Forum Discussion

Halfmast's avatar
Halfmast
Explorer
Jan 28, 2016

FM radio for FT

I don't watch much TV. Didn't have one until into my second year. However, I enjoy music, especially commercial-free.

Over the years, I've tried Sirius - went through the decades: 60s, 70s, some 80s, even tried 50s - which eventually got repetitious. Same with Pandora et al.

Couple summers ago I stayed in St. Augustine and discovered a Jacksonville over-the-airways radio station, WKTZ, run by a local college. The station has since ceased over-the-air transmission and is strictly an internet-streaming station. (They sold their FM dial position to a Christian Radio concern.)

Fantastic, time-of-your-life music: Frank Sinatra, Vic Damone, Doris Day, Judy Garland, Johnny Mathis, Ferrante and Teicher, Andy Williams, Perry Como, Dinah Shore, Julie London, Ray Conniff, Percy Faith, Henry Mancini...

The commercials are virtually non-existent; each hour a few Public Service Announcements and a plug or two for the college.

While other streaming radio services are available, I use "Streema" to connect. On a laptop, go to www.streema.com then do a search for "WKTZ". Mostly, I use my phone hooked up to small speakers. I downloaded the Streema App from the Google Play Store, then searched for "WKTZ".

Using my phone, I can bluetooth it to the truck radio while driving.

No, I do not work for nor benefit from the radio station, the college, Streema, Google or anyone else.

I'm simply sharing what I enjoy.
  • Agreed, there are many ways of connecting to various genres of FM radio from around the world, including WGRF, Buffalo's 97Rock, my go-to station back in my mullet days during the early 80's. Now that I'm proudly old and crotchety, my issue is two-fold.

    1) I like music, not yap. No morning zoos, crews, news, traffic, sports, weather, two-for-one taco commercials or no-credit-refused car dealers. Just music.

    2) "Today's" music, lost me in the late nineties. I went through rock, country, dance, contemporary, middle of the road and adult oriented rock. I, too, loaded up a USB 'music stick' set on 'random' and bade good-bye to terrestrial radio.

    WKTZ, as mentioned above, doesn't have me clamoring for the 'seek' button with each new song and is nearly commercial-free. You DO, however, have to be old and crotchety like me, and must recognize at least some of the artists mentioned in the Original Post.
  • 180GB of music on my laptop. Who needs radio. Would take over 2 months listening 24 hours per day to go through it all. Can always find something to suit the mood.
  • Another vote for the Tunein app. I use it daily to listen to my favorite radio station.

    Jim
  • TuneIn Radio (http://tunein.com/) is another smartphone app that lets you listen to music, news, sports, podcasts, etc from around the world.

    Free, with a premium version also available.
  • My musical tastes are very eclectic and I tend to prefer the non-top 40 music in any genre.

    If you can find local college stations, they are a great opportunity for good music. Unfortunately, they are hard to find.

    I remember a friend bought a new truck with Sirius. He was thrilled with all the possible music. A couple months later, he said "it's amazing how much bad music Elvis recorded". When you have stations dedicated to such a small subject, you end up having to dredge the bottom of the barrel for content. And when you have stations dedicated to a huge subject (50's music), you only have time to play the most well-known overplayed stuff.

    It takes a genius to get the subject size just right - providing well known popular stuff while offering lesser known quality stuff.

    I couldn't live without my mp3 players - I have 7 and they all have my complete collection on them. You don't hear Lee Wiley on the radio...
  • My truck has a great FM radio and while traveling I will use the scan function to locate stations to listen to as I travel from one city to the next.

    In addition, I will use iHeart Radio on my iphone to listen to my home city stations along with a few of the comedy channels on iheart. The bluetooth on the iphone connects to the radio in the truck so iHeart plays over the truck speakers.
  • Have you tried the I Heart Radio app. You can listen to hundreds of radio stations from around the country. If course you must have internet though.
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    I am a great fan of PANDORA INTERNET RADIO over the internet...

    Listen to it everyday here at the house or when on the road....

    Roy Ken