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GOTTA STAY FAI
Mar 24, 2005

~no glitter in the gutter~
~no twilight galaxy~
College Slice

Computer viking posted:

As a foreigner, my impression of AM talk radio is wall-to-wall racist religious ultraconservatives. That doesn't seem likely to be 100% true - so out of curiosity, what's the typical mix of content?

In the Midwestern U.S., it's oldies, religious music, religious talk/actual sermons over the radio, conservative talk, or local sports. Sometimes one station will host a mix of some or all of the above.

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Imagined
Feb 2, 2007

GOTTA STAY FAI posted:

In the Midwestern U.S., it's oldies, religious music, religious talk/actual sermons over the radio, conservative talk, or local sports. Sometimes one station will host a mix of some or all of the above.

Sometimes there's fantastic stuff, though, especially out in rural parts. Like a call-in show that's basically Audio Craigslist where deep, deep country folks can call in and talk about stuff they wanna sell.

robodex
Jun 6, 2007

They're what's for dinner

Tubesock Holocaust posted:

Sorry to interrupt Hi-Fi chat, but here's something that seems to be pretty much obsolete in the gaming world: cheat cartridges and CDs.



These things practically disappeared by the time the Xbox 360 and PS3 came out.

From a few pages ago, but these actually got pretty advanced in their hayday. I have a PS1 Gameshark Pro, which I believe is one of the few cheat devices released for consoles that you could actually do direct memory searches to make your own cheats.

With the PS2 they became a bit less advanced but I spent so much time trying to make my own cheats back in the day.

hackbunny
Jul 22, 2007

I haven't been on SA for years but the person who gave me my previous av as a joke felt guilty for doing so and decided to get me a non-shitty av

1500quidporsche posted:

Also it's worth asking if anybody remembers AM being any good and if so what was it like?

AM interference makes the coolest noise. Once in a few years I'll try AM, find absolutely nothing but Radio Uno (first state-owned station) and whistling noises, and turn to FM again

Now, if we want to talk obsolete broadcasting technology, what about cable radio? In Italy it's exclusively operated by Rai (the state-owned network), transmitted over the phone lines in AM; it intersects the frequency band used by DSL so it's doomed. They don't even make receivers anymore, even Rai recommends buying used. The site of the FD5 station has an impressively nerdy section on classic receivers, including circuit schematics

hackbunny
Jul 22, 2007

I haven't been on SA for years but the person who gave me my previous av as a joke felt guilty for doing so and decided to get me a non-shitty av

robodex posted:

I have a PS1 Gameshark Pro, which I believe is one of the few cheat devices released for consoles that you could actually do direct memory searches to make your own cheats.

Is that the one that also acted as an LPT adapter for the PS1's proprietary parallel port?

chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

Action Replay was great for me as a kid with a PS2 who couldn't reasonably advance in games like The Getaway without cheating.

Code Jockey
Jan 24, 2006

69420 basic bytes free
Sirius is worth it for Backspin and Ed Lover's show alone, but I like the Chill station at night as background noise

I listen to it using the android app, and it works great, it's funny though going under even a one lane overpass in my wife's car [that has an actual sirius radio] and having it cut out briefly

Zenostein
Aug 16, 2008

:h::h::h:Alhamdulillah-chan:h::h::h:

Trabant posted:

Hmm. Either I listen to a few good SXM stations (Little Steven's Underground Garage, Liquid Metal, Deep Tracks, Lithium) or I'm just not listening long enough each day to see the repeats you're all describing. So I'll just say it works for me, at least compared to FM.

So long as you keep it under an hour, you aren't too likely to get repeats, except maybe on the T40 channel or something. Really, the repeats only get annoying when you're say, driving from Buffalo to NYC and think "gee, this'll be better than hitting scan every 70 miles and hoping for a clear signal through the mountains and poo poo." Not that there's too much difference between Sirius and Clearchannel's frequency for a given genre in a given county.

Computer viking posted:

As a foreigner, my impression of AM talk radio is wall-to-wall racist religious ultraconservatives. That doesn't seem likely to be 100% true - so out of curiosity, what's the typical mix of content?

Around NYC: Russian (god knows what), Spanish (probably talk), Sermons &. (in Spanish and English!), Sports!, and sometimes the news, so long as there isn't Sports! happening. Also 560 or 1400 or 1560 or something (and it varies depending on where in the state you are, and on what road) will get you traffic/construction alerts; but those still have signs with flashing lights on the roadside to alert you to when there's something important.

There used to be a killer AM station that would play Sinatra and Big Band and the like, but I haven't been able to grab it in my car for years. Also, back when I lived in Binghamton there was an AM station through CNY (think about Ithica in latitude) that would play old radio dramas. There's something nice about driving down a mostly-deserted highway listening to the Johnson & Johnson comedy hour or whatever.

e. I was curious, and now I'm listening to a news station from Ontario — 400+ miles away is pretty goddamn good, I'd say. Of course, the volume switch isn't working quite right on this radio. Luckily, I have the manual and it includes a loving schematic. Now that's kinda obsolete — the idea that you'd even consider fixing something like a drat radio.

Zenostein has a new favorite as of 00:59 on Oct 20, 2015

Antifreeze Head
Jun 6, 2005

It begins
Pillbug

Imagined posted:

Sometimes there's fantastic stuff, though, especially out in rural parts. Like a call-in show that's basically Audio Craigslist where deep, deep country folks can call in and talk about stuff they wanna sell.

Tradio! I love catching Tradio (sometimes Radio Swap Shop) because it is the epitome of small town living.

"Hi caller, what do you have for us today?"

"I have belt for a 1997 Kenmore tumble dryer, I got it when I was going to repair my unit there, but Myrtle said we'd probably better just get a new one so if anyone else out there has a need for it, I can let it for 15 dollars. I still have the receipt from Sears when I bought it for 19 so you know you're getting a bit of a deal."

"Alright so that was Arthur calling in again about that dryer belt, you can catch him down at the service station most days or after Church in the narthex, he'll be the one with the brown suit and blue tie."

Zenostein posted:

e. I was curious, and now I'm listening to a news station from Ontario — 400+ miles away is pretty goddamn good, I'd say. Of course, the volume switch isn't working quite right on this radio. Luckily, I have the manual and it includes a loving schematic. Now that's kinda obsolete — the idea that you'd even consider fixing something like a drat radio.

I used to sit up at night scanning frequencies between the local options, seeing that I could pick up. AM signals can travel loving far. I can pick up AM 850 from Denver Colorado some 1100 miles away. Helps that they are on top of a mountain though.

Now the internet kinda defeats that, but it is still neat.

eminkey2003
Oct 11, 2009
Back in the 90s, my cousin had a humongous stereo like these. Does anyone use them anymore? Most people just use their computer.

SLOSifl
Aug 10, 2002


Oh man, absolutely. They were EVERYWHERE.

bring back old gbs
Feb 28, 2007

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

eminkey2003 posted:

Back in the 90s, my cousin had a humongous stereo like these. Does anyone use them anymore? Most people just use their computer.



It must have been fun as gently caress to design those abortions of good taste. I bet with the advent of little neodynium speakers you could actually build a really loving nice version of those today. With the main unit designed around an ipad dock, and a custom music player app that has a ton of cool visualizations to take advantage of it, like winamp had back in the day.

bring back old gbs has a new favorite as of 02:52 on Oct 20, 2015

Pham Nuwen
Oct 30, 2010



eminkey2003 posted:

Back in the 90s, my cousin had a humongous stereo like these. Does anyone use them anymore? Most people just use their computer.



Every one of these could be mounted on the shoulders of a mecha and nobody would bat an eye.

Rap Game Goku
Apr 2, 2008

Word to your moms, I came to drop spirit bombs


32MB OF ESRAM posted:

It must have been fun as gently caress to design those abortions of good taste. I bet with the advent of little neodynium speakers you could actually build a really loving nice version of those today. With the main unit designed around an ipad dock, and a custom music player app that has a ton of cool visualizations to take advantage of it, like winamp had back in the day.

Those portable Bluetooth speakers like the beats pill are basically the modern version of those (which were the 90s version of the ghetto blaster)

bring back old gbs
Feb 28, 2007

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Athenry posted:

Those portable Bluetooth speakers like the beats pill are basically the modern version of those (which were the 90s version of the ghetto blaster)

Oh no doubt, but most of those are meant to be portable. I meant scale them the hell up like their sole purpose is blaring KORN and Limp Bizkit in the unfinished basement

Coffee And Pie
Nov 4, 2010

"Blah-sum"?
More like "Blawesome"

Computer viking posted:

As a foreigner, my impression of AM talk radio is wall-to-wall racist religious ultraconservatives. That doesn't seem likely to be 100% true - so out of curiosity, what's the typical mix of content?

Podcasts are like talk radio for cool young people.

Lazlo Nibble
Jan 9, 2004

It was Weasleby, by God! At last I had the miserable blighter precisely where I wanted him!

spog posted:

quote:


I consider myself au fait with old Hi-Fi tech, but I am struggling to work out what half those buttons do.
If I'm not mistaken, they let you program the deck to automatically tape-record your favorite radio shows on a timer. :aaaaa:

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


Zenostein posted:

e. I was curious, and now I'm listening to a news station from Ontario — 400+ miles away is pretty goddamn good, I'd say. Of course, the volume switch isn't working quite right on this radio. Luckily, I have the manual and it includes a loving schematic. Now that's kinda obsolete — the idea that you'd even consider fixing something like a drat radio.

Usually there's still a service manual available for more expensive or pro gear, but having it in the user manual even for ordinary consumer equipment is definitely old school stuff.

And very awesome if you're into buying old stereo gear and fixing it up.

JediTalentAgent
Jun 5, 2005
Hey, look. Look, if- if you screw me on this, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine, you rat bastard!
What's the difficulty/cost of getting an radio station up and running these days between FM and AM in the US between buying an existing station's resources, starting from scratch, etc?

Plinkey
Aug 4, 2004

by Fluffdaddy

JediTalentAgent posted:

What's the difficulty/cost of getting an radio station up and running these days between FM and AM in the US between buying an existing station's resources, starting from scratch, etc?

From what I understand unless you're something like a university and affiliated with NPR it's basically impossible. Clear channel will eat you alive before you get off the ground.

blugu64
Jul 17, 2006

Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?
Starting from scratch good luck, I don't think that any lpfm licenses have been granted in like 15 years.

Antifreeze Head
Jun 6, 2005

It begins
Pillbug

JediTalentAgent posted:

What's the difficulty/cost of getting an radio station up and running these days between FM and AM in the US between buying an existing station's resources, starting from scratch, etc?

The trick about starting from scratch is that most frequencies in most big markets are already locked down, so you just can't get a license. Small rural (think farmland) areas might have some stuff available, though, as others have said, not right not because the FCC isn't accepting submissions.

As for the hardware to get a small station up and running, it is pretty affordable. You can get a 1kw transmitter from some Chinese manufacturer for about $3000 and that should get you 10 miles of effective broadcast range if you slap up a cheap antenna on the roof. That's not really a good idea though, so you'd want some sort of mast or tower to greatly extend that range and you could probably get something adequate (though not really great) for $5000. There are a few different versions of free radio automation and traffic software that can run on just about any old computer, so those costs are minimal, but you need some mics, a low end broadcast board, maybe a compressor... so another $2500 then add a generous $2000 for furniture, wires and whatever else you might need and the hardware side is like $12500 all in (with PLENTY of room to upgrade). Like, it would be functional and it would be amazing as a turnkey operation if you were setting it up for a do-good project in a third world country, but it would be a little more advanced than the ten worst college radio station studios.

If you were some really isolated place like wherever in Alaska it was that Northern Exposure was set (or you just want to run pirate radio* for your suburb), you could look at a transmitter from 25 to 50 watts and you can really skimp out on hardware (use the Mic from Rock Band, plug in an MP3 player, no studio monitor speakers) if you want to so maybe you can get everything running for under $500. You can hit some pretty long distances with a small transmitter and high antenna if there isn't much else going on.

The other big up front cost is the broadcast license, and submitting an application can run thousands. I'm not sure what the price would be to jump through all of the FCC's hoops, but even if it was as much as the equipment cost, you are still in the range of affordable as a bigger budget hobby project or within the scope of a co-op run by a few dedicated people. Jesus apparently wants people to broadcast THE WORD over the radio, and this site has a pretty decent rundown of what you'd need to do to appease the broadcast regulator. If you were starting a station, you could basically follow whatever they have to say up until the last step of "broadcast about Jesus" and instead do whatever it was you planned to do.

Then of course there are ongoing costs like utilities, rent, music licensing, etc. Staff, or at least good staff, is another matter. Anywhere you go you can probably find some yahoo who thinks they'd sound great on the radio. Most of them are quite poo poo. Getting people to report on things, be it sports or news, in a responsible manner is another issue entirely. Owner/Operator is the way to get started. Do the morning show, then go out and hustle ads to the local butcher or whatever and then have to come back to do the spots. If there is someone else in your Podunk of nine-thousand people that isn't poo poo, maybe they do the afternoon or evening and can sell ads in their own show where they take a majority of the commission.

There's also the matter of the land on which to put all of this stuff, and that could end up being the most expensive thing. That varies wherever you happen to be and probably accounts for a pretty decent percentage of the total cost of whatever a small town radio station sells for when bought out by a some big company. If you google radio station for sale, you can find them anywhere from $300,000 to the millions of dollars, with more and better equipment coming with the higher price tags.

*Please don't set up a pirate radio station.

Stick Insect
Oct 24, 2010

My enemies are many.

My equals are none.

Coffee And Pie posted:

Podcasts are like talk radio for cool young people.

There's music podcasts too. That's how I learn of cool new music. Well, that and Youtube.

hirvox
Sep 8, 2009

eminkey2003 posted:

Back in the 90s, my cousin had a humongous stereo like these. Does anyone use them anymore? Most people just use their computer.


My parents have one, but even they are moving to smartphone radio apps. One of their favourite radio stations can't seem to hold on to their FM license, so they go net-only whenever their license expires. I guess I ought to buy them an AirPlay dongle at some point.

Humphreys
Jan 26, 2013

We conceived a way to use my mother as a porn mule


eminkey2003 posted:

Back in the 90s, my cousin had a humongous stereo like these. Does anyone use them anymore? Most people just use their computer.



Panasonic still make them. they have smallish shelf versions and the big fuckers like the SC-MAX770 or whatever its called with LEDs in the speaker covers that change to the beat etc. We sell them and I have affectionately called them 'Centrelink 1000s' as most of the people that take an interest in them are low/no income bogans.

In my area every commercial FM station is owned by the same company, so there is no real independant source of good music (for me thats 70s-80s rock) with having to deal with the lovely adds and annoying 'DJs'.

And GOOD NEWS Australians! The government lifted their ban (thats what it amounted to) on Commercial TV stations broadcasting in 1080p HD. their secondary channels were allowed to (like OneHD and 7mate etc). The reasoning behind the ban was 'we want all major stations to stay at SD resolution until the population has sufficient percentage of HD TVs.

Now I can finally get my football in HD and not see a blur when I am trying to see the football in midflight! Well... that is when the local repeaters get on board and install the hardware required.

My Lovely Horse
Aug 21, 2010

Jesus, they look like H.R. Giger designed them. And hey, the black one has an iPod dock.

I had a slightly more subdued version of one, though. My dad warned me not to get a combination stereo because if one component broke down there'd be no way to replace just that. Obviously that's right and the smart thing to do, but he couldn't have known that a few years down the line you wouldn't even need CD players and cassette decks anymore, separate or combined. Then again if I'd gone for separate components they might have been high value enough I'd still use them today, who knows.

Got a small combination radio/CD/MP3 player a few years back and that's already breaking down. Barely reads CDs anymore, and to play MP3s I have to put them on a limited capacity USB stick or SD card and, I mean, my PC with all the stuff on it is right there.

Grumbletron 4000
Nov 30, 2002

Where you want it, bitch.
College Slice

Pham Nuwen posted:

Every one of these could be mounted on the shoulders of a mecha and nobody would bat an eye.

Any of those could be replaced by a JVC Kaboom! Box. I had one and it was an amazing piece.

Dual subs, loud as hell and powered by only 10 D-cells and 3 AA's for memory. They seriously rocked so drat hard. It's got a tiny and formidable replacement in the Riva Turbo X now. I've got one of those too and it's louder and clearer than it has any right to be given its size.

SubNat
Nov 27, 2008

eminkey2003 posted:

Back in the 90s, my cousin had a humongous stereo like these. Does anyone use them anymore? Most people just use their computer.



Aw geez, my parents bought one of these in the late nineties, but not to listen to music. The stereo was bought because it had VIDEO-CD support, and could play all the bootleg movies we bought over in Mongolia.

Humphreys
Jan 26, 2013

We conceived a way to use my mother as a porn mule


I just remembered my parents had a 40! stacker CD Stereo.

Pressing 'random all' was scary, it could be anything from the stones to macarena.

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


Humphreys posted:

I just remembered my parents had a 40! stacker CD Stereo.

Pressing 'random all' was scary, it could be anything from the stones to macarena.

Only 40? :smug:

Lowen SoDium
Jun 5, 2003

Highen Fiber
Clapping Larry

Antifreeze Head posted:

*Please don't set up a pirate radio station.

There used to be a pirate radio station in Panama City Beach. I think it eventually went legit and just continued to market as if it was unlicensed.

My favorite was at the top of the hour, they would some times play a bumper that said "You're listening to Pirate Radio, we aint got no fuckin call letters!"

Humphreys
Jan 26, 2013

We conceived a way to use my mother as a porn mule



Oh wow!

3D Megadoodoo
Nov 25, 2010

I need a couple of those. They stack, right?

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


E: ^^^^ Yeah, it would be pretty special if they stacked and you could shuffle 800 or 1200 discs.

Still, full 400-disc shuffle is pretty :krad:

See that port on the lower left? That's a PS/2 keyboard port. That's right, you can plug in a PC keyboard and name every disc in the carousel for easy reference later. It's such an awesome final gasp for the CD, the ultimate player.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vuAseW4ZJ0

KozmoNaut has a new favorite as of 13:23 on Oct 20, 2015

monolithburger
Sep 7, 2011


It looks so lacklustre inside :/

(Moving parts like tiny rubber belts, thank god for their obsolescence.)

JesustheDarkLord
May 22, 2006

#VolsDeep
Lipstick Apathy

KozmoNaut posted:

E: ^^^^ Yeah, it would be pretty special if they stacked and you could shuffle 800 or 1200 discs.

Still, full 400-disc shuffle is pretty :krad:

See that port on the lower left? That's a PS/2 keyboard port. That's right, you can plug in a PC keyboard and name every disc in the carousel for easy reference later. It's such an awesome final gasp for the CD, the ultimate player.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vuAseW4ZJ0

I had a 301 disc player like that and after I got all the names in the power went out and I lost them.

Tony quidprano
Jan 19, 2014



eminkey2003 posted:

Back in the 90s, my cousin had a humongous stereo like these. Does anyone use them anymore? Most people just use their computer.



I worked for a regional drug store chain in the mid 00s that brought those fuckers in by the boatload and we had to have a functional display model for every one of the fifteen or so models we had because "how else would the customer be able to make up their mind?"

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


"I can't quite make up my mind. Do I want the one with the big baboon's arse red woofers, the one with the top mounted air intake, or the one with the rocket launchers on the side?"

Tony quidprano
Jan 19, 2014



The answer was inevitably none of the above because this was during the height of the iPod's popularity. That chain is a god drat time relic and I still go there if I need outdated tech. I saw cassettes for sale in there about six months ago.

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67 and still making love
Oct 7, 2005

Peek
a
BLARGH

Pham Nuwen posted:

Every one of these could be mounted on the shoulders of a mecha and nobody would bat an eye.

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