Listening to the Radio (a dying pastime?)

[Hunter5117]

I spend about 3 days a week on the road and could not do it without XM. Mostly either the finance shows or news radio, so it really acts more like a substitute for TV that is on all day when I am in the office.

At our weekend cabin in the woods, we have no satellite or cable, so all our communications must come over the air waves. I am also a Ham so I have a receiver that works good for pulling in ham, shortwave, etc. Days when the football game, golf match etc is not coming in over the TV antenna, I break out the radio, hook it up to the long-wire I have strung between the trees, and can pretty much pick up anything I want to listen to. Usually out on the back deck with a pipe of something close at hand.

 

[scottbtdmb]

I have compromised a little bit with modern technology, especially with the ipods, since they basically hold my entire music collection and nothing beats being able to take a library of 25,000 songs on a roadtrip or camping, as opposed to taking a boatload of CD's along. ...I certainly don't plan on buying a Kindle. There's something about getting that newspaper on the front stoop that I would miss too much and I certainly love going to the library to hunt down a book that I have been wanting to read.
-Scott

I understand what you are saying about electronic media not being the same as print media, but the same reasons you give for the usefulness of the ipod apply to the kindle for me. Imagine being on the AT on a rainy afternoon spending time in the tent and all of a sudden wanting to read Bear Grylls' new autobiography. With the kindle that would be no problem, just download it and start reading, all within a few seconds...

Where I work, there is nothing around for quite a ways so my kindle is really nice. I can buy books anytime I want and carry hundreds of books on the kindle and even more in Amazon archives.

I still enjoy print books a lot when I'm home, but on the go the kindle wins hands down. And I'm totally not a tech guy.

Very good point Simple Man! I could also see being on vacation somewhere for a couple weeks and all of a sudden getting the hankering to read a certain book. No library in town, no problem! I think that the Kindle could actually have some beneficial aspects after all! I suppose in the perfect world, modern technology could work together in tandem with the old school stuff (books, cd's, newspapers). It's just that when I read about newspapers going out of print, large book shops threatening to close, and three major record companies announcing that they will no longer produce CD's after 2012, I get a little depressed and frustrated.

-Scott

 

[user 2031]

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[Carlos]

Modern newpapers are going the way of the dodo. They have gone to a smaller format for mailing, that I really do not like. I liked holding my arms out wide reading newsprint. Could be why I never cared for Grit. It was always that small format. I liked old blonde oak chairs, tables, floors, and trim, in old libraries. With all their newspapers hanging in racks on their poles. You laid them on the big tables and read them carefully. Streams of sunlight coming though the windows, highlighting a bit of dust hanging in the air.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

My astigmatisms, myopia and pre-keratoconus make my eyes really bad, and if it weren't for digital print, I wouldn't be able to read. Serifed fonts are hell on my eyes, all the "round letters," and "mnhwu" all look like the same gray blob. Stupid eyes, no newspapers or most books for me, until I get a Kindle or something.

 

[scottbtdmb]

My astigmatisms, myopia and pre-keratoconus make my eyes really bad, and if it weren't for digital print, I wouldn't be able to read. Serifed fonts are hell on my eyes, all the "round letters," and "mnhwu" all look like the same gray blob. Stupid eyes, no newspapers or most books for me, until I get a Kindle or something.

Sorry to hear about the eye problems there Kyle. That is another great benefit of owning a Kindle though that I wouldn't have thought of before! Old and new technology can most definitely co-exist in today's world....we just have to hope that the generations ahead of us continue to carry on the old traditions amidst the new technologies that will undoubtedly continue to surface.

-Scott

 

[Fred Smith]

I remember being a kid and listening to the radio programs at night. I have no idea how I even found them, but one of the AM stations in Houston used to run an hour and a half of old radio shows on Sunday nights 20 years or so ago. They'd run a comedy (Jack Benny or something else), then a western (I remember the Cisco Kid), and then finish off with a mystery (Suspense, The Whistler, The Shadow, Inner Sanctum). Every Halloween, they would play the War of the Worlds broadcast, and a couple of hours of mysteries, always ending with The Tell Tale Heart.

A few years ago, I rediscovered these wonders. My mp3 players are currently full of old shows, and I love to sit outside and listen with a pipe and drink in hand. I think I'll go pack a bowl and listen to Dragnet now.

 

[DrT999]

I have to agree with the allure of good radio -- I first noticed that in the late 70s/early 80s when the local NPR station broadcast Hitchhikers' Guide and also an adaptation of Star Wars. Another NPR station near where I worked for a year broadcast Fibber McGee & Molly, and I've enjoyed OTR since. I was also a pretty intense SW fan in the 80s.

Yes, radio can be very effective!

 

[GamleVking]

If you are a fan of OTR, check out this website: archive.org. Look under Audio Archive, then Radio Programs, and then Old Time Radio. There are thousands of shows you can listen to on the site or download them.
I would have added a link, but I am a newbe and don't have permission.

 

[Rob_In_MO]

Since time marches on now I listen to npr and kdhx
http://kdhx.org/

Hey Bub, unless you listen to KDHX online - you must not be too awful far from me. 8)

 

[ruraldean]

My view is a bit UK-centric, but I'm an avid Radio 4 fan. Anyone who lives here will know what I mean. It's the BBC's classiest talk radio station, with news, articles, plays and features all day long. I love it.

When I was a kid we always had the radio on at home - The Navy Lark, The Clitheroe Kid, Round the Horne, The Goon Show - all hilarious (at the time) and I always felt that radio plays were preferable to TV as my imagination filled in all the gaps. If they scrapped all TV I'd survive very happily.

 

[Behike54]

I heard a radio-play on NPR a few months ago that knocked my socks off!


Radio is still there and still doing the voodoo it does!

 

[DrT999]

I have to agree about BBC 4; great programming. I also enjoy the Sunday programming on ABC Sydney (Sunday morning eastern US/Sunday night into Monday morning in Sydney)

 

[Rob_In_MO]

I still listen to AM and some FM Radio almost daily, when I have time that is. This is what I use when i'm out in the yard or sitting on the porch smoking a bowl.

I picked this thing up a couple of months ago for 20 bucks brand new at Radio Shack. They still make an AM/FM Pocket Radio!

Old-School technology still made today. Sure, the case is plastic but it's very well built and incredibly sensitive. Not to mention power-friendly. A pair of 2450 mAH NIMH AA's (Ray-O-Vac Rechargeables) last a very long time in this model without needing to be recharged. As a test I left it on 24/7 and it ran for 2 weeks and 3 days at normal volume before it finally quit playing because the batteries went down too far. That's Effin Amazing! Not to mention Incredibly Efficient regarding power consumption.

 

[smokinbriar]

Thats a nice looking radio for the price i'm gonna get me 1 like that for work.