# What's With These "No Format" Radio Stations?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-these-no-format-radio-stations/310274>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 28, 2005, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-these-no-format-radio-stations/310274 "2005-06-28T21:30:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-these-no-format-radio-stations/310274/21 "2005-06-30T13:42:13Z")

</div>

In Philly area, it is Ben-FM. The only voice you hear is recordings of the guy who played J. Peterson on the show Seinfeld.

No format. No Dj’s.

Most radio outlets are owned by parent companies. “The Point” is another station whose parent company broadcasts in most major areas.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-these-no-format-radio-stations/310274/22 "2005-06-30T14:07:47Z")

</div>

> [@Justin\_Bailey](#):
>
> Fickle (I’m in Rochester if that’s your Fickle) really bothers me. You’re absolutely right about the one good song and the next ten suck. I was in a grocery store that had Fickle blaring.
> 
> First song I heard: Weezer - Say It Ain’t So. Woo! Yeah! Great song!
> 
> The next five were various forms of 80s hair rock and pop divas. It was torture.
> 
> By the way, if you’re in Rochester, have you noticed that 100.5 now promotes themselves as a station that plays “Whatever” (just like Fickle), but didn’t change their playlist at all? OK, maybe they added a few mid-90s alternative tracks like stuff from Green Day’s Dookie and “Blister in the Sun” of all songs, but it’s basically the same.
> 
> I love it… :eek:

This is exactly the problem with these stations. I’m probably old enough to be your father, which means I hate most 90s music. Not that I’m crazy about hair bands and pop divas, either, but it means I have a completely different set of likes and dislikes than you do.

So the format works when it randomly hits one of our likes, but misses 90% of the rest of the time. And neither one of us will listen for very long.

The station I really like is Buffalo’s 107.7 The Lake. Lots of album tracks that haven’t been played on the radio for years, if ever. Covers several decades but skews older. And I can listen to it for more than one track at a time.

My guess is that these no-format stations will find that their listeners will start calling for certain styles of music over others and that they’ll tighten their formats to accomodate. That is, if they get the go-ahead from the corporate office.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-these-no-format-radio-stations/310274.md?page=1)