This article tells it all, with the author telling about how she enjoyed her job at Q101 in Chicago (which changed to an all-news format recently) and how FM rock radio might meet its end.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2011/11/alternative_rock_radio_the_sad_unwarranted_decline_of_fm_rock_stations_.html

Going to spanish is more likley to happen around here like what has happened to OTA TV. With the sub channels I can get around 80 channel off my antenna. Out of those 80% are spanish and religious.

The readio sucks anyway so I don't care either way. Too many commercials and the same songs repeat every hour.

Radio sucks anyway. The only stations with listenable content are the classic rock ones, and yet when you've heard the same songs 42,000 times, even great songs get old. Add to that the fact that stations spend too little time playing music at all, nearly 50% of the time it's friggin commercials, and 50% of the remaining time is the damned DJ yammering on & on when they should just STFU and play the music they were hired to play. AM radio is already dead/pure crap, FM might as well join it.

If I listen to something I like, no matter what genre it is, I keep it on the station. Otherwise, I change it.

Speaking of AM, I notice there is now a ton of noise on the AM band. So bad it's hard to pick up any stations. My guess is all of the electronic devices is use now of days has raised the noise floor.

I just bought an HD radio for my car. Surprisingly there are several stations that play music commercial free music on the sub channels. HD radio is CD quality when they play one digital station, but the more sub channels the station has the lower the quality on all of them. Being my radio can play MP3's and other music formats there isn't much need for the radio. Though I do like it when they do music mixes on weekends.

My area has several rock stations. It's the oldies stations that I'm missing the most. First, my favorite oldies station turned to sports talk. Then, my second favorite station turned into yet another classic rock station. They still say oldies, but they only play 60s classic rock to late 70s classic rock. We need more stations that play 50s and 60s pop music. And we definately need more stations that play 30s and 40s big band/swing music.

With the shite radio stations play, they deserve to be extinct. And as long as Sirius and Pandora are around, I could care less.

American radio is just another bloated, old fashioned medium that won't change until it's too late.

For years I've been saying they should let college kids get a few hours of air time. What are they afraid of, not hearing the same bullshit multiple times a week?

If FM rock radio is dying then it's FM rock radio's own fault. The latest incarnation of FM rock radio in the market I live in has a rotation something like this:
1. Godsmack song
2. Nickelback song
3. ALICE iN CHAINS' - Man in the Box
4. Nickelback song
5. Godsmack song

Nickelback sucks.
Godsmack had a few catchy songs, but are they even still around?
ALICE iN CHAINS, I know, re-united with a new singer, so couldn't someone at the FM rock radio stations fork over a little more in royalties to play a song from this century?

Maybe I'm just getting old a crabby!
/me goes to take a nap :D

FM itself is still worthwhile. It provides decent quality audio and only requires a cheap receiver. Internet radio is nice but the streams are often of too low quality for me, many are only 32kb/s.

The problem with FM is content. Stations seem to play the same handful of songs and some air excessive ads. There are college radio stations out there that play a nice variety.

Yes, technically it's not "FM" that is the problem, it's the content ON "FM". ...But that's a lot like saying "it's not the toilet's fault that it stinks, it's the people who use it".

IIRC, streams of either 64k or 96k are usually labelled as "fm quality", though I've never bothered to compare to see whether such claims are accurate or mere marketting techniques.
Where exactly do you go that only has streams of 32k?? When I was still on dialup, I could only use streams of around 40k or less (which generally meant 32k or less, since the most common one above 32k is 56k, which always winds up being choppy on a 56kconnection), and I had a hard time finding those. The majority of streams were 96k and up. Even now, most streaming radio that I encounter is a bare minimum of 64k.


College stations tend to be very hit or miss, even when you're talking about just a single station. College stations have absolutely no consistancy at all. One DJ might play country, the next might jump to metal, and the next might play friggin rap. College stations are very much like playing slots. When you're timing is right they can be great, but when you're timing is bad they're horrible.

Now-a-days you can get "radio" on a smart phone. I just check, I had to scroll down a ways to find a "rock" station.

The "FM" band is technically VHF which is between channel 6 and 7 on the analog TV band (88.0 to 108.0 MHz in the USA). FM stands for frequency modulation, which is the type on modulation used. "AM" stand for amplitude modulation which again has nothing to do with the band. AM radio is located near the shortwave band and is more susceptible to noise and long distance radio propagation. In simple terms AM has a lower carrier wattage and when the station modulates the wattages goes up. It works ok for voice, but isn't so great for music. Frequency Modulation (FM) is used on analog TV and on most radio transmissions above the aircraft band. However technically AM can be used on any frequency just like FM.

No matter what FM is limited on its sound quality. Where as digital quality can improve with a higher bit rate. HD radio as I said before can be CD quality and it is on the band we call "FM". In theory internet streaming can be better than CD quality, but it is usually below. Your best bet for CD quality music is Sirius XM. They have a lot of stations and they don't censor the content. You can also listen to it just about anywhere.

FM radio went to shit when the big corporations bought out the stations.

Only Jack FM 100.3 here in Dallas is good. Mix 102.9 plays a lot of shitty new music.

Thankfully none of the radio stations around here are chaning formats :)

But with my Android hooked into the AUX jack of my car radio, who gives a flip?