RADIO...does anybody listen anymore?

April 2, 2009 at 2:36 PM

As a lad, I received this marvelous new invention, a FM radio. Wow, how it expanded the bleak horizon which was up until that time limited to the scratchy local AM stations. Now, the world of music and information in general was brought so much closer...and you young pups think the iPod changed the world?

Many a late night I would hold my ear close to the speaker so Mom and Dad would not hear and squelch the likes of Seymour DeKoven and Jean Shepherd

those were the days...

From Tom Holzman
Posted on April 2, 2009 at 3:37 PM

I listen to the radio all the time.

From Anne Horvath
Posted on April 2, 2009 at 4:47 PM

My Dad gave me all of his Jean Shepherd books a few years ago. They are so great! I never got to hear him on the radio though.

I used to listen to classical music on the radio all the time. The local NPR station changed formats, so it is Blab During Waking Hours now. A shame. I used to give them $, but not anymore. The music programming they actually bother to air at night is terrible. I feel like a friend has died. But, if I ever want to listen to one movement of a Tchaikovsky symphony at 2:00 am, I know where to go...

I miss my radio listening a lot. It was a great way to hear new recordings, soloists, pieces, etc. The unexpected and unknown, versus the familiar.

Awesome vintage radio, by the way. I have a beautiful Zenith in a blonde wood case, from the 60s.

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on April 3, 2009 at 5:14 PM

I grew up in a home where there was always classical music playing. My father listened to vinyl recordings on the phonograph, and my mother had an FM transistor radio which she carried around the house with her and listened to classical music all the time she was homr. When my parents gave me my own AM FM clock radio, I was thrilled. The constant presence of classical music in the home led to a lifelong love of classical music for me. For most of my life, I've listened to music practically every waking minute and even gone to sleep and awakened to music. I've used radios, vinyl records, cassette tapes, CDs, and my computer at home, in the car, and in the office, sometimes with headphones so I won't disturb other people. I often make CDs for my students to listen to, and I'm always surprised to learn that they don't have the opportunity to listen to them. Music is rarely played in their homes. I tell their parents to play a CD, even a Suzuki CD, when driving somewhere with their kids. Some of my students, even the younger ones, now have iPods, and I burn CDs for them to copy onto their iPods. It's a long way from the total immersion approach to music that I had. I find this so sad. You can't develop a deep love for something you're not exposed to.

From Alison S
Posted on April 5, 2009 at 8:37 AM

When my niece upgraded her mobile phone at Christmas I received the discarded one which has a radio receiver. Now anytime I'm walking around town I listen to whatever is on BBC Radio 4 (news, drama) or 3 (classical). A couple of weeks ago there was a hilarious article about the music people listened to in their cars that really had me chuckling as I walked down the high street. I probably looked like a lunatic.

What I really enjoy about listening to the radio is the opportunity to discover new music; it's the fact that someone else is controlling the playlist that is appealing. My best discovery so far is Spem in alium by Thomas Tallis heard on Classic FM (which is much better in the evenings when there are fewer adverts).

Here's an observation for you. A decade ago, if someone talked about listening to the wireless you could categorize them as being a bit old-fashioned. Now wireless means state-of-the-art.

From Ruth Kuefler
Posted on April 5, 2009 at 7:25 PM

I listen to the radio all the time. When I was little, we lived kind of out in the middle of nowhere, so we could never get the public radio station signal unless we drove somewhere in the car. It was always a treat for me to be driving somewhere, listening to classical music, or folk, or news, or "A Prairie Home Companion." When we moved to a new house with great radio reception, I was so happy that I could turn on my radio any time and hear music or news day and night. :) Now I mainly listen in the car, since I have a 30-minute commute to school both ways. The thing I love about radio is how it exposes you to music and ideas you might never have sought out on your own. I even used to keep a journal of all the new piece I heard on the radio that I really liked. :)

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RADIO...does anybody listen anymore?

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