Sebastian Onciu
Many years ago, in the eighties, the radio played a significant part in my life because it represented the main way to find out what was happening in the world. The Romanian television and the press at that time were completely obedient to the ruling political party, and in fact the only one which existed in my country, the Communist Party, so for many people the only solution to get real news from the West was to try to listen to radio stations like Radio Free Europe or the Voice of America, which had programs in Romanian language.
For me as a child, those radio stations represented a glimmer of hope in a bleak reality, and although the communist authorities did their best to prevent the radio waves from reaching the houses of Romanian citizens, they often failed in that respect. Almost every evening we used to listen to those radio stations from the world instead of watching the boring two-hour TV programs of the national television which glorified the communist regime and its unique ruler.
Those times are now history, and so are the classical FM radio days for me. Now, when access to information is no further than a click away, the classical radio has lost its significance for me. Of course, there are lots of stations I could listen to on the Internet, but the radio as a whole no longer has that extremely high value of being my window to the free world. Nevertheless, I will always keep in mind its golden days and acknowledge the paramount importance it used to have for me.
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Do you regularly listen to classical FM radio?
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Yes
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No
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Growing up I don’t know how I would have survived without my transistor radio. When I got older and was newly wed, we lived in Miami, Florida. My husband and I loved listening to the radio. There was an fantastic classical music radio station. It helped me wind down at the end of a busy day.
Glad you are living in freedom now. I listen to music every day.
That is great, I can’t imagine life without music!
Yeah , I have listened FM 15 year back
It’s been a long time since you haven’t listened to FM!
That used to be our entertainment too There used to be 2 in 1 transistors where we could play our own music and also listen to the radio.
The glory times of radio… I guess they will never return!
It is disturbing to say the least I have loads of old cassettes, CDs and songs and music collected from the Net but youtube has made it all to be useless
I also had a lot of cassettes, but I threw them away, what was the point of them occupying space when I don’t have a cassette player anymore? Now I only use streaming services to enjoy my favorite music.
I remember well your hard times and your Great Dictator …. now you are a member of the European Union … great, my friend
Yes, we are probably the poorest country in the EU, but at least we’re free now!
Freedom is the greatest asset … you have a nice country … I have visited it several times and I will probably still have it
My grandfather had such a radio receiver!
I’m sure those were great times for him!