Columns Retired Columns & Blogs |
Can't stand commercials any more and so I have limited myself to NPR—such as 89.3 The Current or my own CD/MP3 collection.
FM radio, once the mainstay for those seeking exposure to new music, is under attack from satellite radio, Web radio, and corporate playlists. Do you still listen to FM radio?
Yes, I love my local NYC classical station WQXR and classic rock WQHT as well as some local low-power public and college stations. I just can't stand the pop music stations like WKTU, WHTZ, WPLJ, and the like—the same bad music over and over and over and annoying endless commercials.
Here in UK, the once great Radio 3 has for some years been all but ruined by dynamic compression— even lunchtime quartets are subject to this flattening of the dynamic variation which is such an essential part of the thrill of classical music. So the Proms, once a model of broadcast sound, are now uniformly climax-free on FM. So with no obvious digital alternative of real quality, apart from occasional BBC4 TV relays, I ignore them. After over 30 years devotion to Radio 3. Now, my listening is either live concerts (RLPO/Petrenko!) or CD.