FM Radio, anyone?


I was a kid in the 70s. I remember listening to Detroit Tiger baseball on WJR AM 760 on summer evenings - the voice was Ernie Harwell. And I remember listening to music on our local FM stations, and FM sounded so much better than AM (well, of course it did!). 
I remember the glow of the dial on higher end FM tuners, or on receivers. We had a Pioneer that was nice. But a neighbor had a beautiful Marantz with the heavy horizontal tuning dial. Today I own a Model 19 and a 2215b.

So, today I also own a McIntosh MR87 and I plan to showcase it in a whole house audio rack, with a rooftop antenna for the best possible reception. I also have a Magnum Dynalab MD-108 and I’m not sure where to put it, but it sure is pretty! 
Yeah, I know, the SQ is crap compared to just about anything else these days. And radio stations just aren’t as good as they used to be, or as I choose to remember them (the exception being WXRT in Chicago). But I cannot let go! Anyone else?

mattsca

MR 88 fed by a combination FM/Sirius outdoor antenna. I also have a MR 77 which is sonically superior but I love flexibility of the HD and Sirius channels.

@mattsca 

Do you remember the AM station "CKLW?"

It was the best Motown music, coming straight from Detroit (Motown).

This famous station was 50,000 watts, covering a wide area! And we loved the great music! I grew up with an old tube radio. I loved the amber glow of the tubes as I went to sleep.

Oh man!  Ernie Harwell on Sunday nights!! What a lovely time

to be a kid!

 

I first heard Motown on CKLW Windsor and I was hooked. 
 

W-4 with Howard Stern, WRIF with Arthur Penhallow and Steve Dahl on WABX.  Man those were great times to be a Detroit boy!

 

I had an Onkyo T-9 with “Quartz Lock Tuning”

to stop station drift.  Oh boy was I a lucky kid.

 

I still have a soft spot for the radio. Flaws and all. 

Curious. If someone needed to use an indoor FM antenna, what would you recommend?

A simple dipole. Something like this https://www.amazon.com/Antenna-300-ohm-Transformer-Natural-Receiver/dp/B07M9MXQ48

I’ve tried a number of indoor antennas, while they are better than nothing,  none of them was really any better than this. The dipole has a lot of surface area, gives you flexibility in positioning, and is cheap.