Radio

[gfish]

I was using a streaming music service the other day, and I set up a "radio station" based on an album I liked. This is getting to be a common feature of streaming services, and it made me wonder. With the monotonically decreasing relevance of electromagnet broadcasts, how long until the definition of "radio" changes? I could easily see it coming to mean something like "making a personalized selection", and only history nerds would know about its original meaning.

Bonus: This would provide a very compelling (if incorrect) etymology for "radio button" -- I lived through the era of ka-chunk physical radio buttons, and it still took me a long time to make the connection. I can't imagine that term has any real meaning to people younger than me.

Comments

[juli]

I grew up with the buttons, but it wasn't until fairly late in life I made the connection to the UI element.

I support this shift in meaning, and the general widespread availability of trainable music stations!

[randomdreams]

I presume you saw the thing floating around where a guy had 3d printed a floppy disc case and someone younger than you said "oh wow you made a real-life version of the save icon!"

[darkoshi]

My radios didn't have buttons, they had knobs. It was the cassette players that had buttons. I had never thought about where the term "radio button" came from till now.

[conuly]

You are correct - my radios had knobs, and until this very second I never once parsed the term "radio button".