If you're listening to radio over your Bluetooth speaker, it's still radio. I've mentioned several times on these boards that I have a rather nice home stereo that has been sitting in my basement disconnected for the last seven years, which was when I moved into my current house. The speakers are still in my garage. I don't, however, listen to my own playlists except for about two months out of the year when Christmas music is almost unavoidable on the radio. Simply put, radio isn't something I'm willing to work at to enjoy, and building my own playlists and/or adding variety to playlists on streaming services is work. The real question to radio's long-term viability is what the younger generation will be doing as it gets older. If today's 18 year olds are like the rest of us, they'll stop wanting to work at radio as a form of entertainment, too. Granted, our version of playlists took a little longer to compose and required more work since we didn't have digital downloads; we made mixtapes in junior high and high school. Very few of us were still using them by the time we graduated.
My mother is 76 and as intimidated by technology as anyone. She's had an iPhone for over five years now and uses it admirably. She can't/doesn't do as much with it as my sister (age 40) and I (age 48), but she knows what's going on at her house whether she's home or not, what the news and weather for her area are, how to text and check her email, and even how to manager her bank account. I'd say she has a few more apps than the average of 25 that Michael quotes, but she doesn't likely have 40.
Most of us don't really care. While AM has a couple of sports stations I enjoy and I'll tune in KMOX once-in-awhile for news, it otherwise doesn't have much to offer. It's mostly programming to an older audience because people didn't want to waste their FM signals on programming to a demographic that advertisers generally don't want. Will I be a little disappointed if AM and FM radio go away? I suppose I will because of how easy it is to use in the car, but that's about the only place I use over-the-air radio these days. Most of my listening is already via streaming, and, if I can still get my favorite music and shows that way, I'm probably not going to sweat it.
Maybe the youngest generation doesn't know better, but those of us in our 40's who have lived without the internet are still using smart and connected devices for our entertainment. People want what's convenient. Radio used to be convenient because it was included with other items you bought. Most people bought no more than a couple radios. People used radio because it was on their clocks, flashlights, microwaves, etc. You don't see that so much anymore. Now, I can pull up my local radio station with an app on my phone. That's easier than adding a radio dongle to it (if you can even find one of those these days). Only headache is listening to sports.
