No More AM Radio in CArs

The Angels are on KLAA-AM/830, which Arte Moreno owns and the studio is at Angel Stadium.

The Ducks were on that station until this past season, when they went to a streaming service called TuneIn Radio. My daughter showed me how to get bluetooth in the car and put the app in. I guess I can listen on my phone, too, which I never do. I only listen to the postgame show driving home from the games. You have to listen to a couple minutes of commercials before you get the show and if you're on the wrong station, you've wasted time on those commercials. You try again to get the right show and, yeah, the commercials. The volume is inconsistent and there are gaps in the broadcasts.

The Ducks have fired radio analyst Dan Wood and postgame host Josh Brewster. Rumors are the woman they hired from Chicago to host their streaming features -- Alexis Downey -- is going to get the radio analyst job. After a one-year trial, she has shown to be pretty bad. I posted on FB that if the Ducks are trying to enhance the presence of women in their organization, I am just fine with that. But the women -- and men -- have to be talented and knowledgable. So far, Downey is neither. For the record, Wood was an OK analyst, Brewster wasn't a good host. His show was named "Duck Calls" and he never got any calls. Kinda tells you a lot.

The Kings switched to radio streaming a few years ago. Showing how naive I am, I asked what number it was. I don't even remember the name of the service. Doesn't matter, I won't listen.

 

Looking back, it's amazing how much static I'd put up with to listen to my favorite stations. Like Johnny Most doing Celtics games.

Even today, I'll go on YouTube and play old radio checks for WABC (New York) and WCFL (Chicago) from the '60s and '70s. That's pure nostalgia.

 

Either MLB now allows teams to stream in their home market area, or they're testing it.

AM radio has been going tits-up for 25 years and there are a ton of reasons, not just the Internet. SiriusXM is one. Clusters are another. Property values for the land where the towers sit is often worth more than the stations itself, especially if the station has a ridiculous directional pattern. Most music stations cutting midday and night shifts — sometimes even AM and PM drive — for syndication has put the nail in the coffin. Why scan the dial if all I'm going to hear is nine stations airing the same four midday shows? Also, have you ever tried listening to AM radio while you drive under a power line? Not a user-friendly experience. The band should've done all-digital a while ago, but ...

There are only a handful of markets where AM matters anymore: Boston, New York and Philly are three, and Boston's only because of WBZ. The clear channel stations used to be a fun catch after dark. Listen for 10 minutes and you could learn a lot about that particular city or its teams. I loved listening to WFAN at night and hearing whoever was on (Summers, Beningo, etc.). Now almost everyone is airing the same stuff. If it's not exactly the same, it's in the same genre: angry white men bitching about what 'Murica has turned into.

 

My Ex girlfriend, after driving from central Pennsylvania down to Charlotteville for the 2007 Pitt-UVA game and watching me fish for games on AM bought me the Sirius Stiletto for Christmas because, "I can listen to college football but I can't do static."

 

It's funny, I know there might be an argument against satellite radio too but I just love it. Especially as much as I am in my car. I am not a playlist guy so even better. But I find myself even finding the local games on the satellite radio. I'm already tuned to it, just go to the sports channels.

I have told this story, but in times before having one of those puppies, I got the Broncos game on Denver's KOA driving back to Phoenix where I lived then from the Grand Canyon.

 

I stream the local AM talk station at home and in the car because the sound quality is infinitely better. There are drawbacks, though. Namely, paying $20 a month for internet service in the car vs. free. You can also hit a dead spot or have the internet slow down and lose the feed.

 

I agree. As an #Old posting on a message board catering to print journalists past, present but probably not future, I try to understand and respect everyone's got certain nostalgic soft spots when it comes to media consumption. Goodness knows I do. Fuck that streaming shit, give me my cable. And gimme my CDs too. But satellite radio is such a superior option to regular radi0, especially if you're not into playlists or podcasts. I also just tune in to the local games on the XM station, knowing I'll have a crisper feed than on AM. And while the XM music selections are infinitely worse than they were in the early '00s, they're still infinitely better than the variety on local FM.

 

My 2018 truck has AM radio, but no CD player. All streaming all the time via CarPlay.

 

The Dodgers stream their games on the IheartRadio app through their flagship. I get the games on my phone but my Google assistant often tells me I’m out of the market even though the two devices are only a few feet away.

I often listen to games through the mlb app, but the action can be up to a half inning behind. I often get notifications of runs scored before hearing the play by play.

 

Not usually AM, but I am a staunch listener to terrestrial radio in my truck. I regularly travel anywhere between Nashville and Wilmington, and I have my presets where I can go town to town, up and down the dial.
I like local radio because that's how you find out what's going on. My wife listens to satellite in her car, and if she is listening to an actual station, as soon as anything other than music comes on, she changes channels.
I get irritated because this is a regular conversation: "Hey, such and such is happening this weekend. Sounds fun. Want to go?" "Sure. How did you find out about that?" "I listen to the dang radio instead of flipping channels."

 

She could’ve given you a better breakup gift than a Sirius radio.

I’ll do some dial-scanning now, but rarely. I just don’t want to waste time on angry man talk radio or another station airing Ryan Seacrest’s show. Sometimes I’ll listen to the drive-time sports shows or NPR shows.

Podcasts take up most of my in-car time, which is generally limited anyway. I put 150 miles on my car in 24 hours last week and that was probably the total of what I’d driven the prior 10-14 days.

 

Given her history, it was the perfect gift: one more thing that costs me money.