>>As I have gotten older I find myself listening to talk radio more than music, when I am in my car. I rarely if ever listen to talk radio in my house or office.
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>I can't stand most talk radio. It's inflammatory and obnoxious, in my view.
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>These days, when I can't find music to listen, my radio is on NPR. (Interestingly, my 17-year-old keeps his car radio tuned to NPR.)

NPR is still OK, though not as good as it was only a couple of years ago (and of course I can talk only about last four years).

The rest of the ether - is dead. It's killed by commercials. There's nothing else to hear, only imbecile phone chat with whoever calls, and never anything of any importance. There are no local news at all (at least around here) that are worth the name. Unbelievably, but in Belgrade it's quite normal that a local radio will call the CEO of the utility or at least the operations manager if there's a water leak somewhere, if there's a pothole on a major intersection, if there are less than 1000 busses on the streets, if temperature in the apartments goes below 18C (64F)... you name it, and the executive guy will be phoned live during your breakfast. It's a sort of fashion and a POV on how should the local radio be a public service, and it started in late 70s - and stayed popular even today.

And the guy who brought that fashion was actually studying American local radio and taking his ideas from there. Now what could have happened in these three decades to have the local radio here lose that kind of clout, and to have the local radio in Serbia keep it?

BTW, last year we had a thread about "what would you wish to treat yourself with in the next year". My wish was a MP3 player in the car. I've got it - and my antenna is collapsed since January. Much safer for driving.