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Saving FM Radio

Y

yeoldeschool

Watch 7:24 through 8:24 in:


If this represents the level of awareness of FM radio among its next generation of listeners, should we just go ahead and inaugurate a Saving FM Radio thread now?
 
TheBigA said:
I was listening to a conversation on my local radio station about the words "top of the hour." The GenXers on the radio show were completely unfamiliar with that term. And they've been in broadcasting for more than 10 years.
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As GenX is between the ages of 45 and 60 in 2025, that is somewhat puzzling. However Millennials or GenZs being unfamiliar with the term would be no surprise.
 
TheBigA said:
I was listening to a conversation on my local radio station about the words "top of the hour." The GenXers on the radio show were completely unfamiliar with that term. And they've been in broadcasting for more than 10 years.
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"Top of the hour" always seemed like one of those weird radio things -- I heard that term on the radio, but I've never known anyone in real life who used that term.
 
TheBigA said:
Keep in mind that "awareness" isn't the same as usage. People are unaware of a lot of things they use every day. Especially young people.
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Granted, but in this case, I would have to say that awareness is the appropriate terminology. The kid expressed complete surprise at hearing whole songs playing from a radio, even worrying that the songs were stolen somehow (as if they did not belong on a radio, because he only conceptualized them as coming from paid services). That demonstrates a fundamental and complete lack of awareness of FM radio in my book.

TexasTom said:
"Top of the hour" always seemed like one of those weird radio things -- I heard that term on the radio, but I've never known anyone in real life who used that term.
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That phrase predates radio. It's a weird analog clock thing, referring to the minute hand pointing straight up, to the top of the clock dial, at the beginning of each hour. Generation X grew up primarily with digital watches, so encountering throngs of that age group with no comprehension of "top of the hour" doesn't surprise me. It's definitely beyond the grasp of its successive generations. I've read that most zoomers can't even read an analog clock face to save their lives, if you can believe that.
 
yeoldeschool said:
That demonstrates a fundamental and complete lack of awareness of FM radio in my book.
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What it says to me is that some people have pre-conceived ideas about things. Look: Radio is in a different place than it was 50 years ago. Back then, it was the ONLY place to get music other than buying it. Now there are lots of other places. But radio isn't strictly a music distribution service. The fact that some people use other ways of getting music shouldn't be a surprise. The fact that he doesn't know about it doesn't mean he doesn't come in contact with it.
 
I personally never liked hearing a host say "and at the BOTTOM OF THE HOUR..."
What's the bottom?
:59 into the hour?
Oh, I get it, the MIDDLE of the hour, :30.

Top of the Hour is very easy to understand.
 
When you've had streaming all you life, in Gen. Z's case - both Radio & Physical Media are mysteries...I had to explain that when you pick up a CD (younger Gen. Z and older Gen Alpha calls them "DVDs"), that they were "holding music", that the music was on the Disc, molded into the plastic of the disc, that you paid for it once and it was yours forever, that it didn't need WiFi or 5G, that it was read by a laser & they looked like they were confused, then like I might be lying or that I might be making fun of them.

When all of your life, everything has been on Paid Streaming Services, the very idea of Music being Physical, like a CD, or the idea of FREE Music over-the-air, it just isn't even in your Worldview, it's a foreign concept.

Gen X confuses me though, why wouldn't they be aware? They're older than I am!

EDIT: Apparently, I didn't know where the various Generations landed that well, I'm very close to being one of the oldest possible Gen. Z, rather than one of the youngest possible Millennial. Gen-Z is actually making the CD and 2000s culture come back into fashion, I was talking about an older Gen. Alpha. FM though? Foreign concept still.
 
The Top of the Hour/Bottom of the Hour I understand, I just think it's really not that useful where there are many, many times more digital clocks in the World than Analog ones. "In the Latest News..." or something any time, would make a lot more sense. But it sounds so r a d i o to say those things.

I use my phone as my clock, I have an Alarm Clock that I've had since Middle School, but it's more of a formality than anything. Can still read an Analog clock if I had to though. I just don't own one.
 
Dondd said:
I personally never liked hearing a host say "and at the BOTTOM OF THE HOUR..."
What's the bottom
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When the minute key is pointing down.
Dondd said:
:59 into the hour?
Oh, I get it, the MIDDLE of the hour, :30.

Top of the Hour is very easy to understand.
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So is bottom.

Both are analog clock based expressions. I am guessing you are under 40.
 
How many remember the Western Union analog clock in the control room that would correct itself at the top of the hour? I believe they were receiving the Naval Observatory or maybe WWV
 
Who suggested that bottom of the hour might be :59?

Impossible. Fifty nine minutes past the hour is almost the top of the next hour. If the next hour starts at the bottom of this hour and so on hour after hour then we run out of how low can you go.

"" Western Union analog clock in the control room that would correct itself at the top of the hour ""

(OT) My college had a (Simplex brand) campus wide clock system that used a tone sent through private power lines (2 minutes before) each hour to synchronize the clocks. If you were listening to the college radio station (a class C formerly class IV AM station covering a 5 or so mile radius) the tone was audible in the air product. The station tech staff supposedly spent a lot of time over the years to filter it out and never succeeded. All of the equipment including the transmitter was powered by the campus power lines.
 
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WCJ said:
How many remember the Western Union analog clock in the control room that would correct itself at the top of the hour? I believe they were receiving the Naval Observatory or maybe WWV
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ajaynejr said:
My college had a (Simplex brand) campus wide clock system that used a tone sent through private power lines (2 minutes before) each hour to synchronize the clocks.
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Those were called master clock systems, and ajaynejr is correct about their being centrally synchronized. (There would be a master unit located somewhere in the building that sent those synchronization signals to all the clocks in every room. Prior to atomic timekeeping and telemetric broadcasts like WWVB, someone in the building would have to manually keep the time on the master unit accurate. Because whatever time the master unit's clock readout was set to, the dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of slave clocks throughout the building would continuously be adjusted to reflect -- right or wrong.)

There's a short blog about master clock systems at https://ihbusboy.wordpress.com/clock/. It shows a few different brands and their master control units, as well as the mechanical internals of some of the slave clocks. (Click the links inside that page's right-hand sidebar.) According to that blog, many of these master clock systems existed all the way back in the early 20th century, which I wouldn't have guessed.

I can still recall the vintage 1950s system my elementary school had, which was still running along happily by the late 1980s when I was there. Every minute, the clock in each classroom would emit a loud "CHICK" sound followed by an even louder "CHUNK" as the minute hand moved forward one notch. They were loads of fun whenever daylight savings ended. The clocks' internal mechanics were ratchet-like and couldn't move backward. So to fall back one hour every autumn, every clock in every classroom suddenly and simultaneously began jackhammering out a cacophony of "CHICKCHUNKCHICKCHUNKCHICKCHUNK" that seemingly went on for over 10 minutes as the hands advanced 11 hours forward in one minute steps. You could hear every class throughout the school erupting into shrieks of laughter and delight as everyone's boring lessons were interrupted by the sound of sustained chaos.

Anyway. considering the heavy-duty, all brass works inside those things, it's no wonder they lasted decades upon decades in most of the buildings they were installed into. Things used to be built to last!
 
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Wolfie770 said:
When all of your life, everything has been on Paid Streaming Services, the very idea of Music being Physical, like a CD, or the idea of FREE Music over-the-air, it just isn't even in your Worldview, it's a foreign concept.
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That actually makes a certain sort of sense -- if you're used to something being available only through the Internet, you can lose the awareness of alternative means of accessing music.

It reminds me of the early days of high definition television when many viewers who were used to cable television absolutely did not understand (or believe) that high definition broadcasts could be received for free by using an antenna. At one point, broadcasters actually made some headway on that and awareness of the free antenna option was increasing. My guess is that the move to streaming in recent years is killing that awareness of free television broadcasts just as streaming music seems to have killed awareness of broadcast radio.
 
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