Listen To A Radio Show

Gather around the radio and listen for a while!

This mod adds a new pie menu, Listen to a Radio Show, to all regular stereos, which will give your sim the option to listen to a variety of different kinds of shows, mainly aimed at the first half of the 1900s up into the 1960s, inspired by things that they would have been able to listen to. Despite TV taking off in the 1950s, radio shows seem to have remained popular for a while after that.

There's also a new social interaction to go with one of the shows, and a new piece of deco cc to go with another.

The pie menu should show up on most things in the audio category of buy mode. It won't appear on the music box from Life and Death, Lin-Z, DJ booths, or karaoke machines. It should show up on cc stereos too, for maximum historical usefulness.

While your sims are listening to their show, they are strongly encouraged to sit (on furniture, not the floor) and listen. They may decide not to, especially if there's not enough room or seating. They might decide to dance, or chat, or put away a book. They will stay within three tiles of the radio, in the same room. They should not cancel the show autonomously unless their needs drop too low, the radio breaks, or they get interrupted by something with even higher priority (including, unfortunately, a pop up to ask if they want a new preference).

Most of the shows are two hours long. Some are available for toddlers, some only for child and older sims. Some are basegame, some require City Living (the talking ones), and Country requires Horse Ranch.

Most of the time, sims will get a buff while listening (kids don't get a buff for listening to soap operas. Some of these vary by age and/or traits. Then, once the show is over, most of the time, sims will get one of a variety of buffs from what they watched. If a group of sims watch, they probably won't get matching buffs (I'm thinking of it as they reacted to different parts. One show would generally have been shorter than they'll be watching here. For example, soap operas may have been 10-15 minutes long.). The buffs may be a reaction to a specific show, or they might be a bit generic. If they reference a specific show, it's a real show that existed. If it references a real person, I mostly substituted a sim (not necessarily from TS4), except for one singer.

At any time while the show is on, you can change the station, and sims listening will continue to act as if their show is on. You can even turn it off. If your sim or you hate the station I picked, you can switch it. If you want your News to sound like Latin Pop, well, they had studio musicians. But if your sim has a trait that makes them lose fun from listening to the show, that will continue.

Details below:

Listen to a Children's Broadcast -- with bonus CC

• Station: Kids Radio
• Length: 1 hour
• Ages: Toddler to elder
• Fun: For toddlers, children, Childish and Family-Oriented sims, and sims who like Kids Music
• Fun loss: For sims who Hate Children, and sims who dislike Kids Music
• Skill gain: Creativity, Imagination
• Currently Listening buffs: One for sims who Hate Children or dislike Kids Music, and one for everyone else
• Follow-up Buffs: 6 for Child and Childish sims, 2 for sims that Hate Children or dislike Kids Music, 4 for teen-elder sims who don’t hate children or dislike Kids Music, and 12 for toddlers

Bonus: A Badge to Make You Brave, a deco toy shield that a child/childish sim can get a buff to send in box tops for.Can be purchased in buy mode, under kids deco or clutter.Can be purchased on the phone, under gifts (only two swatches, because there are too many. The swatch can be changed after buying). Will appear in the inventory of the sim who bought it.Can be put into a sim’s inventory, so your sim can take it everywhere with them.Goes in small deco slots.Will not make anyone brave.12 swatches.148 polys

Listen to a Classical Music Show

• Station: Classical
• Length: 2 hours
• Ages: Toddler to elder
• Fun: For sims who don’t dislike Classical Music
• Fun loss: For sims who dislike Classical Music
• Skill gain: Creativity, Imagination
• Currently Listening buffs: One for sims who dislike classical music, one for toddlers, and one for everyone else
• Follow-up Buffs: 3 for sims who dislike classical music, 7 for toddlers, and 10 for everyone else

Listen to a Comedy Show

• Station: Talk Radio
• Length: 2 hours
• Ages: Toddler to elder
• Fun: For sims who don’t dislike jokes, comedy, silly behaviour, or funny sims
• Fun loss: For sims who dislike jokes, comedy, silly behaviour, or funny sims
• Skill gain: Creativity, Imagination, Comedy
• Currently Listening buffs: One for sims who dislike jokes, comedy, silly behaviour, or funny sims, one for toddlers, and one for everyone else
• Follow-up Buffs: 3 for sims who dislike jokes, comedy, silly behaviour, or funny sims, 4 for toddlers, and 8 for everyone else

Listen to a Country Music Show

• Pack: Horse Ranch
• Station: Ranch
• Length: 2 hours
• Ages: Toddler to elder
• Fun: For sims who don’t dislike ranch music
• Fun loss: For sims who dislike ranch music
• Skill gain: Creativity, Imagination
• Currently Listening buffs: One for sims who dislike ranch music, one for toddlers, and one for everyone else
• Follow-up Buffs: 2 for sims who dislike ranch music, 8 for toddlers, and 11 for everyone else

Listen to a Radio Play

• Station: Talk Radio
• Length: 2 hours
• Ages: Child to elder
• Fun: Yes
• Fun loss: No
• Skill gain: No
• Currently Listening buffs: Yes
• Follow-up Buffs: 13

Listen to a Soap Opera

• Station: Talk Radio
• Length: 1 hour
• Ages: Child to elder
• Fun: Yes, with extra for sims with these traits: Love Bug, Romantic, Family Oriented, Nosy, Family Sim, Home Turf, or the Clingy childhood phase
• Fun loss: No
• Skill gain: No
• Currently Listening buffs: For teen to elder sims
• Follow-up Buffs: 5

Listen to a Winter Holiday Broadcast

• Station: Winter Holiday
• Length: 2 hours
• Ages: Toddler to elder
• Fun: For sims who don’t dislike Winter Holiday music and don’t have the Grouch trait
• Fun loss: For sims who dislike Winter Holiday music or have the Grouch trait
• Skill gain: Creativity, Imagination
• Currently Listening buffs: One for sims who dislike Winter Holiday music or have the Grouch trait, one for toddlers, and one for everyone else
• Follow-up Buffs: 2 for sims who dislike Winter Holiday music or have the Grouch trait, 8 for toddlers, and 8 for everyone else
• Extra: If you have Seasons, only available in Winter

(There were two, but they're very similar, and I didn't notice until now.)

Listen to The Farm Radio Forum -- with bonus interaction

The National Farm Radio Forum was a Canadian adult education program after the Great Depression. Local groups would register, and then they would be sent reading material to review before the weekly broadcast, with questions included to discuss. They would then return their answers to the provincial office, which would sometimes forward summaries to the government.

• Station: Talk Radio
• Length: 2 hours
• Ages: Child to elder
• Fun: Yes
• Fun loss: No
• Skill gain: Mental, Herbalism, Gardening, Logic, with extra for sims with these traits: Genius, Loves Outdoors, Rancher, Animal Enthusiast, Super Green Thumb
• Currently Listening buffs: Yes
• Follow-up Buffs: 5

Extras:

Sims will take notes during the show

New social interaction: Discuss The Farm Radio Forum, under Deep Thoughts in the Friendly category

• Child to elder
• Always available, but only autonomous if you have any one of four of the follow-up buffs from the show (the other is a generic one used in multiple places) or the currently listening buff, and only for young adult to elder sims
• Encouraged or discouraged for sims with certain traits and relationships, but must have met the sim
• Can succeed or fail, with 4 succeed and 3 fail buffs, which apply to both the sim initiating the interaction and the sim they’re talking to. They may not match (you can have different perspectives on the same conversation, after all), but both sims should get a buff

Listen to The News

• Station: Talk Radio
• Length: 1 hour
• Ages: Child to elder
• Fun: No
• Fun loss: No
• Skill gain: Mental, Logic
• Currently Listening buffs: Yes
• Follow-up Buffs: 9 possible buffs (75% chance a teen to elder sim will get one, with increased chance for an adult or elder sim, not available for sims who have the traits Childish, Irresponsible, or Uncontrolled Emotions) OR 6 possible buffs (75% chance a sim who has the traits Childish, Irresponsible, or Uncontrolled Emotions will get one), PLUS 4 possible buffs (50% chance a teen to elder sim will get one).
  • A sim might get one, both, or neither.

Listen to the Sports Play-By-Play

• Station: Talk Radio
• Length: 1.5 to 2 hours
• Ages: Child to elder
• Fun: Yes
• Fun loss: No
• Skill gain: Motor and Fitness unless the sim is Lazy, with extra for sims with the Active, Bro, Physically Gifted, or Gym Rat traits
• Currently Listening buffs: One for sims who don’t dislike Fitness, and one for sims who do dislike fitness
• Follow-up Buffs: 6 for sims who don’t dislike fitness, 1 for sims who dislike fitness

I'm going to say this requires City Living. Technically, I think you could use it with just base game, but you'll be missing some text and some images will be llamas. You can try to use it without City Living if you want, but I won't be providing support for that. You'll have 3 of the 10 shows available, and you'll have an overall poor experience. The Country show requires Horse Ranch, but that shouldn't affect the rest of the mod.

Requires Lot 51's Core Library

Updates:

• Jan 20, 2025: PlumbBuddy manifest updated
• Oct 10, 2025: Now counts for the Listen to Any Radio Station want, and music channels count for the Listen to Music want. Minor tuning fixes that probably make no difference functionally but make me feel better to have. Updated the PlumbBuddy manifest for newer manifest features.

Translations:

• Spanish by magalyrc: https://www.patreon.com/posts/120287279
• Russian by nikinerido: https://boosty.to/nikinerido/posts/3ed7618b-0afc-4ff5-b66c-4f70b8518838

Known issues:

• If a sim gets interrupted on their way to the stereo, they'll (probably) still listen to the show, but they may not get the buff for it. This is most likely to happen if there's little room. If they don't get the currently listening buff, they might not get the follow-up buff either. If you want them to get the currently listening buff, you can cancel the interaction and tell them to listen again.

This was inspired by my Horse Ranch radio as BG TV. The problem with that one is that it's tied to one specific radio. The idea was to inject TV interactions into stereos, but video is not compatible with audio devices. This is not a replacement for the TV, since it does very different things, and won't count for a bar's requirements or for holidays that require TVs. It's more of a companion.

Thanks to Kuttoe for the original idea, which then spiraled out of control, and to the kind people in Creator Musings for helping when I forgot how to mod.