What radio stations did you listen to growing up?

If it's an iPod Touch, it works via WiFi. You're probably zooming in and out of hot spots, which would explain why you're "losing" stations. If you're planning to use that in the car, download some songs or podcasts before you set out and just start one as you're pulling out of the driveway.

 

Thanks for the tip on Tune In Radio. I uninstalled iHeart and added Tune In on my Droid. I was underwhelmed by what iHeart had.

 

As for the comment yo try the BBC, I don't get it where I am. And just because they have a British accent doesn't mean I'm going to trust them any more than anyone else.

WSB's reporters just seem genuine to me. Unlike most other sources of news.

 

My earliest radio memory was when I was around 7 years old visiting my grandmother in NYC.

I wasn't used to hearing the sounds of the city at night, so I couldn't sleep. My grandmother had this ancient radio, probably from the 1940s, that had a nice glowing light for the dial. My mother set it up for me near my bed and set the dial for (now that I've looked it up), WNBC, which had Wolfman Jack on.

I don't remember the music really, but I just remember thinking there was some guy wearing a wolf costume talking on the radio. Pretty silly, but that's how my 7-year-old mind worked. A couple other visits, my mom would set the radio up again, and I'd fall asleep listening to this Wolfman guy on the old radio with the nice yellow light.

Unfortunatly, when my grandmother died, my aunt got the radio. I would have liked to have my mom keep it.

 

Listened mostly to HFS, DC 101 and 98 Rock out of Baltimore ... Went to three HFStivals at RFK Stadium. Violent Femmes played one of them and killed. So did, surprisingly, No Doubt.

 

Growing up in a small oil town on the windswept plains had its advantages and disadvantages where it came to radio in the 60s. The disadvantage was that there wasn't much of a Top-40 station in our area during the day, but at night, man, it was a smorgasbord.

KOMA out Oklahoma City was probably the closest to where I lived, but we could also pick up WLS out of Chicago and, of course, the "outlaw X," XROK out of Juarez, Mexico. Then, after 11 o'clock, we always tuned in Beecker Street on KAAY out of Little Rock. That was a 3-hour program of "underground" rock on AM that was truly hip. Anyone who grew up in that period who lived anywhere from Minnesota to Florida probably remembers Beecker Street.

When I moved back to Mississippi in the early 70s, WTIX out of New Orleans was still the big Top 40 station, but by then, the station of choice was WZZQ-FM in Jackson, which was classic rock before classic rock was a real genre.

Now, I have XM on my car radio and I hardly ever listen to the local stations, unless it's for a ball game I'm interested in. Some of the XM presets I have saved include the 60s on 6, Deep Tracks, Classic Vinyl, Classic Rewind, Lithium, Grateful Dead Channel, Little Steven's Underground Garage and Bluesville.

 

"Des Moines' 95- KGGO" was the rock station when I was in high school (now it's classic rock). Had a pretty good stable of DJs back then.

The station was located in an unincorporated area called Berwick and back in the mid-80s they started a running joke about the football program at "Berwick University" to the point that they broadcast the team's games against the University of Okoboji (Members Iowa SportsJournalists.com will remember U of O) and the Maharishi Institute Levitators (MI actually IS a real school in Fairfield, Iowa). Doesn't sound funny now but it was at the time.

On the AM side we listened to WMT out of Cedar Rapids with Ron Gonder calling Iowa football and hoops instead of Jim Zabel on in-town WHO. This was back in the day when there were three separate radio networks in the state the carried Hawkeye games (WMT, WHO and a station out of Davenport, can't remember the call letters, with Bob Brooks).

One of the DM AM stations (KRNT or KIOA, not sure) was part of the Cubs radio network so we got to hear Jack, Lou & Vince call Cub games and another station picked up Denny Matthews calling the Royals out of KC.

Whenever we would visit Chicago I would make my dad leave the radio on WGN on the way out of town so I could lay in down in the back of the station wagon and listen to The Sportswriters until we lost the signal. Good times.

 

We couldn't pick up WLW where we were at, for some reason, but we could pick up WHAS in Louisville pretty well. Listened to the late innings of a ton of Reds games that way as a kid.

I wish I could remember all the stations on which I used to find ballgames. I know I found KMOX quite a few times for the Cardinals, which always amazed me. I seem to recall listening to parts of some Orioles and maybe even Phillies games, too, all the way down in Georgia. Not sure if I ever picked up any Florida stations for the Devil Rays, but I wasn't trying too hard for those, of course.

And while I have very fond memories of picking up late-night ballgames over the air like that, I'll never be an old fogey and say things aren't 162x better today -- listening to any game I want, every day. That was fun, sure, but the whole point was to try to get exactly what we have now. I appreciate MLB Gameday Radio much more now because I had those experiences, though.

 

As a kid growing up in the DMV, I listened to what was then known as Q107. It was a Top-40 station. When I moved to Maine for my junior year of high school, I listened to G98, again, another Top-40 station.

I'd come back to Maine for my senior year of high school. On one weekend before school began, G98 was playing some song I hated, so I started station surfing. I then came upon a Fleetwood Mac song. Then another. Then another. The local classic rock station had a Fleetwood Mac weekend. That turned me onto classic rock pretty much for good.

When I moved back down to the DMV, I latched onto what had by then become Mix 107.3, largely because of the Jack Diamond Show. However, nowadays, I listen to more classic rock and WTOP (news radio).

 

I grew up in Wisconsin but I listened primarily to Chicago radio. Late Sunday afternoons with The Sports Writers, Chicago Eddie Schwartz at night, when I was in college Steve and Gary, for my money the best "shock jock" radio ever and of course Milt Rosenberg.

Milt is still going strong, though his time slot has recently changed. Every screaming partisan idiot on TV and radio should be forced to listen to Milt Rosenberg and learn how special the radio can be. For those of you not familiar with his work I would suggest you visit his site. There are years of shows archived and they are well worth the time to listen.

http://www.wgnradio.com/shows/ext720/