"You're Listening To FNRD – Forever, And Ever, And Ev-"

What if tuning into a specific radio station caused it to stay stuck on that radio station, unable to change the channel? No, it's not a Black Mirror episode; this really happened (as I recently found out and had to giddily post here) to drivers of certain Mazda cars back in 2022, who tuned into one channel: public radio station KUOW, in Seattle. And, yes, just that radio station – not anyone else tuning into FM 94.9 elsewhere.

Basically, anyone who tuned into that station in their affected Mazdas found themselves stuck on that channel. It also messed up some in-car computer systems in other ways, breaking back-up cameras, Bluetooth, GPS, and more.

The reasons are kind of interesting, if you're a geek. (Basically, KUOW was sending out cover-art images without file extensions, which freaked out the Mazda's software.) There's an article on the topic here, and a somewhat more in-depth video here.

And if reading this news tidbit has caused your computer systems to be permanently stuck on our fine website of gaming delights, we humbly apologize fnord.

-- Steven Marsh