Saturday, December 1, 2018

What's On Your Radio

DEBORAH CROMBIE: One of the things that always strikes me in the UK is how different radio is from the US. Radio in the US has always seemed very age and genre segregated. Country music fans listen to their country station, rock music fans their rock station, old hippies like me, the Oldies station, etc, etc. And I have to admit that the only thing I listen to in the car or at home is usually NPR. (For which I am very grateful!) But I think this segregation encourages us to live in our own little bubbles.

In the UK, everyone listens to the radio. Most people have radios in their kitchens. And most people still listen to the four main BBC stations


Here's an example of the retro-type radios people tend to have in their kitchens (many are digital and bluetooth!)


BBC 1 skews a little younger music-wise. BBC 2 is the most mid-range--they play everything from oldies to the most current music. BBC 3 is mostly classical but they play jazz and other interesting stuff, too. All the stations have some news and talk programs, but  BBC 4 is all talk (don't even THINK about equating this with American talk radio!) There are plays and books and dramas written just for radio, news, current affairs, comedy, games, science documentaries, just about anything you can talk about, really.

I know we can get  a lot of varied programs like this now on podcasts, but that's not the same as having everyone sipping from the same cultural bowl, talking about the new band that debuted on Radio 1 or the latest Radio 4 drama over the water cooler.

I love the idea of radio being a way for us to be more connected, rather than less.

Reds and readers, do you still listen to the radio?


JENN McKINLAY: I love BBC radio and it's sad that we don't have something similar here. I am a hardcore NPR listener. In the car and I keep a radio on my desk that I flick on when the words won't flow and I need to hear other grownups thinking big things. Otherwise, I listen mostly to classic rock since the punk rock of my youth is now classic. When exactly did that happen???

HALLIE EPHRON: When I'm in the car I listen to NPR - we have two stations that are talk, though I get tired of listening to the voices of the same commentators over and over again - and one station that's classical music. I alternate. LOVE it when it's the weekend and I can hear Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me or Celtic music on A Celtic Sojourn. And when I'm home alone, cooking dinner, the radio is my companion. (Funny, I don't need it when Jerry's home.)

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: We listen to Celtic Sojourn too! And love Wait, Wait. And Fresh Air. There's a show on a local college station that's all Broadway music, and I love that, too. But when I am in the car, it is usually with Jonathan, so we don't listen to the radio. On road trips, it's Sirius with classical, or politics, or folk music, on, when I get my hands on the controls, I choose Broadway music, or oldies (Jenn, agreed!)  or Frank Sinatra channel. I get to hear new stuff, thank goodness, when I am in the car with my news photographers. So I remain a tiny bit--and I mean TINY--not completely out of it. Sunday mornings we listen to classical radio until Meet the Press is on.


Whoa. I remember when the radio was on ALL the time, my little transistor plugged into my ear. 



DEBS: I LOVE Wait, Wait!! I'll bet we all do. 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I do! Like the rest of you, I'm an NPR junkie, and listen to many of the shows on my local station, MPBN. I'm also grateful they introduced the wonderful Maine Public Classical last year, and that tends to be on all the time at my house. Interestingly, though I get most of my music from "the radio," several of the stations I love I tune into by streaming from my Alexa. It's wonderful that living out in the country, I can have any station I want crystal clear. I told you I love Alexa!

I also have certain types of music I enjoy listening to depending on what I'm up to. Housework - oldies on 100.9. Cooking and puttering in the kitchen - adult contemporary on 98.9, Country music in the car - we now have at least three stations in our area playing country.

LUCY BURDETTE: Hallie, I'm just like you--if John's not home and I'm cooking, I always turn on NPR. And that's what I listen to in the car too. Unfortunately in our building in Key West, the reception is AWFUL. You have to practically stand by the window holding the antennae to avoid static. My favorite show on Saturdays is the Moth radio hour (storytelling) and on Sundays, love the baroque music.
 

RHYS BOWEN: As one who started out working for BBC radio, I regret that only NPR comes close in the US. I worked in radio drama and our plays got as much rehearsal as a TV plays. The most distinguished actors in England were in our casts. And the first piece of writing I sold was a radio play. But also comedy, quiz shows, talk on the arts. I only listen to radio when I'm driving. Usually NPR.

DEBS: Rhys, I love that your first piece of professional drama was a radio play. Don't you miss those here?

I manage to keep up with what's current a little bit because I watch The Voice. Thinking about it, maybe that's the biggest exposure we get nationally to a lot of different styles of music and performers.

Readers, tell us what you tune in?

50 comments:

  1. Mostly I listen to NPR and to the classical and jazz stations. Early in the morning, when I’m on my way to work, I listen to the local religion programming as the uplifting messages are a good way to start the day . . . .

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  2. NPR....and luckily our local station runs a BBC show at noon, and straight BBC late at night. We also have XM in the car & Hubby likes the Grateful Dead & Bluegrass channels. I prefer Broadway & Big Band . This time of year I love the XM Christmas music channel.

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    1. Love broadway! And it’s impossible not to sing along, right?

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  3. I listen to NPR, and they do run BBC World Service, but I always seem to tune in for the "Africa is Horrible" hour, where they talk non-stop about dreadful diseases, political corruption and poaching. Africa can't possibly be that horrible all the time, can it? I love "Wait, Wait" and "Fresh Air," and subscribe to those podcasts, but lately I've been looking for music in the car, to alleviate all the depressing political news.

    I got a Sirius XM subscription, but music is sorted into neat little silos there. Not just Country music, but the Garth Channel; not just classic rock, but classic rock sorted by decades, with a separate channel only for the Grateful Dead. I tuned into that one once, and they didn't actually play any music--they just talked about tiny differences between this live performance and that one of the same song. I never heard the song, or even snippets of it. Very strange.

    When I was a kid, I listened to a channel that played pop and rock, with everything from James Brown to the Archies. Now I want to hear classical, rock, country, Texas country (yes, we have our own genre) and stuff that I haven't learned to love yet. It's the only thing that tempts me about Alexa.

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    1. Love Texas country, Gigi--have to ask for it on Pandora if I want to hear it way out here in Ohio!

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  4. We have the CBC here in Canada and it us the background of my life. I listen to NPR on Sirius as well.

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  5. When we lived in the Detroit area many years ago, I listened to CBC radio. It was educational, entertaining, and thought provoking.

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  6. NPR for the breakfast shift and for Advent, meditative CD's in the early evening when I plan the next day's writing and assemble dinner. Classical NPR in the car. For mopping the kitchen floor and washing windows, the Doors' "Light My Fire" and JA's "White Rabbit," plus NOLA jazz.

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  7. I prefer music when I'm driving and mostly like classic rock and oldies stations. I channel-surf among several Cape, Boston and Providence stations. Right now two of those are playing Christmas music, and I'm okay with that! Other than that, it's CDs or sometimes I'll put Pandora on Bluetooth. Usually I'll have Pandora on with headphones when I'm writing -- then I can choose the music that fits the mood of what I'm writing. I do sometimes listen to NPR, but I should really be a grown-up and listen to it more! <y 20-something kids do not listen to the radio at all. It's sad that we're losing that part of our culture.

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  8. Did I mention that my husband collects old radios? We have the one he grew with, a wood floor model with a green 'eye' that lights up when the radio's on.

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  9. NPR and CBC (I'm just on the other side of Lake Erie from Canada). In my youth I listened to a great Cleveland/Akron area radio station that played many different genres of music, which introduced me to lots of different performers. I do use Pandora some--I create 'channels' and it slots in old favorites and new, similar music--another good way to find new-to-me performers. When I lived farther south, I used to listen to some wonderful jazz radio programming out of Columbus.

    And I LOVE radio dramas, the opera, talks (current events, TED-like, etc.) but detest crummy talk programming where people call in to spout the latest stupidities.

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  10. I do miss them, Debs. Nothing can create the suspense and terror of a radio drama because it's all in your mind. Actually I was asked to write a radio serial for Audible but alas I didn't have the time to devote to it. I may revisit it, however

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    1. Oooh, Rhys, I hope you can slot that in to your busy schedule!! Audible Originals are the big thing now, and yours would be so much fun!

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  11. Is there any other radio than NPR? I alternate between AM, which is talk/news/et al, and FM, the classical station. However I rarely listen at home. It's a car thing with me. We no longer have a radio in the house, Alexa performing that function.

    I also turn it off the moment I hear the T word or voice.

    As a child of pre-TV years, I grew up on radio dramas, comedies, and, best of all, soap operas.

    "The Romance of Helen Trent."

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    1. I wish I had heard more of those… They are not the same now, I fear.

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  12. Rhys, have you heard of LA Theater Works? Our local NPR station, WVXU, airs it on Saturday evening: http://www.wvxu.org/programs/la-theatre-works#stream/0

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  13. Okay, that comment was meant to go under Rhys's above.

    I've been a fan of NPR since the 70's. We are so lucky in Cincinnati to have had three local stations for decades. One recently bit the dust, but we still have the classical station and the mostly talk/news format one, which has great programming.

    When I bought my "new" car a few years ago it came with a three-month subscription to Sirius XM, which I have continued to subscribe to since. I drive a lot around the country, since my kids live in Michigan, Virginia, and Colorado, and it's really great to be able to find something to listen to wherever I am. Unfortunately, a LOT of states in the middle of the US do not have good access to NPR, which explains a lot, in my opinion. Wyoming, for instance, has a single station, with smaller repeater signals all over the state. Lots of conservative and religious talk stations, though, as there are all across the United States. In West Virginia it's nearly impossible to find much else.

    With Sirius XM I can get NPR nearly everywhere, as well as BBC News, CBC, and Broadway and opera, if I feel like it. (I generally only listen to classical in the car if there is a tense situation, otherwise it makes me sleepy).

    When Steve and I travel together he prefers just to talk, but if we're in the car longer than an hour or two we both enjoy listening to audiobooks (Gone Girl kept us riveted on a trip to New Orleans from Cincinnati), or oldies. He's a good sport about me singing along to the songs of our youth, bless him!

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    1. Susan, that's a very interesting comment about the areas that don't get NPR. Hmm.

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    2. We once listened to the original Les Miserables book on audio in a car trip, and when we got home, we sat in the driveway and listened to the end of it.

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  14. Our local NPR station has gone all talk. I miss the music dreadfully. The worst is in the afternoon when they talk about local politics and state government for hours. Beyond dull! When I was in graduate school, I had no TV, only a radio and on Friday nights after teaching and studying all week, I would listen to the CBS Radio Theatre. They were wonderful: plays, mysteries, stories. I loved it.

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  15. I, too, am an NPR fan. I start every weekday morning with it,and often catch Wait, Wait on the weekend. I still miss Car Talk, too. But in the car I have moved almost exclusively to listening to audio books. I enjoy music, but I don't enjoy all the talking that comes with it on radio. I made that change because I found that my stress level was a lot lower when listening to a book than to the radio.

    My husband is pretty dedicated to Sirius XM, so I hear it when I'm in his car. It's OK, but I agree with the comment that it is too tightly segregated and also has too much chatter. And if we are listening while taking a trip, so that we have the radio on for more than an hour, I come to realize that their playlists are really small -- we begin to hear the same things, over and over.

    From Deb's description of BBC 4, I desperately wish it was available here! I also agree with her point that there is something to be said for "everyone sipping from the same cultural bowl." I think the US has lost a lot as we have lost all the things that used to parallel that.

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    1. Susan, the same is true of TV news in the UK. While newspapers tend to slant one way or the other, both BBC and ITV news tend to be pretty centrist, and that's what everyone watches.

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    2. Susan, you can listen to BBC Radio online at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds without signing up/in. Just click on the station you like to listen live. I really like BBC 4 Extra.

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  16. I don't listen to the radio much in the car these days. I'm either driving very short distances, where I just don't bother, or driving in heavy traffic, where I feel like I need all my concentration! And I do a lot of thinking and plotting in the car--which has been known to make me miss my exits!

    But this morning, having made a little resolution to bring more radio to my life, I'm listening to NPR via Alexa in the kitchen. I wouldn't mind having Sirius XM, but, again, just don't drive enough to justify it.

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  17. Shame on me for not mentioning WRR FM 101.1, Dallas's municipally-owned classical radio station! When I drove more, I listened to WRR all the time. Slap on the wrist, and adding that to my Alexa list.

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  18. My tastes are not as sophisticated as yours, apparently. My favorite radio station is Entertainment Weekly on Sirius/XM, since I guess I'm a pop culture junkie!

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  19. Another CBC listener here, from Toronto. I know what you mean about sipping from the same cultural bowl. Time and again when I get together with friends, there's often someone saying "Oh, did you hear that thing on the CBC this morning?"

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  20. Lucy, you should see if you can stream your local station. Maine Public Classical doesn't reach to my house, so I went to the "skills" section on my Alexa controls and added that station. I also have WQXR from New York City and the Nantucket classical station.

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  21. Lucy, we lost our when the south Florida NPR stations were put together into one. "One size fits all". Not.
    I miss From the Top. Fridays Fresh Air is replaced. I resent that large chunks of time are taken for the Miami school board meetings. Really? People in Key West and Palm Beach need to hear that? I think not.
    And the reception is poor. Go just a little too far north or south and you are out of luck.
    Libby Dodd

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  22. I used to listen to the radio so diligently, as a teenager, and I would try to make a list of all the top 40 songs before the actual list was printed at the record store. How’s that for nostalgia?

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  23. I had my radio on all the time when I worked. Rock oldies mainly. NPR on Saturdays during tax season. I'd listen to Prairie Home and Car Talk and Wait, Wait. Now I'm retired I don't turn on the radio. My husband makes up for it though. He listens to local NPR Saturday mornings for the Cajun hour; Sundays for blues and gospel. Both are on before I'm up for the day. He listens to satellite radio in the car, mainly old radio shows. Some are reallllly awful. You can never go wrong with Jack Benny though. I have to replace the radio/CD player in my car; it is starting to reject some of the CDs and I don't think it is a matter of taste. It is CDs all the way in my car.When I was in high school and college you could get all kinds of music on one radio station. Country western, rock, acid rock, instrumentals, popular, everything. I loved it. Now it seems all the stations specialize which is why I pretty much gave up listening.

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  24. I'm a radio-listening nerd: a radio in every room in the house, tuned to CBC - always and only. I also love BBC and I listen to NPR via podcasts. Long live public broadcasting!

    The CBC runs a national live call-in show on Sunday afternoons called Cross Country Check-up; it's a wonderful view (ear) into the country from coast to coast to coast. If I'm listening in Manitoba, I know my mum is listening in Edmonton two provinces over. I love that about live radio!

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  25. I don't listen to the radio. Even though I'm in LA county, reception is spotty in my area, and I get very frustrated by all the ads. Instead, I listen to music or audio books while driving. Usually, I have the TV on when I'm at home, where my reception is even worse than other parts of town.

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  26. Amanda - That’s what I listen to in our house in Nova Scotia! Love the CBC!

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    1. Yay for Nova Scotia, Jean. I lived there for two years in the late '80s and loved it!

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  27. When my husband and I were first married in 1976, before we had kids in 1983, we would travel the four and a half hours to see my parents and family every so often. We would leave after he got off work from his and his father's business, sometime after 6 or 7 p.m. So, we were on the road when CBS Mystery Radio Theater came on. This program ran from 1974 to 1982. My husband and I both loved it. Riding along in the dark, with a mystery on, was just the best. Then, later there was the jazz I listened to on Saturday nights on NPR, but I have let that lapse. I did catch it here recently.

    There are two things I'm especially happy about passing on to our two children, who are now 31 and 34. The love of reading is, of course, my first pride and joy legacy to them. Reading and learning and discussing ideas is something they can enjoy the rest of their lives. The other is an attachment to NPR. I'll give my husband more credit on this one, as he is the one who always had it on when he was driving. I tended to go more for music. My daughter has a radio in her house where she can hear it all over, and she has NPR on lots when she's home. Even the nine-year-old knows the names and presenters of programs. It's truly a family affair. My son still listens to NPR, too, although I'm not sure how much these days, as he lives farther away, and I know he listens to a lot of podcasts now.

    I seem to have gone to audio books when I'm in the car for an hour or longer. But, I do love radio programs. I like seeing radio mysteries performed, too, and I've attended several of those. I wish there were more to go to, like every month.

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  28. Shalom Reds. Here in Philadelphia we have 3 public radio stations. Two of them offer their programming on the internet streaming. WXPN plays indy-music. I think they offer WXPN2 streaming only. WRTI connected with Temple University offers classical in the daytime (12 hours from 6 to 6) and jazz at night (also 6 to 6) WRTI2 reverses the programming, jazz in the day and classical at night. They play Salsa and Latin Jazz on Saturday evening and they also offer gospel music on Sunday early morning. I listen to them all now and then with my Android smartphone. The only traditional radio. Also during the summer I listen to Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees baseball on an app that delivers (for a price) all Major League Baseball radio feeds. The only traditional radio that I listen on a miniature boombox are the broadcasts of Philadelphia Eagles radio where the internet feed is blocked because of “contractual obligations”. I just found an app that offers a connection to the radio feeds of college basketball. I’ve been listening to the Wisconsin Badgers live. There are simply too many good podcasts and radio programs offered as podcasts to listen to and not enough time in the day.

    I almost forgot. I do have an app that is called Classical fm that originates in the UK and plays a classical feed all day. I enjoy that app a lot.

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  29. Sorry that got a little diced up. delete the first
    The only traditional radio...

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  30. Back when I taught school, I used to play old radio shows for the kids, like Jack Benny, and then ask them what happened. Today's children can't follow a story accurately, or interpret sound effects. If there isn't a visual component, they are totally lost. It's too bad. I used to include things to "smarten up" the missing senses. Those hours listening to radio were not just fun, they were teaching needed skills.

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  31. I listen to 94.1 WHJY out of Providence, RI - The Home of Rock and Roll.

    At work we listen to Easy 99.1 for a slight more work friendly music feel.

    I also listen to the online station KNAC.COM, which is one of the sites I write for as well.

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