Recently, when I was alone in my car listening to music on the radio, it occurred to me how much I station-surfed. I’ll listen to one song I like and then, when it’s over, change the station if there’s a commercial or another song I’m not interested in listening to. This is not a new bad habit I picked up; as a teenager, I wore out the dial on many radios because I station-surfed so much. Anyway, it led me to wonder if anyone, when they are listening to music on the radio, still listens to one station for a long period of time or are there a lot of station-surfers like me.
NPR all the time. I’m easy on the radio dial.
WQED, the local public radio station. They play classical music and news segments from NPR.
I am in almost constant scan mode. Luckily Mr. Honey is very tolerant of this. I can let the radio scan (3 seconds each station-around the dial) the entire time I’m driving and still not find a song I like.
Honey
Just the one, www.wxpn.org all the time. Its public radio, they produce ‘World Cafe’, I can get it all over eastern Pennsylvania. Good music.
Dave
There are some times I station-surf if it’s a commercial, or if there’s something I have to hear on another station. Then again, sometimes I listen to one station for days on end. I mostly listen to ROck 101, followed by 99.3 the Fox, then maybe 100.3 FM out of Victoria, or 104.9 XFM. Occasionally, I’ll listen to other stations, like CKNW 98 for the hockey games.
(this doesn’t count the times when my sister and I are in the car, and she listens to the adult contemporary stations)
I stay on one station unless there’s a song I absolutely hate or if I’m driving on 99 where it’s signal is blocked.
If I’m traveling long distances, I take my CD player that has the nifty built in FM broadcaster so that I can listen to CDs rather than needing to change stations every time I drive out of range of one. Since the CD player stays on one frequency, I could argue that I listen to one station then, too…
I station surf, because commercial radio is crap.
I can’t wait until October, when I get the title to the car (it’s currently in my parents’ name) and install a CD player.
I tend to listen to CBC when I am around town and travelling, unless I need to listen to music now!, then I channel surf(that helps deny me the ummm pleasure of listening to Kylie Minogue and others of her ilk).
News, always. Usually KNX 1070, one of the two Los Angeles-area news stations.
80% of the time, when I’m listening to the radio, at home and in the car, it’s my local NPR station. The exceptions:
–> when the Seattle Mariners are playing, and I’m in the car, that’s what’s on the radio, without exception
–> I switch when the local NPR public-affairs talk show comes on in the morning (I like politics, but Seattle politics is incredibly dull and repetitive; you can listen to the mayor giving excuses about the budget only so many times a month)
–> along the same lines, when one of the rare annoying NPR programs comes on, like that bullshit New Age thing “New Dimensions,” I can’t switch away fast enough
–> when I’m driving in bad traffic; then I switch to classical music to keep myself from getting too aggressive
Other than that, it’s “Morning Edition,” “Talk of the Nation,” “Car Talk,” “On the Media,” and so on for me. Of course, half the time it’s not the radio I’m listening to, but a CD, so that skews the stats…
I listen to the same station (BBC Radio 1) most of the time, except when there’s a whole show I don’t want to listen to (Garage, R&B, Charts, etc.). As there are no advert I just leave it on.
I generally keep it on the local AAA station, switching to NPR on the drive home to catch David Brancaccio’s “Marketplace”.
When my daughters are in the car they usually switch to one of the CHR stations. In the car without the passenger air bag, one can sit up front, in which case they surf whenever another station may or may not be playing a better song than the one they are listening to. Otherwise, they’re in the back seat and can’t reach the buttons, so they test my limits on how often I’ll change the station for them. When they eventually reach that limit, I’ll put on the Jazz station and make them suffer for a while.
Just curious, but does anyone have XM or Sirius with 100 stations? If so, what are your habits there?
I listen to the local oldies station, until an Elvis song comes on. Then I either mute it or channel surf or put a tape in.
StG
I like NPR for Diane Rheem(sp?) and Todd Mundt, and the late night sounds from the Well though I CANNOT stand Neil Cohen, something about him that makes me flip the switch quicker than 'ol sparky frying Ted Bundy.
But my station of choice is community radio at 88.1 WYCE. www.wyce.org
This thread is basically a poll. I’ll move it to IMHO for you.
Cajun Man - SDMB Moderator
One station, it’s the only one I listen to.
102.1, Springfield’s Classic Rock (Hartford doesn’t have a friggin classic rock station any more)
I have stepped into middle age… my brother has informed me that all I listen to is AM stations (where else to get the traffic, weather, and sports?) I never really noticed it before, but I find much more pleasure in listening to news and talk shows. What the hell happened to me? (good thing I ordered that upgraded radio package when I bought the car).
I used to be a one station listener… ESPN radio 1680 in Trenton, NJ… but it had a format change, and now it plays some sort of Indian/Pakistan/I-don’t-know-what-the-hell music.
What the hell happened to ESPN 1680? Anyone in Eastern PA or Central NJ know? I miss Mike and Mike in the morning. Not to mention the Bob Picosi Did you knowsie.
The local NPR.
Never change the station.
Actually, I don’t like all of their programming, but I hate commercials. Commericals make me nuts. I watch mostly PBS and CSPAN-bookTV for the same reason.