Trade in our phones or carry a separate FM Radio?

Why not just buy a fm radio, they are dirt cheap. I just bought a lg boom for 100 bucks. You could buy a even cheaper one.  Amazon had one for 20 dollars. Why would you want a old garbage phone that is slow, has security leaks, will never be updated, no oled, for a 20 dollar radio. 

Most phones are capable of receiving FM broadcasts.  It is usually the OEM’s that don’t provide the app or software to receive them.  The only OEM I am aware of that purposely blocks devices from making use of the FM signal they receive, are Apple devices.  In the Play Store, there are FM Radio apps that don’t use data to stream you local radio.  Perhaps give one of them a try to see if they get you what you want.  

Man most phones dont even have head phone jacks, which makes them not fm capable. No modern phone has fm radio. All samsung phone from s10 to ultra 21 dont. The last tablet with a headphone jack was the s6 tablet. The new one plus dont have radios, liberm 5 no radio, google phones no radio as he says he has one, so most phones are not capable of fm recieving. The accurate statement is no modern phone has fm radio. 

True, i guess my defintion of modern doesnt equal yours. If it doesnt have a 120hz oled, 1440 plus resoultion, snap dragon 865 plus, and 6gbs of ram it isnt modern to me. I mean minus the lg one all those other phones your talking about would be beat by older phones. My razer phone 2 with a 120hz led screen would beat all those phones minus the lg. So i dont call low end phones with gsrbage cpus worse than snap dragon 835 which is 4 years old a modern phone. 

The snapdragon 845 in the s9, note 9, and others would demolish all those low end phones. So one modern phone the lg 60 has a fm radio.

@syaoran Ya, I tried those FM apps. Apparently Google has FM completely disabled on their Pixel phones including the 3a XL and 4a. Or at least on the 4a, the phone I use. It looks like some Samsung, Motorola, Nokia and others still have the FM capability with the right app.

@itdefbechill Do you use your phone for gaming? I don’t game on my phone and also don’t see the point in having such specs on a phone for me personally. To me that’s like having a Ferrari that can do 180mph (or whatever Ferrari’s do) when all I need is a daily driver to get me to and from work over 25-35mph streets.

Speaking of cars, I don’t spend much time in my car. My line of work requires lots of walking. No time to run all the way back out to the car and listen to the radio. At times I also bike to work and haven’t quite gotten around to fitting an alternator onto my bike to run an FM car radio. 

I also NEED a headphone jack, not just for FM capability, but because I don’t trust myself with a pair of earbuds that cost over $10. The last time I got a pair of earbuds that were over $50 I lost them after just a week of use (actually I think someone stole them but can’t prove it) and I went without buying another pair for 3 months. I have enough time keeping my phone, wallet and keys safe and undamaged. Adding more fragile electronics to my list of responsibilities just isn’t practical for me.

If you are that worried though fm radio isnt very helpful in emerngy anything. You want to get a satilite modem for your car, and house. No ones gonna give you helpful information over fm. In your emergency senerios the person running the station would most likely flee.

You also cant communicate with it, you would be better off with a police scanner, and a antenna on your car, that would pick up all local chatter for miles, and give you a better idea of what is going on around you. They also make ones handheld, amd can be switched. 

I beg your pardon, but when the valley did lose all other communication for several days the radio towers were broadcasting what was going on, what was being done about it, and what people could do to help. In one instance there was a terrible snow storm with downed trees and power lines and lots of car accidents. The radio had broadcast where these things were happening and the areas where people needed to stay away from and were it was safe to be. I only found this information out (and kind of late) from a couple people who did have FM radios on hand. Also note that one of the messages was to stay OUT of our parked cars since lots of cars were being crushed by falling trees. Going out to the car to listen to the radio or police scanner  would have been the very risk the authorities were wanting people not to do.

Also, even if there were a major disaster that made all the radio broadcasters flee I’m sure they’d either leave an emergency message playing or there’d be silence. Not being able to tune into a single station would be a good signal that something very wrong is happening. Again, an FM radio is a common emergency kit item recommended by experts. I’ve never seen an emergency kit list that recommends not taking an FM radio, nor one that recommends having a satellite phone or police scanner.

Although I have thought about getting a satellite phone. But then again who would I call if all the normal lines are down? I guess I could call someone in another county or state to google it for me. But that's a lot of extra money for something I’m sure they'd be broadcasting on the FM radio towers anyway.

@mr_l84 and the other good folks- thanks for asking those questions and others for providing some decent answers.  for some strange reason, the telcos and a lot of people do not seem like they are living in the real world.  we could use some sensible devices which would provide basic features designed for just some of the situations you described so well…...there are a lot of things which could be better designed, but the big companies seem more like Dilbert cartoons...

the V60 has the FM radio app in there..i have yet to mess with it though. might be able to scrounge up a headset here at work to try it out if needed.

Valid, I surmise my defintion of present day doesnt equivalent yours. In the event that it doesnt have a 120hz oled, 1440 or more resoultion, snap winged serpent 865 or more, and 6gbs of smash it isnt present day to me. I mean short the lg one every one of those different telephones your discussing would be beat by more seasoned telephones. My razer telephone 2 with a 120hz drove screen would beat each one of those telephones less the lg. So I dont call low end telephones with gsrbage computer processors more awful than snap mythical beast 835 which is 4 years of age a cutting edge telephone. 

The snapdragon 845 in the s9, note 9, and others would crush each one of those low end telephones. So one current telephone the lg 60 has a fm radio.

I’ve found a solution to phones not having FM radio anymore:

Bluetooth headphones that have FM (or maybe even AM) radio built in.

I decided to go back to the Pixel 4a as I’d like to have smarphone capabilities again. But I wasn’t going to without FM radio. So I decided to get a Bluetooth headset that has FM radio built in. It works, that’s all I can say.