One of life’s little pleasures is tuning around the radio dial late at night before drifting off to slumber. I especially enjoy this while traveling, touring foreign radio dials, encountering strange and distant signals. This means that a small portable radio is my constant traveling companion. I prefer to travel light, so said radio must […]
Archive | FM Radio
Switzerland To End FM Broadcasts in 2024
Radio World reports that Switzerland’s FM radio broadcasts are due to end by the end of 2024, according to a release from the country’s Federal Office of Communications. OFCOM says at the end of July only 17% of people in that country listen to FM exclusively. I am a bit chagrined that this story flew […]
Podcast #170.5 – Bonus: São Paulo FM Bandscan
Paul shares a few more details of his trip to Brazil, and then he and Eric listen to a bandscan of the FM dial recorded on a Sunday night in São Paulo, the country’s largest city. Christian radio? Check. Bad 80s pop music? Yep. One takeaway is that commercial radio everywhere kinda sucks, in general. […]
Radio Review Follow-Up: The Tivdio V-115 – Still Great, But Not a DX Champ
Back in March I released a video review of the Tivdio V-115 portable digital radio. I praised it for being very nice sounding – especially for being so small – having decent reception, and for being able to record airchecks to a microSD card. After using the radio during some travels I decided to record […]
FM Radio Is Here To Stay in the UK
When Norway completed the shutdown of its national FM radio signals the tech sites and blogs were all breathless in reporting the news. But, despite the strong currents of digital triumphalism, the way of Norway is not a sign of things to come for analog radio. As Norway paved the way for the wholesale move […]
Radio Review: The Tivdio V-115 Records Airchecks on the Go
On a trip last fall visiting my parents in northern New Jersey, during the evening the I tuned around the AM dial and encountered some fascinatingly unique local stations. I wished I could record some airchecks but didn’t have any easy way to do so, and I couldn’t find any sort of online program archives. […]
Podcast #127 – Franken-FMs Are Low-Power TV Stations Masquerading as Radio
“Franken FM” is the name writer Ernie Smith of Tedium.co calls TV broadcasters who use analog Channel 6 to be heard at 87.7 on the FM dial. Paul talks with Ernie about their mutual fascination with these stations, which Paul has written about extensively on Radio Survivor. Also included in the interview, Ernie Smith explains […]
Is FM Radio Norway’s Network Neutrality? Majority Still Opposes Shutdown
Norway’s FM radio won’t go away that easily. Two years ago the world press reported, often breathlessly, on the Scandinavian country’s plans to end its national radio services on the FM dial, switching them over to digital broadcasting. Lost in most of the reportage was the fact 200 local FM stations would remain on the […]
Podcast #120 – Have Your Own Tiny Radio Station
First conceived in the 1930s, there is a type of tiny little radio station that anyone can operate legally, without a license. Bill DeFelice of HobbyBroadcaster.net joins the show to tell us about so-called ‘Part 15’ radio stations, and how you can get on the air today, to broadcast around your house, or even your […]
Apple Kills Off Its First and Only FM Radio
Apple recently announced the end for two more of its iPod music player models, the iPod Shuffle and the iPod Nano. The cancellation of the latter also eliminates Apple’s first, and only, radio receiver. While the iPod Touch remains in production, it’s really just an iPhone without a cellular phone function. Nice as it is, […]