Who still listens to FM radio? I sure don't. The old lady loves her NPR but besides that, it is really a thing of the past for this clan. It used to be so important that everyone I knew listened every single day.

Last time I tuned in, it was a classic rock station and it didn't seem to have changed in 15 years. The same songs in the same order with the same obnoxious DJ's and turgid commercials. When I went to check the rest of the dial I thought I was either in church or Mexico, wtf? peace.

i worked at many am and fm stations back in the day when radio seem to matter...

i don't think it does anymore, and not just cos i stopped working in it...

the only radio i play is online jazz 24...great cross-section of jazz from over the various eras....

A long time ago there was a great underground fm station in Detroit, but it's gone.
Here in Atlanta there is an fm station that plays just blues in the morning'
WRFG

Marv Peck

Y'all remember that rubber legged boy

Back in the day FM radio played entire sides on an album. In NYC WNEW and WABC/WPLJ were great stations for rock music, interviews, album reviews etc.

I thought Scott Muni and Allison Steele were great DJ's.

Alas, days gone forever.

Never listen to the radio....When i'm in the car i play my Stones cd's...

At work they play the radio only as background noise...ha..It is a FM station
as we won't pay to play the radio!

I have listened to radio since I was a little kid. I've usually had jobs where I can listen to the radio all day. Currently do now. But the state of radio espicially in San Francisco where it used to be good. Is now just unlistenable. The Cumulus juggernaut has bought uo most of the big stations in town and gutted them and changed formats. Once proud KFOG is now pathetic. Nothing more than a glorified Top 40 station. The greatest radio feature ever.10@10 is now just an extension of daily programming.....and they wonder why people don't listen to radio anymore.

I do at times thats where I can find out when tickets for shows go on sale.

I still listen to FM but all the stations I like(except for Americana) are kinda like the "oldies" AM stations used to be in the 80s. In the 70s FM was great for concert simulcasts (like ABCs In Concert) and of course The Bisquit shows. AM still ruled the airwaves for top 40 in the 70s tho..

AC/DC must be the biggest staple in FM classic rock radio, I think the answer is commercialism, the more commercial, the more typically formatted it is.

But the old days of playing an album at midnight on Saturday night, I believe many stations did that or maybe every night, I can't remember. I think there are good radio stations around still.

It's like the title of the Pretenders album, "Last of the independents", the more individual radio stations will not be following a format.

it's always been about the almighty dollar...i worked for stations where being #2 in a market just was never good enough...so formats would change for the better or worse on a continual basis. never satisfied. eventually commercial stations just realized where the real money was was at the sacrifice of discretionary playlists, so they have all become homogenized over time and you can't tell one station from the next, given the audience they cater to. we've definitely seen the last of the likes of underground radio like the old ksan...

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sweetcharmedlife
I have listened to radio since I was a little kid. I've usually had jobs where I can listen to the radio all day. Currently do now. But the state of radio espicially in San Francisco where it used to be good. Is now just unlistenable. The Cumulus juggernaut has bought uo most of the big stations in town and gutted them and changed formats. Once proud KFOG is now pathetic. Nothing more than a glorified Top 40 station. The greatest radio feature ever.10@10 is now just an extension of daily programming.....and they wonder why people don't listen to radio anymore.

Hey charmed one, I played live at a radio station in San Francisco last year. A cool little coffee shop/studio in the Mission with a radical reputation. Pirate Cat Radio it is called. I hope that one is still there. Their signal is weak but most of the broadcasts are turned into mp3's and posted on their web site. Reminded me of a college radio station but not a school in sight except the school of hard knocks...

Another great SF radio station memory was when I was working with Wilco and we got invited to play for the Ka-Boom concert near one of the warfs on the bay. They sure treated us well and that fireworks display was the best I have ever seen to this day. I lent a young Ben Harper my National steel guitar that day since his was misplaced on the airplane ride out to SFO. Wished I could have seen what he did on it. KFOG Ka-BOOM, yeah! Sorry to hear they have become somewhat lame. peace.

I listen to the radio all the time, but of course I am a demographic dinosaur. Along with a fair amount of sports talk and Coast to Coast on AM, on the FM side I tune in regularly to Classical, NPR, Little Steven's Underground Garage, and predominantly bottom of the dial, weak signaled shows and stations like WFMU or even strange pirate stations. These (along with Little Steven) remind me of the adventure of new cool music and interesting messages and voices back in the heyday.

That commercial music radio has been at best uninteresting and largely horrific has been a fact to me for decades -- commercial radio in general since they ended FCC restrictions on ownership a while back -- time was one company could only own one station (on each band I believe) per market -- now I think its unrestricted. This has pushed out any independents and local voices for the most part, where you have Rush and the like dominating the airwaves.

Of course with technology being what it is, it remains to be seen if broadcast radio as we have known it survives at all.

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StonesTod
it's always been about the almighty dollar...i worked for stations where being #2 in a market just was never good enough...so formats would change for the better or worse on a continual basis. never satisfied. eventually commercial stations just realized where the real money was was at the sacrifice of discretionary playlists, so they have all become homogenized over time and you can't tell one station from the next, given the audience they cater to. we've definitely seen the last of the likes of underground radio like the old ksan...

it's always been about the almighty dollar (In Major Markets or In Cities)

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Naturalust

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sweetcharmedlife
I have listened to radio since I was a little kid. I've usually had jobs where I can listen to the radio all day. Currently do now. But the state of radio espicially in San Francisco where it used to be good. Is now just unlistenable. The Cumulus juggernaut has bought uo most of the big stations in town and gutted them and changed formats. Once proud KFOG is now pathetic. Nothing more than a glorified Top 40 station. The greatest radio feature ever.10@10 is now just an extension of daily programming.....and they wonder why people don't listen to radio anymore.

Hey charmed one, I played live at a radio station in San Francisco last year. A cool little coffee shop/studio in the Mission with a radical reputation. Pirate Cat Radio it is called. I hope that one is still there. Their signal is weak but most of the broadcasts are turned into mp3's and posted on their web site. Reminded me of a college radio station but not a school in sight except the school of hard knocks...

Another great SF radio station memory was when I was working with Wilco and we got invited to play for the Ka-Boom concert near one of the warfs on the bay. They sure treated us well and that fireworks display was the best I have ever seen to this day. I lent a young Ben Harper my National steel guitar that day since his was misplaced on the airplane ride out to SFO. Wished I could have seen what he did on it. KFOG Ka-BOOM, yeah! Sorry to hear they have become somewhat lame. peace.

Nice story. Unfortunately kaboom is another tradition that went by the wayside this year. I will give Annalisa credit for trying to play some different stuff on 10@10. Too many 80's sets for my liking. But her facebook page is pretty fun.