Phones should have FM radio again

The 90s kid in me yearns for a phone with Fm radio, headphone jack, IR blaster, stylus, memory card slot, slide out keyboard and one of those click on projectors the Motorola phones used to have. I would call it the Donatello and it would be radical.

I hate this idea. FM channels have more advertisements than they have music. And there's no technical way (yet) that I know of to automatically block said advertisements. Advertisements have driven the world into madness, as now anything that requires them to stay profitable either jams them into everything, or has a huge focus on rage-bait in order to get people to listen/watch/click. This rage-bait has made our world more angry, more divisive, and more chaotic than ever. Fuck advertisers.

There are gaming phones, phones with crazy cameras, and iPhones where the lack of features is a feature. What I wish to have is a phone with as many features and functionality as possible.

That includes (but not limited to): IR blaster Headphone jack MicroSD card slot FM Radio RGB Notification/Status LED

Rather than a slim phone with a glossy finish that will pick up scratches right away unless wrapped in a phone case, the outer cover of the phone should be rugged and replaceable. Like with old Nokia phones. I don't care about few extra grams, or another millimeter of thickness. And I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I was hopeful about the Fairphone at first, but they started removing features as well.

I've been saying this for a while now. FM radios and such are invaluable in emergency situations.

There have been times in the past where I've lost power to my house. No internet, no electricity etc in the middle of an emergency weather situation. I had to rely on battery powered radios to learn about what the situation was elsewhere and how long we'd be stuck etc. There is basically no reason why this can't be incorporated into phones, aside from the fact that phone makers would rather you use Apple Music etc. It should be legislated for I believe.

I've come to the realization that the phone I want is a Nokia 3310 "brick".

• Infinite battery life
• compact size
• headphone jack
• indestructible
• no spyware
• no social media
• T9 texting
• no software updates
• Snake
• Brick Breaker

Why? Have you heard radio? Every station is just a glorified shitty playlist that they cycle through a dozen times a day

Then you'd need to include a headphone jack since the headphones acted as the antenna.

Maybe if you live somewhere with good radio stations... the radio is pretty much dead here. Nothing but Christian talk and static.

I'm going to chime in here to plug the ulefone power armor 18t I just got. I was pretty nervous to get a chinese phone as I've only had samsung and lg phones before, but this thing legit blows me away. Not only does it fully support every band that my carrier uses (rare even for phones made for the US market), but it has:

• Replaceable battery that lasts 3+ days between recharges

• Extremely rugged, IP69 waterproof and designed for underwater photography (physical shutter button and diving camera app)

• 3.5mm jack, sd card slot, FM radio (with built in antenna - no headphones need to be plugged in), and an RGB notification led

• Dimensity 900 chipset that beats a lot of the snapdragon chips on the market.

• 12 fucking GB of RAM... yes, 12...

• Wifi 6(ax)

• Wireless charging and reverse charging

• A fucking 60x magnification microscope? (Why???)

• A FLIR thermal camera (Just because, why the fuck not)

• Runs mostly bloat free stock android

All that for under $600 (on aliexpress)

The only thing it's missing is an IR blaster, otherwise this is the best phone I've ever had, bar none. It is a chonky beast though, be warned.

This has really changed my view on Chinese electronics, especially at a time when phones for the western world are losing features and functionality all the time (including stuff from South Korean). Turns out capitalism isn't that great for innovation!

Wait, you guys don't have FM radio on your phones?

Why? ClearChannel has all but ruined it.

For emergency purposes, mandate cell tower batteries with solar supplement.

And generators for bigger hubs.

Cellular internet is critical infrastructure now.

Same for ISPs. My internet wifi has battery backup, so as long as the ISP stays up we are good.

Cell towers nearby all went down during the last big power failure. I could hit one distant tower that still had power, but the signal was weak, and the tower was swamped. It could barely push data.

Next big earthquake will be a total shitshow if that's not fixed.

i remember old ipods could listen to the radio using the headphones as an antenna and i thought it was the coolest thing in the world. listening to a live feed like that is so much more...viscerally satisfying than just streaming a song or even listening to internet radio, where it could easily be just a computer. it's nice knowing someone is actually creating a show for you in real time

high end ones dont even have headphone jacks for starters

Imagine if every American had a shortwave radio transmitter in their pocket. Endless September for hams

A lot of posts in here complaining about shitty commercial radio. Do you all not have local radio stations? I love my local stations.

I don't even remember the last time I listened to FM radio. I just don't like listening to the same 20 songs on repeat with annoying ads

I've never bought a phone without FM radio. I regard it as an emergency tool.

They should have DAB+ radio. Much better.

In 2017, Mexico passed regulation that required all smartphones with FM chips to enable them

Now I've got in my head "I'm on a Mexican, radio..."

Not long ago I decided to buy a radio just for emergencies. I guess having it in my smartphone would be better yes.

from what i recall almost every QCOM chipset has the circuitry baked in, it's just disabled. https://www.wired.com/2016/07/phones-fm-chips-radio-smartphone/

Mobile carriers are worried about "congested mobile broadband" right? Surely they'd want something like this implemented if it could cut down on peak usage and not have to force their hand to do that awful throttling they must hate so much?

Permanently Deleted

Certain phones have it, but use your wired headphones as an antenna while leveraging your Bluetooth.. In Japan they had phones with TV tuners

only time i ever used phone FM was camping. not often lately. car has fm but radio commercials assault my nerves, use mp3s on a stick or streaming w/$10/mo

Coming late to this part but Umidigi phones still do FM radio and don't even require headphones to be plugged in any more.

With all the blackouts I had these past 2 years, YEA PLEASE. Hell, I was a out to relearn how to make a homemade AM radio. Haven't done it in 28 years.

The last couple major power failures we've had in my area, information was by far the most difficult thing to come by.

The power goes out, and shortly thereafter so does cable internet. My UPS usually keeps my cable box up longer than the service itself lasts. That puts everyone on the cell network, which is immediately overloaded. So the internet is essentially worthless during most hours.

FM radio stations are similarly worthless. I remember a power outage last winter where there was going to be a press conference, I think the governor was going to talk about something...couldn't get coverage. The local FM station was up and running, they were broadcasting just fine, but they were trying to patch into the press conference via Facebook, and the internet wasn't up to it. They apparently don't have their own radio uplinks anymore.

The local television station would have been more help...if I could get an antenna high enough to hear it.

And during normal business hours most broadcast FM stations are IHeartRadio transmitting the same 20 songs intercut with the same 90,000 advertisements. Or broadcasting The Two Retards Named Chris show three times a day.

Why? My country doesn’t even have FM anymore. It shut down in 2017, frequencies repurposed for more useful things.

It’s an almost 100 years old technology..

Bring back PTT! Miss my Nextel.

I'm sad that my Asus Zenfone 9 (it has a headphone jack) can't get FM radio. The app I use (NextRadio) can't detect a FM tuner on the phone.

Phones still do. Xiaomi phones for example.

Considering when I use the radio in the car I might get 2 songs before 5 minus of commercials, no thanks. Audiobooks, podcasts, and PlexAmp all the way

Even most cheapo mp3 players have this functionality built in

This is still a feature in some major brands though. I have a Moto g power from a relatively recent model year and it comes with a built-in FM Radio app that uses wired headphones as an antenna. It also still has a headphone jack so I don't know how indicative it is of the broader US market.

No thanks. I listened to radio the other day (not in my car) and it was all ads and a shortened version of a song so they can do more ads.

I didn’t realize radio got so bad.

Fun fact: almost every phone on the market has the hardware. It's just drivers/software that are missing (and, more recently, the antenna's been unavailable with the removal of the audio jack. The radio chip is still in there though)

Every phone I had that did this also used the wired headphone cable as an antenna. Personally I do like Bluetooth on the go (for casual listening only), so I'm not actually sure it would be usable unless the phone had a separate antenna.

Radio is hot garbage. If it had that romanticism of college style or 3 dog style from fallout then maybe. But 90% of the shit is formulaic garbage prerecorded weeks in advance. the hosts are usually some dumbed down version of most people so they can feel smart when listening to them banter like idiots about dumb headlines. but when you learn that even the "call ins" are fake it really just shows how bloated the media of radio has gotten.

Radio has good qualities about it, but programming today is dead and dying. because are you really gonna turn that FM on? or just bit up soundcloud, spotify and listen to YOUR music not some bs top 5 chart songs played over ad nauseum at 1.2 speed and horrendously edited to the point half the lyrics get reamed.

Radio would need to redeem itself a thousand fold to ever be considered useful to the modern man again.

Alex Jones came from Radio....

What do you mean again? All of mine have always had this feature including my current.

The one headphone adapter I have doesn't seem to work, and I don't think there was one with the phone. Finicky is probably right!

So glad that mine does.

One of the reasons why I picked the Xiaomi Poco X3

So, what, we're just going to carry around USB antennas now?

Why? So I can listen to local dealership and furniture store adverts? No thanks

Mine still does. puts on shades

FM was switched off in 2017 (Norway), but a DAB chip would've been nice.

Thankfully my Cardo headset supports FM radio because my Fairphone doesn't and I like to have radio when I'm on a ride.

low end MediaTek ones often do

This 2022 Nokia has an FM radio. I had a look at the app and it says 'Please plug in your headset to tune'. It's not impossible that the USB C port is wired so wired headphones plugged in through an adaptor act as an aerial I suppose.

Wdym again?

My phone has an FM radio.

I've listened to it in long international flights just to see how things change.

other than that it serves no purpose whatsoever.

I suppose it could be useful in an emergency but I'd bet just having cell seryqould fair better.

FM access would cut down on mobile data usage… up-to-the-minute weather reports and automated alerts… are broadcasted at 162.400, which means you need specialized radios to pick up the stations… maybe an external antenna could use the shield or one of the pins on the phone’s charging port, or wired USB-C headphones and 3.5mm adapters could be updated to work as antennas… There could also just be an adapter that connects to the phone and contains all the required hardware…

What the fuck is this person smoking?

I must be ootl; what’s the upside compared to Spotify ? Having to endure ads, talk-shows and other open mics while having shitty reception isn’t enticing… at least here there isn’t any station I would find satisfying content-wise; given the whole frequency assignment bullshit small stations are few and far between with nothing that would cover metal and / or frenchcore. So the small benefit of music discovery isn’t really possible anymore for me.

Bring back vinyl record players!

Hi, c/games mod here.

I'm locking this topic for a little while while we cleanup comments according to our community rules (see sidebar) and the global Lemmy.World rules.

Best regards.

Hell yeah!

I'm all up for p2 jacks and sd card slots, but fm radio? That one looks like just people wanting some nostalgy, sorry.

If im not mistaken you can still get the channels, the app is just not pre-installed.

Why not make cases with FM radio built in?

It'd be better if it had fm transmiter, so you van turn car radio or normal old radio into a useful wireless speaker

Exactly. Have that as an emergency option or a free substitute to streaming music and news. The more options there are, the better. Surely, this is not relevant for the US, where radio kinda sucks nowadays, and Billboard Top 100 are put on repeat, but in European countries, Middle East, Asia etc. this kind of thing is invaluable.

But why?

Are people missing some ads that they could otherwise be getting with an FM radio on their phone?

Radio has enshittified it's way to being turned off whenever I get in a vehicle that has it turned on, so I'd miss any emergency broadcasts anyway. Can't imagine paying extra to have it on a phone.

Digital FM? Analog is a piece of crap

All my Android phones had FM radio, what are you talking about?

FM radio is terrible. At least Sirius XM is putting out music people want to hear.

Why not just use internet radio?

It has always baffled me why the need for headphones (to be able to use the radio function at all), let alone the total lack of an fm antenna in devices.

I never listen to radio. I stopped when it stopped being an option on my phone.

I really hope not.