While admittedly not at all the same, there was a certain romance shared by all listeners of a Boston-local FM radio station, WFNX. Whereas many commercial radio stations broadcast with tens of thousands of watts, FNX made do with a Class A broadcast license, limiting them to around 3000 watts of power. This made picking up the station a challenge for all but the closest listeners.
My particular romance was taking a pair of TV rabbit ears and hanging them out the window by the twin-lead cable, much to my mother's chagrin.
In college, I would listen to WPPP in Athens, GA (100 watts). These days I listen to WPTS in Pittsburgh, PA (16 watts).
Low power college radio is great! The broadcasts are always so varied, and there's never any commercials.
Yep, was my gateway to the world as little boy before the internet/bbs came around.
Re:Bring Back Shortwave
by tomwheeler on Monday March 10, 2025 @01:33PM
(#43322965)
Same for me. Beyond the broadcasts, I'd write the stations and they'd reply by sending program guides, newspaper clippings, postcards, and other neat things from faraway places.
Some of the stations even offered language lessons over the air. I learned basic German when I was 12 from the ones on Deutsche Welle. I attempted to learn Chinese the following year from the big shortwave station in Taiwan.
Access to the internet is like when you use cheats in a game and it ruins the fun.
If people had the internet when shortwave was king, they would most certainly be using it.
Growing up in a somewhat remote part of India, I would tune to BBC, Radio Australia to listen to test cricket commentary, on short wave. I have fond memories and owe a lot of my personal growth to SW.
There's a romance there that internet streaming will never touch.
Simple broadcast rights for one. It's hard to explain to my father why he needs to still pack a handheld radio for the beach because he can't listen to the game by streaming the local sports station on his phone.
Re:Bring Back Shortwave
by ricktdotorg on Monday March 10, 2025 @10:58AM
(#43321400)
shoutout fellow Mackem! not often spotted on HN!
Re:Bring Back Shortwave
by rawandriddled on Monday March 10, 2025 @11:18AM
(#43321567)
Whose keys are these keys? ;)
Idk, it was pretty fun when all my friends were huddled around a single phone on the subway to watch the World Cup final on grandmastreams123321.xyz, with a second tab open on soccerplus321123.ru as backup
I vividly remember turning it on late in a Sunderland vs. Newcastle match. I was in central Bogota, Colombia. Struggling for reception, knowing we'd gone 1-0 down early in the match, I can still hear the commentator: "and who would have thought, after going one-nil down at St. James' Park, Sunderland would be two-one up". I shouted out loud like a lunatic. We won the game.
I've strung wire coat-hangers from windows in Nigeria, Ukraine, and Macedonia all trying to improve reception so I could listen to a football match.
There's a romance there that internet streaming will never touch.