Here in Washington, DC, I listen to two stations as I wake up and drive to the train station: WTOP (1500) for news and such, and 104.3 (dunno the call letters) in Baltimore for the Bob & Tom Show.
'TOP is good because it’s basically - as far as I know - the only news station in town, but it can really get on my nerves (I’m a transplant; maybe it just takes getting used to). The anchors and reporters sometimes seem way too glib, like they were on a program called “Good Morning, Washington!” And too much damn interplay between reporters and anchors - give me the news, dammit. Most of the time your jokes are as bland as a desert.
But I do love 'TOP’s traffic - it’s always useful to me. And they do a good job with weather and sports. They do seem to spend a lot of time tooting their own horn, though. Fellow Washingtonians, is it just me, or do they brag an awful lot? (Aside: I come from the Philly area, where KYW 1060AM is the news station, and this one doesn’t even compare with it.)
And as far as Bob & Tom go - I hadn’t even heard of them before I moved here. Does anyone know if they’re syndicated, or are they merely a Baltimore show? The first time I heard it - okay, the first several times - I was amazed how they could be funny while being so damn low-key. In the MORNING! But they’re good; damn good chemistry. Only complaint: their “newsreader” Christy, who’s about as uptight as a minister during Mardi Gras. Can someone explain what the hell she’s doing there? She seems to express righteous indignation at least once every four minutes - is it in her contract, perhaps?
Anyway, this isn’t a thread just for those two stations/programs. What about you guys? Do you have a favorite morning station? Any criticisms or kudos for them?
Bob and Tom ARE syndicated, and were in Chicago for a short while before the distinctly assholish and stupid Mancow took over.
I listen to talk radio ALL DAY LONG. FM talk stations are a sort of tradition here in Chicago. I used to listen to 97.9 when it was all talk, AM 1000 was the mother of them all before it was sports (Kevin Matthews, Steve and Garry, Johnny B, Ed Till), and now I listen to 105.9 ALL…DAMN…DAY…Stern, Kilman, Dahl.
My dream is to be on a radio talk show, even just as traffic girl. I worked a radio station for a while, but it never panned out and now I think I’m too old to get into it…so I just live vicariously by listening.
I drive in listening to WMMM (Madison, WI) and the Jonathon and Kitty show. It’s a local station without much reach, but it’s the only morning show I can tolerate. All the others around here are fake-voice DJs with annoying, unfunny shtick.
Occassionaly I’ll switch over to Howard Stern (which we just started to get here a year or so ago), who I think can be pretty funny sometimes, and I’ll listen if he has a decent interview going on. But mostly I wind up tuning him out. I think his show too often is just Howard and his staff arguing with each other and it gets old.
I listen to NPR’s Morning Edition on WABE 90.1 FM here in Atlanta.
I find the “Morning Zoo”-type of morning-drive shows to be irritating and rarely funny, and the commercials are especially annoying.
NPR, on the other hand (both Morning Edition and the evening-drive show, All Things Considered), get me caught up on the news and traffic and often have great features and reviews. I don’t know why all intelligent people don’t listen to it during their commute.
WHAT…MAY I ASK…ARE YOU IMPLYING…MR. FIVER? That a woman such as myself is not intelligent? WHY I NEVER…
Frankly, if NPR could get any more pretentious they’d spontaneously become a Margaret Atwood book club. I can’t stand how stupid they make me feel when I know damn well I’m not.
oh and sorry sir, I didn’t mean to be impertinent in my opening statement…don’t you owe me an email
I miss Lionel and Bruce. Anyone New Yorkers or Floridians out there? A libertarian ex attorney whose incredible amount of good sense was only topped by his sense of humor. Ranging from extraordinarily subtle to slightly sophomoric (I almost ran off the road the first time he played his Ed Koch “uh” montage) he changed the way I listened to radio. Ahhhh, Lionel. Where are you now?
Here in DC I can barely take the local NPR FM station. I miss New York’s AM public radio station- much more news. Or the BBC. If I could only find the BBC down here in the rural south! NPR is good, but sometimes they get a bit too detailed in the glurge category~ twenty minutes talking to the owner and customers of a poodle daycare center. Ugh. TOP has maybe four stories that they repeat over and over and over again.
You know, I used to feel the same way. I still listen to NPR a lot, especially on the way home. But, much to my chagrin, I actually happen to like the morning show on WFNX. Can’t explain why, but Jaxon and the Pharmacist (names that should have me running away, holding my ears screaming “la la la la la, can’t hear you…”) manage to get past my defenses. There, I’ve said it. I feel much better now…
Yep, I kinda like Bob and Tom, although it’s tough for me to distinguish between them! Whatever happened to teaming a guy with a deep voice with a guy who had a higher voice? Sheesh!
Back in the 80’s, I listened fervently to WMMR (Philadelphia) and their Morning Zoo - which might have been more of a sign of the times than anything else. I guess those shows still exist, but I think they’ve outlived their usefulness. Of course, maybe they ARE still way cool to teens.
Stern’s everywhere, of course, but I can’t listen to him. To me, it’s the same stuff every show, and I have a major problem with Robin’s voice. She’s talentless and annoying. But I’ll put on his E! show; I’ll just mute it and watch the half-naked women! (And sometimes completely naked, albeit with a mosaic… hehe)
Well, I used to hate Howard Stern, and then he was the only station I could tune in in my building. (Hey! It’s the John Hancock building, home of dozens of radio stations, and you can’t tune in any of them!)…anyway, my theory is that with Stern, you’ve got to listen for at least three months, because it’s nothing but in jokes. At this point, I put it on and it’s like five of my coworkers having a conversation next to me. Sometimes I perk up, sometimes I don’t. Frankly, the interviews bore me. I’m in it for the arguments and the stupid callers, and I know that’s weird.
I’m with Fiver on this one - give me Morning Edition and All Things Considered (and Performance Today during the mid-morning and the National Press Club luncheons during mid-day and A Classical Afternoon during mid-afternoon). On weekends give me Weekend Edition, Car Talk, RiverWalk - Live From the Landing, the Metropolitan Opera, St. Paul Sunday, and Praire Home Companion.
Quite the reverse. In fact, if you carefully re-read my carefully-written post you’ll see I accept as a given that there are intelligent people (and you may assume you’re among them) who don’t listen to NPR, and I simply wondered why.
I don’t owe you anything. But a gift will be arriving in your inbox later this week.
[sub](I’ve been busy getting my water heater replaced and digging the sewer pipe out of my front yard (long story; don’t ask). But if you’re really impatient, hook up with Rhythmdvl; he’s the one who keeps discussing “topping.”)[/sub]
I cannot and will not listen to anything but Morning Edition (in the Washington area, it’s on both WAMU 88.5 FM and WETA 90.1 FM—exactly the same except for the local filler stuff).
It doesn’t always suit me, so for those occasions I have either Books on Tape handy, or some good music tapes. In fact, since January this year I’ve hardly listened to the radio at all. I got James Joyce’s Ulysses, unabridged, from Books on Tape. 30 cassettes, 42.5 hours. Who needs the radio anymore?!? As soon as I finished it I started all over again from the beginning.
Another thing about TOP… There’s one lady on there who has to be the biggest ditz masquerading as a serious newsperson working in radio today… Mary Jo Powell, I think is her name. Anyway, she’s the one who cut the promo for the station (and of course it runs endlessly) that went like this:
“Your favorite radio station in Washington doesn’t play SONNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGS…”
[Said in a real contemptuous voice, as if hearing music in the morning were the lowest form of culture.]
My listening habits are a little complicated. When I leave for work, the first run of Morning Edition (KERA 90.1 in Dallas) is just finishing. So, I listen to Kidd Kraddick (KISS 106.1 in Dallas) on my morning commute. Once at work, I turn on my radio and listen to the rebroadcast of Morning Edition. I listen to NPR through the day (Fresh Air is my favorite) through to All Things Considered. They replay the 3-5 All Things Considered starting at 5, just when I’m heading home. So, on my evening commute, I listen to the various rock, funk, and smooth jazz (this last one helps me keep the homicidal rages down).
Jacksonville doesnn’t have a lot to offer in the way of radio - or perhaps I was spoiled living in the DC area. I listen to NPR almost exclusively, except when they get on their bi-monthly begging jags… (OK, I exaggerate, but it seems that way) I’ll also tune into a scratchy AM station that plays swing music and the like - can’t get enough of Steve and Edie!!!
I wish we had a decent talk radio station here - if you don’t want sports or Limbaugh and his ilk, you’re outta luck. So I’m outta luck.
DON AND MIKE! Ain’t they jerks? I used to listen to them FAITHFULLY when I lived in Rochester, NY. I was a lifeguard and I forced all of my pool children to listen to talk radio.
Heh… Since this wasn’t sposed to be an all-times radio show thread, I didn’t mention Don & Mike. I listen to them every afternoon as I drive back from the station. Yep, they’re jerks - but not all the time. If they get too bad - or worse, too boring - I just flip over to TOP. I don’t like 'em too much when they wallow in What Happened To Mike Over the Weekend or some other such nonsense; I do like 'em when it relates to … oh I dunno, say, people other than themselves! Maybe, like Stern, they’re something you gotta listen to for a few months before you get it…
Also - I listen to Sportstalk 980 in DC, but not till 5pm, if I’m still on the road. John Thompson’s show is on when I get to the car around 4:15 or so, and I find… him… to…be… too … slow… for me. Snooooooooze… But at 5pm, it’s The Sports Reporters, and that’s the butt-kickingest stuff around…
I used to listen to them FAITHFULLY when I lived in Rochester, NY. I was a lifeguard and I forced all of my pool children to listen to talk radio.