> you can already stream the digital feeds from most FM stations

That will use up your data.

By contrast FM radio is free, and we have some bloody good BBC radio stations in blighty.

Reminds me of being in 6th form and listening to Radio 1 on my iPod. Those used to support FM just fine!

Oh, the legendary iPod radio remote!

https://ipodwiki.com/wiki/IPod_Radio_Remote

Shows Apple can do FM if they put their mind to it.

RIP iPod Classic (2007-2014).

> That will use up your data.

Where do you live that you're worried about data? Is this an American thing?

I've lived in Asia and Europe and data is so cheap and plentiful that I'm never changing my behaviour to save a few MBs.

Or are you not worried about data but you're trying hard to make a case for this FM antenna that no one wants in their phones?

Nevermind your data. During natural disasters, as was the case in North Carolina, everyone loses cell coverage.

They said they lived in the UK

nice to see that you have no problem seeing things from another person's POV

Nice to see that you can make a glib, worthless, condescending comment that added nothing to the conversation.

At least start your sentences with a capital letter, they might at least have the veneer of being worthwhile to read.

it was worth responding to i guess

The problem in the US is price gouging and ISPs accepting government money to improve infrastructure then pocketing it instead.

My understanding in America is that FM is full of pirate transmissions blocking real channels and thus reducing usefulness of FM for the majority.

American culture leans “against the feds”, it really is wackamole trying to shut them down, on the other hand it drives more subscriptions to satelite radio which is good for the gdp, so win win.

Hell I believe this is even the case in London, just not as extreme.

Not as many pirate radio stations as they’re used to be in the 80s and 90s. A few friends were running them from unsecured buildings back in the day. It’s where I first tuned into a younger DJ Khaled, LOL. The FCC started cracking down heavily by the 00s. And they were eventually replaced by community radio stations. Properly licensed, tend to have more religious, and marketed towards immigrant communities who don’t follow western, English speaking news.

Those pirate radio stations are still out there just with a low power license and a sheen of legitimacy now.

I live in the US and can't recall ever having come across a pirate station. Sometimes people have little FM transmitters in their cars to get audio to their car stereos, but those have a range of meters.

How do you know you haven't come across a pirate station?

More like Clear Channel / iHeartMedia bought all of them and turned them into the “the greatest hits of the 80s, 90s, and today!” I listen to NPR sometimes, and KEXP plays good music, and I can also stream both of them. I haven’t listened to commercial FM radio in many years because it’s absolutely awful in the US.

I’m the one who said it’s weird we single out cars to have AM radios, but my wife actually listens to live sports on AM during her work commute. If I had to pick exactly one of FM or AM to have in our car, it’d be AM without a second thought.

Pirate radio stations are extremely rare in the US. They exist sure but, not so much that it's making the FM band not useful. The FCC really doesn't fuck around.

I love your vision of America, and want to live there.

My thoughts exactly. Sad.

Man, you give us too much credit :p

> By contrast FM radio is free, and we have some bloody good BBC radio stations in blighty

Unfortunately my antenna can't pick up the FM signal, and iPlayer is geo-blocked, but... I do seem to be able to stream some BBC radio stations and program[me]s via the magic of the internets.

One good reason to use FM instead of the internet is that it scales better - you can have practically infinte receivers, wheras most digital radio on the internet will deliver the same content for each listener individually, thus using more bandwidth per listener.

5G has a broadcast option, but I’m not sure if that’s supported by any commercially available phone yet.

Apart from some old 3G tech demos with TV streaming, none of the user data multi/broad cast functionality from 3GPP cellphone standards reached a usable state in consumer hardware, with the single obvious exception being cell broadcast (basically broadcast SMS, by my understanding).

I’m also very doubtful, but at least in Austria it’s being touted as a potential DAB alternative.

(That might just be a strategic device by the incumbent public transmitter operator though – they have ubiquitous FM coverage, which helps avoid competing programs on DAB out by decreasing the utility of buying a DAB receiver.)

5g having broadcast is closer to FM rather than the internet. Broadcast does not work on the internet.

RTP and multicast though...

Over the internet?

True. Though technically multicast could be used, which helps somewhat.

On the other hand, everyone can get their own personal "radio station" via streaming...

If you're not a techie with an unlimited budget for bandwidth, being able to listen to music while out of the house is nice. Speaking as a Canadian where data is stiflingly expensive.