
Radio listening booms while music streaming stalls - pseudolus
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52037461
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somehnguy
I like listening to the radio sometimes because it takes away my control and
having to think. If I'm shuffling Spotify for example I tend to dedicate a
small slice of limited brain power to thinking about what is playing, if I
really want to listen to that song, if I want to queue something up next, etc.
With the radio it doesn't matter because short of channel hopping all day I
don't control any of that. Makes it better as background noise while I work.

This is something video streaming services haven't gotten quite right yet. I
have a Plex server with 14TB of media on it and sometimes end up with a slight
anxiety of having to pick what I want to watch when I turn the TV on. I'll
waste 15 minutes scrolling through stuff when it doesn't really matter because
I'm just using it for background noise anyway. With cable you just pick a
channel and it goes.

~~~
fred_is_fred
Can't Spotify also do what you want? There are all kinds of official or
unofficial playlists which you can play on random, and actually get the type
of music you want - without 15 minutes of ads per hour that is the norm here
in the US.

~~~
somehnguy
Sort of, but the experience isn't the same. Theres something about the shuffle
in Spotify/Apple Music/etc that just doesn't feel the same as having a radio
station select the music for you. Partly because I still have to manage it. I
will think if I like the song, want to save the song, skip the song, etc. The
radio completely removes that control so you don't think about it at all.

Also, I'm not sure exactly how to describe it. But internet streaming just
feels so sterile to me, while radio feels more alive.

~~~
derekp7
There is actually a lot of art that goes into programming a radio station. One
of the radio formats that was out a few years ago had a slogan "We play what
we want". They purposefully crafted the playlist to create "train wrecks",
where one song was periodically followed by another that didn't feel like it
belonged there.

The same thing with a live DJ -- their job is to watch the crowd, and the
dance floor, and if the crowd looks like it is losing interest they alter the
selection that makes everyone wake up and start moving. Or if it is getting
too crowed, they put a song that has less appeal which causes a lot of people
to leave the dance floor and head to the bar.

~~~
mark-r
You're talking about Jack FM, right? They have a ton of stations:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_FM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_FM)

I suspect their playlists are generated at HQ and shared between all the
stations. That's one benefit of not accepting requests.

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kikki
I wonder through isolation how much of this is just wanting to listen to other
people?

~~~
sidpatil
I wonder if it could also be due to the fact that Internet usage has
increased, which lowers available bandwidth—maybe as a consequence, streaming
quality isn't as consistent.

~~~
solarkraft
I haven't had any issue with Spotify so far. Granted: I personally have a good
connection and live in a relatively well developed country.

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brightball
Doesn’t shock me. Working from home for 8 years and I constantly listen to the
radio. Usually local sports radio because it’s the only thing that’s on all
day and consistently regional. Lots of other things going on in the area
trickle in. Older callers chime in with history of things they saw in person.

I love it.

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clairity
listening to radio is deliciously private and anonymous as well. just like
cash, which is taking a hit now due to the pandemic.

the other nice property of things like radio and cash is that they continue to
preserve our rights simply by using them regularly.

~~~
invisiblerobot
Cash is taking a hit? USD is the only asset increasing in value.

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jcims
Curious how ham/amateur radio traffic has changed. I dug out my old 2m Yaesu
and started hopping on a few nets.

~~~
floren
I've just took a spin around the 20m band and it's reasonably lively, maybe a
bit more so than usual, but the band isn't packed. Besides, I think most ham
enthusiasts were already spending most of their time at home (retirees)
talking about illnesses (diabetes, usually) :)

Edit: Stopping on 14.340 I got a Hawaii/California net and was able to hear
people from Hawaii pretty well, which given my crappy antenna is a bit of a
feat. I think propagation is improving a bit at last, which will be nice for
people stuck at home.

~~~
jcims
Wonder if the reduced air pollution that's been noted just about everywhere is
helping propagation.

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ryanmcbride
I've definitely been listening to local radio more often. Getting news online
is kind of difficult because depending on the location, the situation can be
really different. I had definitely forgotten how much radio time is stolen by
ads. Weird that people still put up with that

~~~
CarlRJ
Lately I've been streaming a couple different classical stations (KUSC and
KPBS Classical, which is a feed from Classical 24), and I get push
notifications from several different local news apps when the city and county
start their daily briefings on the local Covid situation. I turn the TV on for
those briefings, then go back to classical afterwards. Most of the time, I can
expect if any major news happens, the various push notifications will alert
me. A bonus of all this is, zero ads.

And getting specifically the _local_ news notifications makes sure the stuff
I'm getting is actually applicable to where I am. If you're in a large enough
market so that one or more local TV stations have their own local news apps,
the push notifications can be useful even if you never look at the app
otherwise (as long as the app can be tuned so it doesn't spend all day sending
you random less important stuff - recipes and sports scores and human interest
stuff - if so try a different station's app).

I've long listened to either classical or chillout / downtempo lounge in the
office - mostly Soma.fm or di.fm - because I've found I want music, but don't
want words - if there's lyrics, they distract from the programming project at
hand.

I do have a small AM/FM radio in good working order, to prepare for the remote
chance that the tubes break and the internet stops coming out of the tubes.

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ryaan_anthony
shoutout to princeton radio! wprb.com i love their deejays and all their crazy
selections

~~~
zigzaggy
thanks for sharing this one! I love good radio stations. so hard to find down
here in the deep south.

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eterm
There's literally no football going on whatsoever but it's only dropped by two
thirds?

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amflare
Football was already in the offseason, so most of the news is just teams
trading players around anyway. Which they can (and are) doing despite
covid-19.

~~~
NewBroadcastCo
This is an aside (and I'm sorry if I'm posting in the wrong place - my first
time here)

But... speaking of sports and radio/ streaming: I'm working on an early stage
project in the sports streaming space and looking for a technical co-founder.
A friend recommended HN as good community to ask in. Any interest/ thoughts/
direction welcome!

Again, my apologies if this is outside forum norms - happy to take feedback.

Thanks for reading

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unsignedint
Only problem with radio is type of music you get out from it is more of less
mercy of what's popular and what music producers want to market, which really
wouldn't fly for me.

I do, however listen to my local NPR station, and I do find them enjoyable.

~~~
myself248
Two local high-schools have radio stations that I can receive easily without
much antenna work, and I've found their programming to be quite a relief from
commercial stations.

Some of it is pop crap, sure, but it's really fresh pop crap. And some of it
is the kid who's just discovering Elvis and doing an hour of Elvis every
Friday night, and yeah I've heard the songs before, but the deejay's
enthusiasm is really what I'm here for. And some of it is just weird, demo
tapes from bands that probably played four gigs and might never play another
one, but I know next time I'm out driving, I might be stopped next to their
drummer at a light, you know?

And all the "ad spots" are PSAs. Some locally produced by the students, some
from various state and national orgs. None of them scream at me.

It is bliss.

~~~
ksaj
I used to live in a town that had a university-run radio station.

What I liked was that they were able and willing to play music that otherwise
wouldn't ever hit the airwaves. A lot of local bands got air play, and I
thought that was simply great since radio can often be super repetitive.

One night they were doing a punk segment, so I called in as a joke and
requested the song God Damn Son of a Bitch from the Revolting Cocks. The song
is an instrumental, so they played it. But the intro and after discussions
were absolutely hilarious. They referred to it as "Gol Darn Son of a Bee" and
made fun of the fact that they couldn't say much about it other than that it
was thankfully an instrumental.

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systemBuilder
This is not too surprising as ATSC TV is an abortion and simply doesn't work.
So if people suddenly have newfound time on their hands from lack of
commuting, they will listen to a broadcast system that WORKS.

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bane
If you're into chiptunes or the demoscene, don't forget about Nectarine:
[https://scenestream.net/demovibes/](https://scenestream.net/demovibes/)

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drak0n1c
Coincidentally I have started listening to local radio through my Alexa,
something I've never tried before this outbreak.

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actionowl
> radio listening had risen by 15%.

How can the radio station detect that radio listening increased?

