Will terrestrial radio die out COMPLETELY?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Maxirad
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Huh? There’s a ship ton of FM radio stations still operating. I have never paid for satellite radio and I still always have multiple stations to choose from in the car. A lot of my preferred stations are at the low end of the dial - college radio, NPR, BBC, and independent formats. Other FM stations I hear include Latino, classic rock, classic country, current country, hiphop, classic soul/ quiet storm, pop, soft rock formats meant to be played in offices, hard rock/ metal, classical music, jazz/ big band, and the Catholic station WAOB (We Are One Body) which broadcasts from central PA to eastern OH on 106.7 FM.

A couple of stations also switch to an all-Christmas music format between Thanksgiving and New Years, so every year I get my fix of Andy Williams’ “Happy Holidays” and such.

Why would someone even ask this question? Have they not turned on a regular radio in 10 years or do they live in some very rural area where there are maybe 2 stations on air?
 
Last edited:
phil19034 said:
It’s not easy to get an FM station. Most are (esp in urban areas) are already licensed.
Click to expand...
Right, and the difficulty/ cost of getting a license is a giant clue that it’s not exactly unprofitable to have a license and also that “terrestrial radio” is not going away any time soon.
 
It will be completely abandoned once subspace commication is discovered. 📡
 
Won’t “die out,” but it’s undergone changes, and will continue to, based on demographic changes and changes in people’s preferences.

In the early 1960s we had a bunch of AM stations playing modern music and a few FM stations playing classical music, or, a bit later, “middle of the road” music. Obviously that’s all changed.
giuseppe96 said:
I wish EWTN radio in my area would switch to FM. I hate how fuzzy and easily distorted shortwave is.
Click to expand...
We are really fortunate in our town to have a low-power FM station that’s an EWTN affiliate.
RandomAlias said:
Boston has an excellent classical music FM station.
Click to expand...
In fact considered by some to be the best classical station in the country.
Tis_Bearself said:
Huh? There’s a ship ton of FM radio stations still operating. I have never paid for satellite radio and I still always have multiple stations to choose from in the car. A lot of my preferred stations are at the low end of the dial - college radio, NPR, BBC, and independent formats. Other FM stations I hear include Latino, classic rock, classic country, current country, hiphop, classic soul/ quiet storm, pop, soft rock formats meant to be played in offices, hard rock/ metal, classical music, jazz/ big band, and the Catholic station WAOB (We Are One Body) which broadcasts from central PA to eastern OH on 106.7 FM.

A couple of stations also switch to an all-Christmas music format between Thanksgiving and New Years, so every year I get my fix of Andy Williams’ “Happy Holidays” and such.

Why would someone even ask this question? Have they not turned on a regular radio in 10 years or do they live in some very rural area where there are maybe 2 stations on air?
Click to expand...
This is true, at least in my area.

I also have no interest in satellite radio as we have plenty of choices on free radio including EWTN and if they go out of business I don’t want to be left holding the bag with a bunch of equipment that I’ve paid for.

But I’d say the specific types of music are changing. The 1960s/1970s music is becoming less common, for example, as the groups of people advertisers target might prefer something else.
 
I listen to a lot of radio but over the computer stream not the airwaves.
So I don;t know how that fits in.

There is a place for communication so I’m not sure what exact form that will take.
 
Since I mentioned WAOB, just figured I’d put in an extra plug for it. It’s the only Catholic radio I listen to, because it’s all prayers and magisterial teaching - Rosaries, rebroadcasts of Masses from various locations, the homilies and remarks of various Popes, cardinals and bishops, and occasionally some priests discussing the homilies and remarks, but few or no lay commentators or presenters. I realize there are some folks who get a lot out of the lay commentary, but I prefer to hear from the Popes, cardinals and bishops. I learn a lot. One time I was driving and they had Cardinal Sarah on there for 2 hours discussing the liturgy. Yesterday there was a homily from Pope Francis in 2014 in which he discussed poverty and then a couple of religious brothers talked about how to put the Pope’s remarks into practice.

https://www.waob.org/
 
Nope. Ain’t gonna happen, even with subspace comm. It will go away at the second coming.
 
When commercial radio stops being financially viable, the amateurs will claim the airwaves.

The only way audio-radio dies out is if the bandwidth is needed for some other technology and audio-radio transmission interferes with it. Then it will be wiped out, just like that.
 
I’ve been to the future and all media enters the brain through an isolinear port in the back of the neck. 😱
 
PetraG said:
When commercial radio stops being financially viable, the amateurs will claim the airwaves.
Click to expand...
I would absolutely love for this to happen. To have my own radio station would be wonderful. I used to fantasize about having a pirate station. I was fortunate to be part of a college station for a few years that was very progressive and let everybody pretty much do their own thing with their airshift, and it was an awesome experience with many truly creative colleagues.

Sadly, the airwaves are still so valuable that in the USA they will not be letting the amateurs have a frequency in my lifetime.
 
Last edited:
Yes, that will become law in 2796 with the election of the first All Cyborg Continental Congress. 😱
 
Last edited:
May be correct. There might be problems with that on the sanctity of the body front. That frees up the valuable radio spectrum from inherently simple point to point and multi point radio services. And power transfer. And physical sensors. And atmospheric experiments. Think HAARP. And RC. And electromagnetic experiments. In the next few hundred years, the distinction between “radio” and “light” will soften, blur, then melt. Nope. Ain’t gonna happen.
 
TheOldColonel said:
Yes, that will become law in 2796 with the election of the First All Cyborg Continental Congress. 😱
Click to expand...
Steven Hawking warned us the most logical thing would be for artificial intelligence to become self-propelled and for any alien visitors to be imperial in intention. He advised we just keep our heads low.

I think that showed a lot of common sense.
 
StephieNorthCo said:
. In the next few hundred years, the distinction between “radio” and “light” will soften, blur, then melt.
Click to expand...
What does that mean? The difference between visible light and radio is only in the frequency/wavelength. Otherwise, it is all just electromagnetic radiation.

Lawmakers already regulate what kind of visible light we can produce. For instance, you can’t have headlights on your car that are as bright as you like, but you also aren’t allowed to leave them off if you drive after dusk. You have to have turn signals. And so on…
 
Last edited:
Surprised so many people feel this way. I understand 5G internet speeds are coming but I truly don’t care: why? Because my phone plan only has 5-10gb. At 4G I still run out. And I am most people. As a result radio saves my plan.
 
Last edited:
Errr. Amateur radio does exist, although it is not intended for broadcast of “entertainment”. But, yeah, that will likely happen in the future.
 
I agree. We’ll know the end is near when we begin to see pro-robot organizations like PETM (People for the Ethical Treatment of Machines) 😱
 
You mean like ham and shortwave?
I’m old enough to remember when CB radio was briefly a big craze even among non-truckers. I used to be able to listen to them on the shortwave band of my “boom box” (yes, this was looooong ago).

One of the joys of radio back then was the ability to talk to huge numbers of people out in the ether, who in those days could either talk back at you if it was ham or shortwave, or if you were broadcasting on AM or FM they could call in by telephone and talk. We now have the Internet and podcasts to do that interaction. I’ve always enjoyed this sort of communication. The programming aspect to me is important though, as that’s where the art comes in. Truly great programmers are artists.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top