I do. Most stations in my region are just crappy music and dumb call-in shows, but there’s still a few stations with quality programming. FM radio is where I get my news, where I listen to press conferences, old-school audio theatre and (surprisingly) where I get new music recommendations. Hard to believe that modern streaming platforms’ algorithms can be outperformed by traditional media.
I listen to BBC Radio because it’s still excellent. BBC Radio 6 is my go-to daily station which specialises in new music and has DJs who are passionate and have a lot of freedom, but the station also follows John Peel’s A-B-C format which keeps things nice and grounded. Also, BBC Radio 3 for jazz and classical (unlike Classic FM, which only plays movie soundtracks) and BBC Radio 3 Chill which is self-explanatory.
ABC’s Triple-J deserves an honourable mention. Student radio can be good as well.
The local commercial stations are all homogeneous slurry, lowest common denominator saccharin slop where every shred of character and local identity has been eradicated. I grew up listening to Rock FM (Lancashire) and Trent FM (Nottingham), both were cheesy but authentic local pop stations that have been thoroughly Borged into ultra-branded and means tested chaff. It’s adverts, relentlessly forced-cheery sponsored segments disguises as ‘banter’, desperately insincere attempts at audience engagement, and, occasionally, heavily edited and shortened versions of the same dozen songs.