Some listeners will always believe radio is intrinsically free, much like water in the 70′s, but just as we’ve seen with Aquafina and Dasani, anything can be quickly turned for profit. Of course, in situations such as satellite where radio is sold in subscription form, unlike the great bottled water scam (perhaps we are way too trusting in city run purification efforts), there are actually benefits that come hand in hand with the price you pay, such as increased programming options. Don’t sell free radio stations short, however, as there are still plenty of satisfactory music and talk options for those who are morally opposed to paying a listening fee. Here are our go to alternatives.
- Grooveshark If you like to control your radio experience, Grooveshark is among the best options out there. At grooveshark.com, you can simply search for all your favorite songs, download them to your library and create playlists at will. If there’s a listening limit it has yet to become an issue. A higher end version is available for a few bucks a month, but the basic free service will be more than enough for most music lovers.
- Pandora Part of the fun in listening to the radio is never knowing exactly what will come next. Pandora preserves that same sense of surprise and excitement but allows you to skip ahead a few songs to avoid tunes you particularly dislike. The service puts together stations based on your favorite types of music, so though you don’t explicitly select every song you might hear, it still tailors itself to your general musical preferences. Like Grooveshark, Pandora also offers a paid model, but if you can withstand a brief 15 second commercial every now and then, there’s really no need.
- FM/AM Some people love their local radio personalities and have grown up listing to the same station for the better part of their time on earth. Especially in smaller communities, radio ads can be informative and relevant, keeping the entire town in touch. There will always be a place for people’s favorite presets, as old school radio will forever hold a special spot in the collective heart of radio lovers.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 at 9:58 pm and is filed under Radio Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
