When my car radio crapped out a few weeks ago I became attuned to how addicted I had become to having NPR droning in the background while I made my commute, which got me thinking about what other people listed to when they drive.
In the past it would usually be top 40 radio, but now with the digital revolution (which I have largely avoided) tuning the radio might be a thing of the past.
So satisfy my curiosity and let me know what (if anything) you listen to when you drive. Multiple answers on the poll are allowed but concentrate on your main, say any one you do more than 30% of the time.
Road noise, generally. Except on trips of hundreds of miles of interstate freeway, when I listen to audiobooks. Ian MacKellen reading the Iliad got me from Saskatchewan to California once.
64GB USB drive with my favorite music on it, set to endless shuffle. There are about a thousand albums on there, give or take, so it takes a while to get a repeat of a song.
I’ve got a flash drive with a small subset of my music collection on it (<1000 out of 10000+ tracks). It’s mostly focused on lively fun songs that one can bop to, for maximum distraction while driving.
Depends on which car and when. When we drove around the country in my wife’s new car we listened to music on Sirius and sometimes music from my phone - which was ripped from my CDs. When I commuted I listened to traffic then to the classical music station and then often to music from my CDs.
Now I hardly drive long enough to make a CD useful.
SiriusXM Radio, and pretty much always one of two channels - Entertainment Weekly Radio (I wouldn’t call it “talk/news radio,” which is why I voted “other,” although it does have the occasional lister call-in segment), and Fight Nation (boxing, MMA, professional wrestling - I listen mainly for the wrestling)
Primarily SiriusXM – I alternate between news (BBC World Service, CBC, NPR, and MSNBC) and music (mostly rock), with an occasional football game thrown in on Sundays.
Otherwise, it’s music from my iPhone (via Bluetooth), and occasionally the local newsradio station.
I’m usually by myself in the car, but if I have company along, we’ll be talking, as well.
Most often, silence. Sometimes NPR or music, usually KCLC, a college station here in the St. Louis area. For long trips, I might do audiobooks, like Ulfreida. If my kids are in the car for any longish trips, I’ll put on one of the kids channels on Sirius.
Last spring. I took a T-Top car on a drive up the Great River Road. My hearing is crap, and I couldn’t hear the radio over the wind noise when I had the top out, so I just turned the radio off. I realized that it was nice to have space from all the people/things trying to cram stuff into my head. It became sort of a little meditation. So when I got back from that trip, I turned the radio off in my car and have only rarely turned it on since then.
AM talk radio. It’s good to know what the other side thinks, or what their talking points are.
At night, I fall asleep to NPR. The dulcet tones really help me fall asleep, and when I wake up early, I can lay in bed and listen to the latest stories.
