Because it’s free and convenient. Nearly every car has at least a basic AM/FM radio. I have a built in FM radio in my phone. Active people can buy lightweight FM headsets. People buy CD players with built in radios. I wake every morning to my FM clock radio.
Yep, this is the reason I listen to radio. Heck, when I venture to the AM dial (heh, a radio dial), it’s filled with music that not only do I not know already, but I don’t even understand the language it’s in. I don’t know how I’d get exposed to it otherwise.
They exist to make money. They seem to be good at it.
Almost the only time I listen to any radio is in the car, and 95% of the time it’s the local classical station. In spite of owning over 2,000 CDs, all downloaded onto my computer, I’m always looking for music I don’t have… and there’s so damn much of it. It’s also a good way to keep in touch with the “arts scene” as well as new artists.
I’d be far more willing to believe it is the result of a “bubble” effect rather than impugn the OP motivations.
I feel “connected” when I have live radio on in the car. I almost never listen to CDs or other prerecorded formats.
There are news, weather, and traffic updates and occasionally, but rarely, breaking news alerts.
However, I hate to break it to you, I listen to AM! I prefer talk radio.
I can’t get my local NPR station on satellite, or the local news stations for traffic updates. Even if I did have a smart phone, which I don’t, it would be illegal and stupid of me to be fussing with it trying to get traffic news while driving. With my FM radio, I just push 1 or 2 buttons, and I’m good.
Literally millions of people listen to the radio every day (mostly in cars).
Eventually probably everything will be streamed. But for now, I still prefer FM radio for the local content. Not just local talk shows, which I do listen to, but also just little tidbits of local news between songs. Even local advertisements are sometimes entertaining or educational.
My newish car came with SiriusXM radio, and I found I didn’t like it much. There are tons of stations all broken down into very narrow genres, and what I like about listening to my digital music devices and my Pandora stations is that I can put them on shuffle and hear a real mix of music styles and genres. So I let my satellite subscription lapse. I occasionally listen to FM music in the car, but mostly I listen to NPR. My commute is less than 15 minutes, and I just don’t spend much time in the car. At home I listen to NPR in the morning and BBC at night. And music. Pandora or my huge library of MP3s are playing much of the day. I check out CDs from my library and rip them straight to digital, often without even listening to them if its an artist or genre I like. So I constantly hear music that is new to me.
I got a car with the aux jack for an iPod so I got an iPod and that’s usually the default because there are no commercials. But I did start thinking I missed the local independent music station and tuned in again now and then; I don’t know what will be coming on and it’s kind of fun that way. And it’s easy enough to hit the mute button on the steering wheel during commercials!
I used to do that, until My Beloved started screaming “Put that steering wheel back, you idiot!”
edited to add: Oh-on the steering wheel, not with the steering wheel.
Nevermind.
To the best of my knowledge there’s no satellite radio in Australia and dicking around with one’s phone to stream radio in the car would likely fall afoul of our “no using a mobile phone in the car without a handsfree kit” laws.
Also, as someone noted earlier, FM radio is an outstanding way to hear new music while one is driving (in particular) or just at home looking for some background sound while doing the dishes etc.
It wasn’t until I read the OP that I realized that I don’t listen to anything but news and Internet streaming. FM music is wasted on me.
Because FM radios still exist, and people listen to them.
A few statistics on the topic:
SiriusXM has about 32 million subscribers in the U.S.:
As there are ~126 million households in the U.S., this means that, at most, one out of four U.S. households are satellite radio subscribers.
Online radio (i.e., streaming) has a penetration of somewhere around 50% or so, depending on the measure you use:
Younger listeners are more likely to be moving away from “terrestrial” radio (AM and FM), but older consumers (particularly 55+) have been slower to adopt it (as they have with most technologies).
Agreed. I’ve no interest in subscribing to satellite radio, ever since Sirius and XM combined, and my favorite stations were eliminated. At home, I sometimes stream radio online, since I live in a rural area without much choice. But MP3s and pandora and spotify are more of a PITA than a pleasure. In the car, I listen to radio, NPR or college stations, or recorded books. I like hearing different kinds of music, and being exposed to music outside of my established parameters of taste and interest. Radio is the best place for that.
Isn’t WiFi essentially radio anyway? Except with FM, the transmitters are comfortingly far away?
Because Danny Bonaduce is hilarious! He’s the morning DJ for the local classic rock station.
I listen to fm radio. I have mp3s, Pandora, etc but radio has its benefits