I do. Most stations in my region are just crappy music and dumb call-in shows, but there’s still a few stations with quality programming. FM radio is where I get my news, where I listen to press conferences, old-school audio theatre and (surprisingly) where I get new music recommendations. Hard to believe that modern streaming platforms’ algorithms can be outperformed by traditional media.
The thing with streaming services for me is the complete lack of humanity. Don’t get me wrong, I sub to Apple Music and use it quite a lot, but when I’m cooking dinner and want a person playing music to me, making recommendations, and just chatting away, there’s no substitute for human-presented radio.
Algorithmic recommendations are fine, but there’s something about clicking with a piece of music that someone has encouraged me to check out.
My favourite feature. But then, I live in a country where Kyle Sandilands was popular and each 2 minute song is interrupted by 4 minutes of gambling ads.
This is the only reason I keep a Sirius/XM subscription going (that and I got a cheap rate after trying to quit). While DJs are mostly insufferable, some of them do know what they’re doing and can prep a set list, talk intelligently about it, and give you more than just algo-slop.
That can be especially effective on some of the genre-specific stations. I almost feel like I’m learning something when Richard Blade is on First Wave and he can really put together a set. Billy Idol is almost funny with how quickly he announces songs but if he has a guest it’s usually a fascinating conversation.