• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Saving AM Radio

wadio said:
Remember the satellite phone service that came and went years ago? Too bad that didn't work out.
Click to expand...
And those phones were bigger than a brick and weighed about as much. Elon Musk is now introducing a real and practical service that uses normal sized phones with world-wide coverage. They apparently worked magnificently when many were provided to people in Western North Carolina after the hurricane.

I will certainly consider switching when it is offered at the broad consumer level.
 
BruceB said:
In older cars, you don't have the option of streaming through the car sound system.That means you have to stream through the phone with earbuds.Which I hate by the way, and you have to fiddle and fool with it if you want to make a change while you're driving as opposed to just pushing a button for another station
Click to expand...
How many phones have a jack that earbuds can be plugged into? I thought those became extinct years ago.
 
wadio said:
Guess I'm lucky. In my area we have lots of cell towers. I use T-Mobile but I understand the others are good also.

Remember the satellite phone service that came and went years ago? Too bad that didn't work out.
Click to expand...
You mean like Iridium or Inmarsat? I thought they died 15-20 years ago.
 
gr8oldies said:
You can get a little transmitter to send a signal to your FM radio via Bluetooth
Click to expand...
I used to own one of those, bought from Amazon about 3 years ago. Mine put out so much hash that it wiped out all other FM stations, and raised the noise floor on AM as well. Made the radio totally useless other than the one frequency it transmitted on. No way did those things ever get FCC Part 15 approval, and there was no way I would have (or legally could have) used it anywhere near an airport. And I live near an airport, so it was useless to me. Thankfully it was only $15, so I pitched it (it was too late to send it back).
 
KeithE4 said:
How many phones have a jack that earbuds can be plugged into? I thought those became extinct years ago.
Click to expand...
My Samsung Galaxy phone is 8 months old it has a headphone jack.
I guess you are referring to Apple?
My understanding is the iPhone accounts for less that 40% of cell phones in use in the US.
 
wadio said:
Lots of positive replies. But a question: why OTA and not streaming? Just curious.
Click to expand...
For me, it's because if I am going to stream... I'm not going to stream an OTA station. I'll just put on music that I actually want to hear, without the ads. Or, I'll listen to a podcast with an entertaining personality to keep me company for my drive. Often, I'll listen to old airchecks with great DJs to keep me company.

I listen to OTA because it's easy and because a couple of stations still offer a product that I'd like to listen to. I love listening to 740 CFZM because I sometimes hear songs I'm not familiar with by Canadian artists, or hear songs I forgot about and haven't heard for a while. I had a long car trip this morning and was tuned in. The thrill of potentially discovering a new song keeps me tuning in. Not to mention, it's great fun to catch an AM station via skywave while driving.

I'm 23 and can count the number of times I've streamed an OTA station online on one hand. There are so, so, so many better options once online.
 
RadioFan2J3 said:
The Iridium network appears to be around. A Motorola 9505 in one of our work areas is checked on a monthly with a phone call.
Click to expand...
In 1998 Motorola MOS 12 was bought bt Freescale Semiconductor. The Phoenix Motorola plant was sold to ONNN Semiconductor. We were told that Chris Galvin was selling all of the plants and keeping the Motorola brand name for trademark reasons. I have not kept up with the other changes.
 
BruceB said:
It is hard for me to understand why so many people on a radio forum can't seem to understand why people on a radio forum like to listen to the radio!
This is not a streaming app forum It's about radio! Hello....
Click to expand...
This thread is about AM radio. That doesn't mean all radio. Another radio band called FM still has listeners.

There's a reason why AM stations in Cincinnati could not find frequencies for FM translators. The dial is clogged with a low power LPFM network playing Classic Rock. It's all over the Cincinnati radio dial.
 
BruceB said:
It is hard for me to understand why so many people on a radio forum can't seem to understand why people on a radio forum like to listen to the radio!
This is not a streaming app forum It's about radio! Hello....
Click to expand...
To many people, "radio" and "audio" are synonymous. In other words, if it does not have a picture, it is "radio".

Ask people from each of the rather standardized generation groups what that "thing" in their car that produces talk and music is called. A high percentage will say "radio" even if they never listen to AM or FM radio stations.

And, as traditional radio stations migrate... or try to migrate... to streams... and add podcasts and the like, we will have overlapping perspectives by actual users of all audio media as to the name or names they use for different services.
 
CTListener said:
I bought a replacement Motorola phone in spring 2023, about 1 1/2 years ago. It has a jack. Maybe it was among the last phones to include one.
Click to expand...
This goes back and forth; Samsung took it out in a copycat move but I've heard that it may be coming back.

In any event, you can get one of these things for $22 on Amazon. I have one for my iPad, letting you listen and charge at the same time, and it works a treat.

 


Back
Top Bottom