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Radio During the Day or at Night, AM or FM?

Ron Brown

Ron Brown

Cultosaurus Erectus
When do you primarily listen to the radio? Do you prefer the daytime programming full of commercials or the generally less-commercial night-time listening? Do you prefer the fidelity and lack of noise on FM or the silky warmth and power of AM? Do you listen to AM stereo? Do you like FM mono? Headphones or speakers?

I prefer FM at night if I'm listening to music on the radio, but I also love AM and shortwave listening. We have a couple of great AM stations around here that actually play rock and roll, plus one AM stereo station that is unfortunately country.

Since I am also an amateur radio operator, I have a penchant for trying broadcast DX and that works best at night. For DX listening I like headphones, but generally prefer the sound to fill my room via speakers.
 
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I listen to FM, mostly mono, occasionally mid day; if getting horizontal for a 'geezer nap may listen to Boston AM news station in mid/late afternoon on Alexa. Most usually NPR on FM portable during supper, possibly book on CD. Selected evenings, FM mono until maybe 9 PM, news on TV, then New Hampshire Public Radio (rebroadcasting CBC1 and BBC 4) on Alexa until zzzzzzz.

FM usually is mono as TV antenna fixed approximately ESE for Boston stations and prime FM station for programming I want is SSE, hissy in stereo on tee antenna but fine in mono.
 
I used to listen to FM stereo a lot, until I moved to a radio wasteland. I finally sold my beloved Kenwood KT-8300 and now it’s either Qobuz or internet radio. We were listening to WFMT in the Chicagoland area last night, and the SQ was better than expected. To be truthful, I don’t miss FM at all.
 
I listen to FM driving to and from work. A mixture of classic rock, an alternative, and college stations.

I refuse to listen to the talking heads on AM radio.

on a road trip, no FM or AM. We listen to a couple of free streaming Jazz stations.
 
Radio for me is mostly a daytime thing. FM always and more often than not I'm tuned to NPR and not music, though in my area we do have some good music stations. There's one dedicated to jazz (though they have some shows which feature other music) and two others that are kind of multi-format, sometimes talk shows, but mostly music in every genre...
 
At home, two listening choices.

For me, AM...taking in talk/info/interviews events. (morning)

For the SO, background FM music. (all day)

Both in the SUV...it can be a struggle for cassette/CD use. Here, I capitulate most often. ;)


Q
 
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I listen to Satellite radio (no commercials) SiriusXM from my Dish Hopper .. rca out to integrated amp (mains rig). It's part of my Dish Network entertainment package. This is exclusively on my mains (2.1 ch) speakers. In the car or on the go .. I listen to DAP's (ripped files from CD).

Anytime really .. morning, afternoon or evening.
 
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I listen to radio 24/7. FM - no ad radio CKUA out of Alberta, Canada. No POP or clown music. No ads or banter to fill time. Just music.

Indy, rock, jazz, blues, old country, new non pop country, rockabilly, 1930's -40's era, blue grass, Punk.
 
Radio, usually XPN, WRTI, WHYY and WGLS getting the bulk of the time at night, bedroom system. But wake up music is WRTI daytime classical. That stuff will get you dancin'. All FM
XPN has ambient from 11-1 M-R, Saturday overnight is space music, lots of singer/songwriter otherwise.
WRTI is jazz at night and classical by day
WHYY is BBC Overnight midnight-5am
WGLS is kids at the control panel of Rowan University and they dive into AOR from the past at times.

There are another 7 stations that are primary selections and more on the second band of presets.
 
AM sports talk weekdays while working from home. Also early AM before the alarm goes off. Very little FM. Spotify is my daily source for music.
 
AM programming here is terrible. Its all political talking heads, sports, religion, or traffic reports. I don't drive where the traffic is, and all of the rest of it is on my no-listen list.
FM is the rock loop clearly targeted to an aging audience based on the "do you have a limp noodle" commercials that are a regular part of the mix.
 
Radio here is pretty bad too, but I do like listening when I'm working in my "little red barn" shop. Probably has more to do with the fun of playing with the tuner than the actual content.
 
SmileyFaceEQ said:
I listen to radio 24/7. FM - no ad radio CKUA out of Alberta, Canada. No POP or clown music. No ads or banter to fill time. Just music.

Indy, rock, jazz, blues, old country, new non pop country, rockabilly, 1930's -40's era, blue grass, Punk.
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Same here. I listen to WYMS and WMSE public FM radio, day or night. Not every day and not all day but they play good music (NOT pop music) with no commercials. Indie, alt, world, etc. I cannot do commercial radio at all.
 
I don't listen to the radio that often, but when I do, it's one of several NPR/independent/college stations. I typically can get a clean signal in mono, but usually stereo has too much distortion to be listenable. Once in awhile I check out some of the SW bands.

My only radio listening is at home, not really possible at work (on my lunch break right now), and unless it's significantly below freezing, or heavy precip, I keep the windows down while driving, so no use trying to compete with the wind noise.
 
When I was a kid I had a GE console radio from the 30's that was AM and short wave to listen to that my dad had restored in the 50's when I was abut 11 years old. I loved listening to clear channels in the US and radio Free Europe and other stations from Europe at night for cleanest clearest reception. The secret was having a great long wire or Rhomboid antennae. I got my first Scott 350B tuner in the very early 60's and here again it was about the antennae you chose. I stacked a pair of Finney FM-10 antennae on a 20 ft mast in order to get my favorite two college stations which only had 750 watt transmitters at the time. With much greater power today I only use one of the antennae in the attic.

But as programing changed I now stream WQXR from New York, New York for Classical and the New Jazz standards. With classical Christmas music over the holidays. I also enjoy streaming Wind and Rhythm for their 1 hour broad casts weekly.
 
Nautiker said:
I listen to NPR/Classical music every morning for 4-5 hours (at least) on some of my German tube radios (Saba/Grundig/Nordmende)...
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I have fond memory of a Telefunken tube radio.

I listen to FM a lot because there are many stations of reasonal quality available where I am. What is missing is a classical station.
The best sounding is a bluegrass/old time gospel out of Haines City, Florida.
What surprises me is the quality of the FM I get from the original radio in a Toyota Camry, year 2000.
I have a good mix of receivers (Sansuis, Sonys and a Mitsubishi) situated in different areas of the house to listen mainly to FM.
 
These days I mainly listen to FM daytime for local coverage of college and high school sports games, along with sports talk shows. Otherwise, tune FM to NPR. Late night after midnight before going to bed I mainly listen to AM for the Coast-to-Coast AM talk show noise free via my Internet radio. But if Internet is down, I tune to Coast-to-Coast radio on my FM radio to one of the sub-HD channels on FM from OKC on 96.1.2 rebroadcasting KTOK AM of OKC. I wonder how much longer HD FM channels will last. If I want classical music, the only FM station available for it is KCSU on 90.1 from Edmond, OK,
 
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