1 WASL Dyersburg, TN (Jack FM)
103.1 WMXX Kool 103.1 Jackson, TN (70's and 80's Oldies)

The second set of 5 is second priority stations in the West TN area that I listen to occasionally and can change at times, mainly CCM and Classic Hits/Oldies. The third set is a few AM stations I very rarely listen to, mainly Sports and Oldies.

I have a mix of stations from trips I make occasionally to Memphis or Nashville on the fourth and fifth sets, and sixth and seventh sets are still empty and I've never used them. The eighth set is a repeat of the AM stations that I almost never use.
 
I'm anal enough to have them in frequency order, but the ones I listen to most are on the "FM1". (93.1 WNOX, 94.3 Jack FM, 95.7 The Duke, B97.5, News-Talk 98.7 and 103.5 WIMZ. I like a station near the beginning and end of the dial for DXing. I do have AM presets even without much to listen to. 580 WXRH, 700 WLW (available sunrise/sunset and nights only), 990 WNML (it's easy enough to get the FM tuning up from 98.7), 1180 WKCE, 1600---nothing, hold for DX.
Sirius XM. is my wife's car....The first row of buttons in 73 (formerly 6---60s Gold), 70s on 7, 8 (80s on 8), and she currently has country stations on 57, 58 and 59, thiough she hasn't decided on a replacement for Garth.
 
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On my cars with older radios I kept one FM preset on 87.7 or 87.9 for an MP3 transmitter and the beginning of the dial, and one on 540 for the beginning of the AM dial. I also kept what I called a floating FM preset open for stations I used that would change when I was traveling for work.
 
I have a 2004 Accord, which (of course) gives you physical buttons to push, but no way of viewing what a station is until you press the button.
In my home market (Seattle), my presets looked like this:
KZOK 102.5 (classic rock)
KJR 95.7 (classic hits)
KISW 99.9 (rock)
KIRO 97.3 (news/talk)
KNDD 107.7 (alternative)
KJAQ 96.5 (adult hits)

KIRO 710 (sports)
KNWN 1000 (news)
KIXI 880 (oldies)
KJR 950 (sports)
KTTH 770 (talk)
Blank

I left Seattle to move to Vancouver BC, and here’s what it looks like now.

CFMI 101.1 (classic rock/classic hits)
CFOX 99.3 (rock/alternative rock)
CJAX 96.9 (adult hits/classic hits)
CKKQ 100.3 (classic rock)
CKKS 104.9 (alternative rock)
KISM 92.9 (classic rock)

KIRO 710 (sports)
KNWN 1000 (news)
CKWX 1130 (news)
CKNW 980 (news/talk)
CISL 650 (sports)
CKGO 730 (traffic)
 
FWIW....Here's mine. Touchscreen, no buttons.

AM

670: WSCR
720: WGN
780: WBBM
1000: WMVP
1180: WSQR

FM

87.7: WWME
91.5: WBEZ
93.9: WLIT
94.7: WLS-FM
97.1: WDRV

I normally listen to Spotify or Apple music in the car.
 
In the days of mechanical pushbutton radios, I set them in the order they'd appear on the dial, just because it made sense to me at age 16 (1972) to do it that way. When I got my first digital tuner in the car (1984), I switched to order of preference.

I really only have two stations on my presets when I'm home in Sacramento these days, 90.9 FM (CapRadio News-NPR) and 88.9 FM (CapRadio Music---classical days/jazz nights). I work for CapRadio News.

If I'm not listening to a CapRadio station, I'm probably, like Cyberdad, listening to Apple Music, or maybe a podcast or my aircheck collection (which I keep in Apple Music playlists).

If I'm going to San Francisco, I'll add KQED (88.5, also NPR), KCSM (91.1---jazz from San Mateo Community College), KFRC (106.1, the simulcast of KCBS) and, just in case I'm in a bad reception area for 106.1, I'll set a button for KCBS (740).

In L.A., I'll go with KKJZ (88.1, Jazz from Cal State Long Beach) KPCC (89.3-NPR), KCRW (89.9-also NPR), KCBS (93.1-Jack), KTWV (94.7), KLOS (95.5), KNX-FM (97.1), KRTH (101.1) and KROQ (106.7) and probably set one for KNX (1070).

I have no idea why I'm more likely to listen to commercial music radio in L.A. than I am in Northern California---probably something to do with having grown up with those stations in some form or another and feeling at home with them despite how they've evolved. And now that I think of it---when I'm in L.A., I'll put them in frequency order. But not in SF.
 
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Normally I have the radio stuck on -you guessed it- KIIS-FM.
I don't normally feel the need of other presets since it's what I listen 90% of the time.
 
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