Reading this thread over here, got me thinking about the stations I listen to. Mostly, yeah, top [del] ramen[/del] 40, and a couple of local morning talk shows on the AM dial. However, my favorite is one of two local NPR stations (the other is national talk and news-blech). The NPR music station has a mix of local and national programming shows that vary from classical and opera music of all varieties to mood to jazz of several varieties and Prairie Home Companion. Depending on time of day, and day of week, if the DJ is local, it seems like they play whatever the heck they like as long as its within the genre of the show. Often with a little background info about the artist, the particular bit of music about to be played etc. This station is or was operated by the local university, probably as part of a journalism program of some sort, so when listening between roughly midnight and 5 am you can get just about anything. (I heard supposedly Klingon Opera at 3am once)
So, do you have a local radio station similar to this where you are? If so, do they stick to a single format or do they vary the broadcast throughout the day? What kind of stuff do they broadcast?
Yes. The Austin area has two stations run by UT, the standard NPR station, KUT, and the campus music station, KVRX (None of the Hits, All of the Time).
The mighty KNON has something new on every couple of hours. Might be Cambodian, might be hardcore Metal, might be Blues, might be Tejano, might be Rap, might be totally impossible to categorize. Really, if you have a record collection and a radio persona that will attract enough donors, you can potentially have a radio show there.
KXT is a public radio music-only station that’s less adventurous than most, but it’s rare to hear more than one top 40 song in an hour during their regular programming. They also carry other PRI/NPR music shows.
KTCU Texas Christan University’s radio station plays some great stuff. The Good Show, on Sat. morning is one of my favorite times to listen to the radio. Most of the weekday schedule is contemporary country, but the night and weekend schedule is mostly non top-40 rock, a lot of it new.
Don’t know of anything local because I can’t stand local radio commercials.
I used to be well within the broadcast area of WVLI but well before they existed. Although they’re more mainstream than others listed here they still have quite an eclectic mix. The Rat Pack to deep Elvis cuts to retro hits of the late '80s/early '90s (e.g.: “Kokomo”).
Top 40? Wouldn’t even know where that is.
I listen to KQED, NPR, KCBS, all news in San Francisco, KLIB, all news in San Jose (not as good but the traffic reports are more relevant) and KDFC, listener supported classical which I even give money to.
We (in Chicago) have a relatively new station called MeTV FM. It is affiliated with the MeTV oldies cable television show, and plays stuff reminiscent of the fifties, sixties, and seventies. Some old top forty, plus pop and easy listening from those eras, and lots of television theme songs that were radio hits (Rockford Files, Hill Street Blues, etc.). Kind of fun for an old fart like me.
The TV channel is cable syndicated; possibly the radio station is too?
I’ve seen that video on youtube, in a word, awesome:D (this is high praise indeed from me, I can’t stand the rolling stones) the band, I forget the name, but there may be several different groups, also did an outstanding cover of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck
Mr. Mortiss sir, MeTV is a local OTA broadcast, interesting to find out you have an affiliated radio broadcast for them in your stable of broadcast intertainment
When I lived in Ann Arbor I usually listened to WCBN, which played whatever the DJ felt like playing. Unlike that they never censored the music, was actually a bit surprised the first time I heard them play Jewish Princess and some other songs with an uncensored “fuck” in them.
Here in Ohio, I usually listen to WKLT, a local high school/community radio station. Love listening to the Polka music they play on Saturday evenings.
My local stations all just rotate the same songs over and over throughout the entire day. If I have to hear Welcome to the jungle by GNR one more time…rage
That’s why I hate listening to the radio, I never get to hear anything new or stuff I haven’t heard in years…like no station near me plays Pantera anymore or a host of other rock bands from the 90’s but they’ll play that one song by CandleBox from 1993 every single day…every single day. Heck I’d be happy with some new modern rock but instead those types of stations will play this weird hybrid crossover of rock/pop/rap or some nonsense that’s not to my taste. My truck I drive for work has nothing but radio to listen to so needless to say I just use it for background noise.
Whats up with HD radio? I get 2 stations…once in a while. I do like the smooth jazz station but rarely get it to come in.
On the other hand, HeXen, its like having an music clock, yes? Yanno, a song comes on, you think to yourself, “welp, 3rd time since lunch I’ve heard that song, its 430, so when they play ‘Jump’ by Van Halen, its time to start closing out work for the day”
We have two classic rock stations here and both I swear play AC/DC every third song. Still, sometimes they play Rush so we take our chances on one or the other.
Somehow this didn’t jump out at me until Robert163 highlighted it. The corresponding station here is a non-format style station called BOBFM that really does play anything. For the most part its not a station I listen to much. They seem to be the equivalent of OTA muzak, pleasant, bland, inoffensive, and a little something for everyone, basic background music for whatever I guess.
My wife would love that and I could certainly have fun w/ it.
For the OP to find Klingon Opera we have some options in the NC Triangle area. You could try WXDU from Duke or WXYC in Chapel Hill. I understand they get pretty freaky on those 2 stations. They’ve always been just out of range on my FM dial, so I’ve not spent much time there.
Here in Raleigh, I switch b/t WKNC and WSHA which are both local college stations.
WSHA (Shaw Univ.) defaults to contemporary/classic jazz most of the time. It’s listener-funded and has hourly NPR breaks and the occasional fundraiser. On weekends they spice it way up with blues, funk, reggae, latin, african, hip-hop, gospel, and soul shows spaced-out over the 3 days. Before returning to the jazz late on Sunday night, they finish with another 4 hours of rockin’ blues.
When none of that’s soothin’ the groove, I flip over to WKNC (NCSU). It’s fully college-funded; no NPR or fund drives on this one (which makes it tougher to donate, but that’s another thread). Through the weekdays they default to college rock and (i guess it’s called) alternative. Some of it’s hot, some of it’s not, and there’s an interesting chasm in-between. Some songs come-up in rotation through the week, but the DJs mix-in their own + requests.
They have different programming throughout evenings and the w/e, offering much of what WSHA does in a slightly different package. They also have a cool A cappella show, a couple hours of Indian, Americana, Latin (conducted in Spanish), local, punk, talk, electronica, and an almost-fatal dose of heavy-metal; vintage and fresh. On Sunday they have the best 2 hours of free music anywhere in the Tri-State area, Both Kinds Radio. It’s a delightful mix of classic country & swing; serving-up tunes from the 1920s - 1970s.
With all the variety on KNC & SHA, I’m blessed. I rarely tune-in to any others. I hear it in the wife’s car, though. She loves singing along with that Meghan Trainor.
I don’t think that I described KNON very well there. BOBFM is a lot like JACKFM here. They play a mix of older and newer rock, most pretty soothing. Nothing too exciting, you could play it in a grocery store. That’s almost the furthest thing that you can have from KNON.
KNON is a community radio station DJ’d and programmed by volunteers. The guy you hear on the mic isn’t getting paid, and they show up and play their record collection because they love it. If they can convince enough other people to love what they play and send money in, they stay on the air. Right now, James Stapleton is playing Jazz. Literally any records he feels like from 12-4am. He was preceded by Sonic Assembly, a show that specializes in um, not specializing (self described as “indie, local, global, and obscure sounds not usually heard on the terrestrial dial”). Tomorrow night in this time slot will be the jam band show, and that guy plays live tapes of bands such as Widespread Panic and the Grateful Dead (and there’s a Dead-only show on Sat.) . Thursday night from 8pm-midnight is a pretty extreme metal show. Every morning from 4am-6am, it’s gospel shows. It’s a seriously wild and woolly lineup, and it’s a treasure that I sometimes take far too much for granted.
Actually the whole premise of that station is fascinating to me and I kinda wish we had something more like that here. I actually did listen to KNON for a bit last night while surfin. Mrs. Guest and I are starting to think about getting the guestling his first computer that’s not designed as a [del]money sucking wallet vacuum[/del] toy and he really really really loves music, of almost every type. So for the last couple of days as I’ve been reading with interest about local radio broadcast options, I’ve also started sampling the links when they post them looking for a variety of potential bookmarks to have ready for his listening pleasure.
BOBFM, JACKFM,…hmm, probably owned by the same corp.