Question about the sound at Drive In Movie Theater

[Paul H. Rayton]

I went to the CNet link that Ed provided. That article was written in 2017, and apparently Nextradio ceased operations somewhere around 2019 or thereabouts. Possibly it's been resuscitated by others, but you never know these days. I took my Android phone and did a search for "Nextradio" and found THREE different (apparent) sources. Pictured here is the display I saw. One provider is listed as "SuperAudio", another is "Lucian Gontila", and the third one is listed as "ilive". Considering the number of risky or hinky websites around, I'm reluctant to try any of them.

Also, and a word of caution: at that CNet article, in paragraph #16, the author claims that NextRadio had published "a list of devices and carriers that support its software", and it is underlined to indicate it is a link. I recommend that you NOT try it: I tried it, and quickly found myself at some Malaysian gambling site. Possibly the link has been hijacked?

In the sentence following that link described above, there is another link, in which the article claims that one can download the Nextradio app from there. Not so much. The second illustration shows the search results I got there -- another dead end.

Before I install any app (or executable file) on my system(s), I like to be fairly sure they're more or less legit, so I advise caution if accessing those old links!

[Ryan Gallagher]

Yeah the trick is while the phone hardware may support FM, most don't have native apps for it, and you end up in a sea of slightly suspect radio apps looking for a genuine FM one, and not just some internet radio app.

[Ed Gordon]

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A whole bunch of smartphones out on the market today have FM radio capabilities – but their owners don't know it. There's no real good reason for this lack of knowledge save the lack of advertising on the part of phone makers. FM Radio in a phone isn't currently a very sought-after feature, so – regardless of how often it's included in phones by default – it's just not spoken about. Today we're listing the whole lot of phone devices that can run FM Radio right out the box.

Read More: https://www.slashgear.com/792051/whi...y-fm-radio/

If you are looking for apps like Nextradio check out Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=nextradio&c=apps


Here is a screenshot of my Samsung/Moto phone running the bundled FM Radio app found in the "Media" group.

Screenshot_20241123-110934.png

[Frank Angel]

Nowadays even the most inexpensive smartfones come with FM tuning sections. I have one of the cheapest Motorola (Android) phones around and it does have a FM tuner built in. No idea if Apple iPhones do, given Apple insists on doing things differently, but the basic problem would still remain -- if the signal drops out or is funky with a car FM radio, the same problem would exist with any FM receiver, be it in the car or in a phone. As has already been offered, troubleshoot the transmitter and antenna. Your first issue would be to determine why there are drop-outs in the car radios that are prompting patrons to ask about using their cellfones instead, which is not unusual for younger gens to think their smartphones are the go-to device that should be able to solve any and every problem life presents to them. This actually might be an excellent teaching moment: "Sorry, but believe it or not, there is NO APP for that! In this case, the cellphone you have super-glued to your thigh is, in a word, useless. Deal with it."

[Jack Ondracek]

This topic doesn't come up often at my place... maybe once in a month, if that. I can't think of one time the question wasn't asked by someone who was pulling content out of a streaming app and had no idea, or reason to know the issue with synchronization.

Years ago, I tried Next Radio, and it worked pretty well. The problem is that headphone wires are used as the FM antenna, so trying to play the station over the phone's speakers or bluetooth headphones circumvents that.

This may all be moot, however. I found an article from 2019 on Radio World, that says Next Radio pretty much dropped the service when they couldn't get Apple to activate the chips on iPhones, and they couldn't successfully monetize what listener base they were able to get on Android devices. This could explain why nobody shows up with the app already loaded and ready to go.

Over the years, we have gone from 5 available rental radios to 50. I tell anyone who wants to hear it that they're welcome to bring a portable from home... but those who don't want to use their car radio seem perfectly happy to drop another $5 to rent one here.

With streaming being as popular as it is now, I wonder if people have fewer portable FMs laying around the house. Can't say when I last saw a boombox out here... (Can I say "Boombox"? Think I'm getting old :-) )