Better FM reception?
 

Hey guys, is there anything that actually works for getting better FM radio reception? There is a station that I love that just barely touches our town. Sometimes it's clear, sometimes it's fuzzy. My Elantra has the shark fin antenna. I've read mixed reviews about the cheapy antenna boosters like on Amazon or eBay. I'm keeping the stock radio. Aftermarket just invites theft around here, and is too much of a pain anyway with adapters needed for the steering wheel controls and back up camera. Suggestions?

You've already listed my suggestion...a booster.

Maybe you can replace your short antenna with a longer one?

According to this an FM dipole antenna would be ~38" tuned to the middle of the FM band, but you can calculate a length for a specific frequency. I believe the dipole needs to be at 90° to the direction of the station.

XM radio.
Where I live when I would go on a road trip on a Friday evening the only thing on any station would be some local high school foot ball game of a small town.
In Arkansas it's probably dueling banjos?

Too expensive. I tried the free trial with this car. I literally liked 2 stations out of all of them. I don't listen to music with words in it, that's not music to me. $10-$15 a month is just too much for only 2 stations for me. If I spent more time in my car....maybe.

Replace that tiny "shark-fin" antenna with an old-fashioned sliding vertical antenna...why sliding? So, you can adjust its length up/down to optimize reception of that FM station. Like we did back in the olde'days.

If I knew I could add one of those automatically raising and lowering antennas, and it still look good, I would try it. I always thought the shark fin style looked goody anyway.

does the station have online streaming?

I'm not sure, but it wouldn't matter. I don't have a phone with unlimited data or anything. A phone is just a phone to me. The cheapest possible cell phone is usually the one I have. ;)

Cool site. It suggests approximately a meter, give or take depending on the station you are interested in. A meter is a pretty long minimum length for a straight section of wire parallel to the ground, high-up, and outside... on a passenger car. Is there any way to make it more compact? I am guessing no. So what we really need is an angled and long adjustable length mast antenna, right?

Maybe like this?

https://www.walmart.com/ip/4-Pcs-7-S...&wl13=&veh=sem

EDIT: Actually, I just measured and there is 43-47 inches, minimum 110cm space along my Civic's roofline, exiting from the former antenna mast mounting point. I could theoretically create an antenna that is flush against the exterior of the body.