Turns out FM isn’t dead after all… The Nokia N800 Internet tablet has a hidden FM receiver, while the forthcoming Motorola SLVR L9 FM allegiance is a bit more public. I actually dropped XM a few months ago when the amount of commercials seemed to increase and my niche stations were expanded to appeal to broader audience. Since then, I’ve been relatively happy with FM in the car and Pandora in the office.
Now that I’m working from home (at least three weeks a month), I need to re-evaluate my audio situation. I’ve heard good things about Last.fm and I do have about 10GB of ripped music to play with. Maybe I’ll give Sirius a spin. I doubt I’ll be dumping FM though, especially since that’s my primary source for local news.
While you’re reevaluating your audio situation can you provide a little info on this HD radio business I keep hearing about?
You might want to look into an HD-FM receiver. DC, I believe, has more HD radio stations than most other areas of the country.
I haven’t tried it myself, yet, but I’m intrigued.
I’ve heard a ton of radio advertisements for them lately — marketed as hidden radio stations between the existing channels.
As far as I can tell, it’s digital radio broadcast over AM/FM frequencies. Looks like HD Radio offers higher quality audio and additional meta data (scores, stock quotes). It’s advertising-supported (as in no monthly fees), but we’d need to purchase compatible hardware.
13 stations are broadcasting 26 channels in the DC area.
I’m the webmaster for WVBR FM, and we get loads of online listeners. I guess our mix is better than many.
Of course, our web server just went down, but you should take a listen later and let me know what you think… http://wvbr.com/live.html
Cable TV was also supposed to free us from ads, but look how that turned out. Not surprising if satellite radio is headed the same route.
BTW, WTOP has an impressive signal, or at least it used to. I caught it in North Carolina on occasion back when it was on 1500 AM.
Might want to look at AM on the 20th when Tony Kornheiser heads back to the airwaves on the Post’s station. It will be streamed as well…
I run Last.FM to track my listening habits and recommend new music to me, and I go get it from emusic. 40 new, un-DRMed, songs a month for ten bucks is just about right for me. Plus they play on my Tivo right out of the ‘box’.