It is fun as a quirky hobby, but really, depending on it for information and entertainment was really bad. Radio and TV are what created mass culture, removed local dialects and accents.
It is a one-to-many channel where people in charge of the station have disproportionate power.
It is nice to have as a simple alternate way of communicating, but boy, how am I never giving up internet access to get back to those.
As with most things, when big corporations take over it becomes bad. Definitely agree with you that using it as your only way of getting info is bad, but it’s not much different from relying on one influencer or podcaster for all your info other than it being more likely to be more well researched. I will say at least with my local one it’s a pretty diverse method of entertainment. They’ve got all kinds of weird and quirky shows on.
Oh boy, I sure do love advertisements
Really depends on the station. Some of them (especially the bigger ones) will have ads quite frequently, but others will have a few every now and then and there are some that don’t have any at all.
College radion is my go to
Speaking of which, if anyone is interested, I’m starting a community radio station for Lemmy users, by Lemmy users. Launching this year:
!radiolemmy@lemm.ee || https://radiolemmy.com/
I’ll need DJs and curators to help me make programming blocks. If you have music you’d like to share or a podcast then you are needed! Check the community often; within the next few days I’ll make a post on how you can help contribute.
I’d be interested in helping with some programming. Maybe a short prerecorded show, that would be cool to get involved.
Perfect! Thank you.
I need prerecorded content as well as live DJs; a regular output of content is preferable so I can get you on the schedule, but anything and everything helps, even if it’s a single 30 minute performance.
Check back on the community in a few days for instructions on how you can contribute (look for a pinned post). And thank you again.
Woah, that sounds awesome. I’d definitely be interested in helping out with that.
The website for the station is up! Here’s how you can contribute:
https://radiolemmy.com/how-to-contribute-to-radio-lemmy.html
Hmm, the website seems to be down.
Thanks for your interest! This is actually my second attempt at a radio station for Lemmy.
The first go around did okay but the schedule was fairly empty most days. I did have a couple of dedicated DJs who would put on some amazing live shows, but for most of the day the station was just playing random music and the listener count would plummet as such.
This time I have a game plan. Taking my time to make sure I don’t launch until I have a full schedule filled out.
If you know anybody who wants to build a programming block or do a live show, please send them my way! There will be plenty of timeslots available, from 30 minutes in length up to 6 hours. You can make a prerecorded show, or do it live. Music or talk. Whatever you prefer.
I’m involved with a radio station in my area and it’s soooooo cool to sit in on shows. All of the stuff you hear is done by live humans. They go in and manually put CDs and curate the playlists and control the levels of everything. Sometimes they talk in between with some context for the song or random musings they have. Sometimes whoever is hosting will dedicate a particular song to somebody they know. It’s so endearing and human. Occasionally they’ll have a prerecorded show but most of them are live.
Hell yeah community radio!
Question: Do radio broadcasters have any indication/numbers on how many are listening in while on FM/AM?
Only in internet radio.
I have a theory that the reason why FM radio stations often hold contests is so that they can gauge how many people are listening. By counting the number of entries and calculating an estimate of what percentage of radio listeners enter their contests, you can get a rough estimate of how many people are tuning in.
Kind of like how Nielsen operates. Send out a survey to a percentage of the American population, and from their answers you can figure out how many people watch a certain show.
Not from broadcasting, but they can pay a ratings company like Nielsen to research certain samples of the population.
There’s also a method that was used briefly in billboards to check what radios were tuned to as cars drove by. https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/High-tech-billboards-tune-in-to-drivers-tastes-2744204.php
My understanding was it mostly picked up people listening to their aux to radio adapters though.
we lost our local radio station last year as the owner aged out. I’m worried about who will acquire that slice of the spectrum.
there is a college station still in a neighboring town at least.
Reddit ‘Wholesome’: Local inspirational 6th grader raises enough money in bake sale to pay off autistic classmate’s lunch bills.
Lemmy Wholesome: Actually wholesome.
Bring back pirate radio 🏴☠️ (UK people will remember)
it’s alive and well. schedules are often posted on hfunderground.com
For the sound of sensation across the nation, listen to Radio Goodies.
(bum)
In Germany we quite a few really cool alternative radio stations. They all have their local frequencies, shows and so on, but also share a German-wide morning show. It’s mostly recoded by the bigger projects, like in Berlin, but otherwise it would just take too much resources from small volunteer run stations.
Do you have any info on how to listen to these stations? Like frequencies or a website where schedules are posted?
Assuming you speak German: https://www.freie-radios.de/
Or here a audio platform where a lot of their content is posted afterwards, where you can discover stations and shows: https://www.freie-radios.net/ (albeit those are confusingly similar URLs)
Thank you :)
Anything good over the air?
There are still a few shortwave broadcasters. You could build your own shortwave receiver from a kit: https://swling.com/db/radio-kits/
There’s a list of stations here: https://www.savenetradio.org/shortwave-radio-station-frequencies/
You can also get into a amateur radio fairly easily. In the US, lots of radio clubs put on license classes, especially for the entry level technician class license. Most other countries have an amateur radio scheme.
Thank for sharing! This is super neat!
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I love the same 3 songs, bad jokes and ads after every song.
Some stations are like that, but there’s a lot of cool ones out there that play a variety of music and are not for profit so there aren’t many ads. The smaller ones are usually better in that regard. Highly recommend checking out Radio Garden. It shows a bunch of stations that also stream from all over the world, cool stuff.
I’ve got a nice little local radio station I like because they play a wide variety of stuff. Not just the same ol top 10 on repeat. Plus very few ads (unless it’s Membership Drive season)
