How many of you still listen to mainstream country radio?

[Razor X]

Out of sheer frustration, I stopped listening to mainstream country radio altogether about six months ago. I don't even play it in the car anymore. I have an extensive CD collection that I've been listening to, along with the Country Classics and Americana stations on my digital cable. I haven't listened to Americana in a while but think I will go back to it for a bit, because Music Choice's Country Classics seems to be stuck on playing the same handful of songs all the time lately.

There was a time when I would thought it would be impossible to survive without country radio, but I honestly don't miss it at all. I've been depending on sites like this one to help me keep current. While reading the threads on what songs should or should not be singles, it struck me that I really don't care much which songs are selected for singles anymore, since I'm not tuning in to the radio anyway. In fact, on some of the new albums I've purchased, I don't even know which ones are the singles anymore. If mainstream radio ever gets its act together, I'll be happy to go back to listening to it but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Surely I can't be the only one here who's given up on it -- so who's still listening and who isn't?

[farmersdaughter]

I only tune into WSM via online streaming mainly because I can hear the classics along with a few new hits that are truly country. Granted, the only thing bad is that every few minutes you get to hear the latest in traffic updates in Nashville. However, they do play some of the songs that were sang live on the Opry. I usually go through their archives and listen to old Opry shows as well to pass the time.

I just can't put myself to listening to Clear Channel and Cumulus and all those other stations because they play the same song over and over (ie Kenny Chesney, Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood) that it makes you cringe when you hear the song.

[Sam G]

When I get bored, I'll flip across the stations I have programmed in and listen to a song or two here and there. My tolerance for crap songs and idiot morning "wacky" DJs is pretty low, so I never end up listening to one station for more than 10 minutes at a time.

With CDs and my iPod, there's really no reason to listen to radio anymore. If I ever get satellite radio, I'd made exceptions for X Country, but that would be about it.

[Stormy]

I listen to a lot of them, but I live in Austin. When I lived in Portland, I listened to very little.

[Chris D]

Not anymore. I turn on my car, check to see if they're playing any songs I like, and usually I go straight to my ipod ( I have a cassette adapter). I also use websites to stay current on new music. Of course on my ipod I usually shuffle my favorite songs playlist (all the ones I rate 5 stars) and it has multiple genres, some pop, R&B, but mostly country.

[Matt C]

I drive an old car without CD, MP3, Satellite, etc., so I haven't much choice. I live in Nashville, so I spend as much time on WSM AM as possible, but I do end up spending a lot of time listening to the FM mainstream stations (the best of which in Nashville is WSM-FM).

[LittleSable]

I do. All I've got in my car is FM/AM radio. But it's not a lack of choices that causes me to listen. I like being up on the current music; I'm a pop culture junkie. I also like a lot of mainstream music and just because I listen to Taylor Swift doesn't mean I lack appreciation for Elizabeth Cook. I pretty much always have music playing; that's a lot of time to devote to music of all types. Sometimes I'm in the mood to listen to music that is intelligent and thought-provoking, and sometimes I just want to mindlessly sing along to the radio, yanno? Although I do listen to my ipod at home; radio is for for driving only so that I can get traffic/weather updates as well.

I'm also a high school teacher in the absolute sticks (my school is in a place where you can't watch a movie in a theater unless you cross the county line), and being up on current country music gives me a way to build rapport with students (Rascal Flatts and the aforementioned Swift are huge).

As far as radio stations go, the station I grew up listening to turned to dead air about five miles away from my new house. I'm not as happy with the local country station. It seems to play nothing older than the past five years, where I could count on my old station to keep in a steady mix of ninities/late eighties country and an acceptable amount of older stuff as well. Also, the DJs were more experienced, more professional, knew more about music, and were funnier.

[Drew]

I have it on overnight, and in my car. Any other time is music from my computer.

[Amber]

When I'm in my car- I usually just listen to cd's. (I finally got a CD Player installed...YEAH!) But if I do listen to the radio- it's just to keep up with what other stations are doing...

I work as a dj at a small independent (Not affiliated with ANY major media conglomerate) station that plays Rascal Flatts, Taylor Swift and Kenny "Reggae" Chesney- but we also play Hayes Carll, Emily West, Ashton Shepard, and even (gasp) a classic tune or two an hour.

[JCH]

I generally stream over the internet, otherwise I am generally dependent on iTunes, my iPod or CDs in my car.

I have nothing against most of the material playing on mainstream country radio. However, I take issue with the constant cyclical repetition of the same songs over and over again.That is what turned me off mainstream country radio in the first place.

[Brody]

I rarely listen to radio anymore these days. I like like listening to and discovering good music--two things radio doesn't seem concerned with these days, so I stick with CDs and on occasion, my iPod. Most of my music discovery comes from other blogs, reader suggestions made in The 9513 comments and forums, and by browsing Rhapsody.

Rumors of an iTunes subscription service have been bouncing around for a couple of years, but new projections say an October announcement from Apple is possible with a $129.99 annual fee. If so, I'd splurge on a larger capacity iPod.

[Matt B]

I generally don't listen to mainstream radio, not that I'm opposed to it, but because I'm often working on my website and listening to my iTunes program where I've loaded tons of CDs. I also listen to a CD or my iPod while driving (when buying my latest car, a 2006 Chevy HHR, I required it to have an iPod connection). I like to make my own playlists and if I want 'mainstream' I have a 'singles' playlist of most stuff that gets released to radio on it.

[lanibug]

I only listen in the morning, and that is only because I need the traffic reports, to make sure that I do not get stuck in major traffic, and believe me if I did not need the traffic, I would not listen because they do not play anything worth listening to -- if I get back in the car during the day and in the evening, I either listen to sirius in the hubby's car or XM or my ipod in my car. I just drove back and forth to Illinois from Ohio this weekend and I never turned on the radio once -- between XM and my ipod - who needs it --