Anyone listen to Music on a FM tuner anymore?


I’m not referring to streaming, I mean an actual FM turner. I haven’t had a turner for at least 15, probably more like 20 years. I had a high-end one that went bad years ago and even then I hadn’t really used it in years. Just wondering if anyone still uses one and why?

Added info: back in my college days there were lots of reasons, some great DJ’s in the New York City area and sometimes a live concert broadcasts that were great, but those times are long gone, as is most of my hair and my 32 inch waistline.....I’m not trying to judge anyone for still listening to music on a FM tuner, just asking for the reason to do so.

Hope everyone had a good holiday season.

128x128deadhead1000

Still use my tuners.  Have a McIntosh MR-71 in the great room, and have a MR-88 in my bedroom.  I wish I could adapt my MR-71 for HDRadio.  We have a lot HD stations around here.  The MR-88 sounds better when there is a HD signal, the MR-71 sounds better on a non-HD signal.

We have a fantastic classical and American Songbook station around here.  It is still worth listing to the radio.

The station that I love to listen to has an emphasis on high quality source material (when possible) The DJ's bring in vinyl when they can because they say it sounds better.

This station has an over the airways FM signal, internet stream, and an over the air HD radio signal. I was able to listen to the HD radio signal with the famous Sony XDR unit modded by the XDRguy.com. The radio signal was unlistenable to me (not high quality) compared to the FM broadcast. The internet stream was better than the HD radio broadcast, but not as good as the FM.

Nice to see some of the responses here! I used to listen to FM a lot. The only discreet tuner I ever had was a Sansui TU-S77AMX, but one I stuffed that away in the closet(having a new AVR), I seemed to lose interest in FM radio programming. Coincidently this was around the time the FCC allowed the change from 3 mass market stations to (7 in one market????). I remembering MetroMedia coming into Boston and buying up whatever they could.

Suddenly the airwaves changed- Oldies 103 was gone, BCN became a shell of itself, Lorne and Wally(formerly WVBF) were now WROR after their brief intro to Country. Hell- even Country changed big time! WCLB became WKLB and became Hot Country. Hot Country was no longer the Country of the past- it sounded more like Hip Hop!!!

I only commute one a week now(thank you Covid), but at 2 1/2 hrs on the road, I made a USB stick of all kinds of music. I didn't have XM in my car, so USB was it. I actually detested listening to FM Radio on my commute.

Once home- I listen to Sirius XM streamed into my Deon Receiver, as well as various Internet radio stations for Classical and 80's/90's Country. There are a million Classic Rock stations out there, but afraid that much of that is "stick to format" corporate stuff. Some day I'll explore!

Listening to jazz on 89.3, WNUR, Northwestern University as I type this.  I like listening to the college stations here in Chicago; 88.7, WLUW, Loyola, 88.3, WBEZ North Eastern, 90.9, WDCB, College Of DuPage for new and interesting music I'm not familiar with.  Not to mention Public Radio, WBEZ, and for a city this size, one classical station in the middle of the dial, WFMT, 98.7 broadcasts an excellent signal and not bad programming.  We once had a better(I thought) classical station WNIB, 97.1.  The owners, a couple who ran it on a shoestring budget(had a dog running around the place and they drove an old Volvo wagon) and a pure love of music were getting old and nearing retirement when a major radio station corporation who wanted the license for the broadcast frequency to play rock offered them an amount I believe was north of one-hundred & fifty million dollars.  That's a $150,000,000 plus!  What timing I guess.

I still have and use my Onkyo T 9090 II tuner sometimes, but mainly to stay up to date on any upcoming concerts announced by a local classic rock radio station. 

The Onkyo T 9090II was considered one of the best tuners ever made, but other sources sound better, so I don't listen to it much.  I see it on the same level as a good old-fashioned newspaper.  Good for news!