AM v. FM radio (Blog #4)

I listened to two radio stations tonight, 99.3 WZXR, one of my area’s FM radio stations, and also 890 WLS, an AM radio station based out of Chicago. As with my last entry about the magazine, I tracked the ads that I listened to, versus the information that I heard. 

On the AM radio station, there were absolutely no commercials during the 20 minutes of  listening I did, which is, of course, 0%. I tuned into Stephanie Trussell’s talk segment, which consisted mostly of calls from people from different areas, and interacting with Mrs. Trussell, a very well-informed and eloquent woman. I actually really enjoyed listening to the show, which I was surprised by because growing up I remember complaining anytime my mother’s radio choice wandered to talk radio. I found a lot of the conversation really interesting, from FaceTime Christmas, a reality that always feels very much a possibility with my older brother living in Hawaii, to racism vs. bias, a topic which is very relevant to today. 

On the FM radio station, I heard 9 minutes of commercials, which is 45% of the 20 minutes I listened to. This station consisted more of local commercials and rock music, with very little talk from the hosts. I enjoyed this too, as I enjoyed the type of music that I was listening to, however, I find commercials, especially in that amount were sort of bothersome and broke up the flow of the show. 

While I am an avid music listener, I honestly found the talk radio more interesting. Perhaps this was because listening to the host talk to callers felt a little bit like people-watching, but I think a lot of this was because I found the topics, which were highly relevant to what’s going on in the world around us, very interesting, and also because I found the commercials (local commercials I have heard over and over) extremely boring. The AM radio was clearly more informative, I feel like I really learned something listening to it, like I wasn’t just numbing my mind with noise. Honestly, I think I might start passing time on long car rides by myself with AM radio.