I guess it is a definite sign that I am officially an old codger, that I find myself combing the radio dial in search of talk radio. I can recall being a kid, when my folks would turn on this stuff on car rides, or they’d have WGN with Wally Phillips on in the kitchen in the morning - and I’d wonder, “Who the heck could listen to this crap?” Wonderful when you realize you have become what in your youth you could not imagine!
But I am surprised at the dearth of talk radio stations on my AM dial. Here in Chicago, I have found only WGN 720, and WLS 890. And in the evenings, WGN turns to sports - which I am not particularly interested in. The other talk stations are either all sports, or all news. The majority of the dial seems to be taken up with foreign language or religious programming.
Is the situation similar in your town/region? Anyone in Chicago got any good suggestions?
The problem is not the dearth of talk stations, it’s the dearth of talk stations that are carrying local talk, as opposed to Rush, Dr. Laura, Art Bell and all the rest of the syndicated crowd.
In St. Louis, KMOX took the best locally produced talk show I’ve ever heard, with Charles Jaco, and moved it to nights when no sports are scheduled. The explanation was that Jaco wanted to go to nights because he’s working on a PhD., but the replacement programming is weak.
840 AM WHAS- Louisville KY- balance of local & syndicated talk-
Rush & Art Bell on at their usual times but usually flanked by good local talent- the best is Joe Elliott on weekday evenings & Sun morn- Weekend evenings has Whitley Strieber on Sat (now usually preempted for UL & UK Sports) & two syndicateds (the latter being Drudge) on Sun up till Art Bell time
A dozen years ago, I drove from Dallas to Anchorage, then back a year later. Besides the scenery and my cat’s litter box, one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip was searching for new stations along the 4500 mile route. I was amazed by the diversity of small stations and local flavor, both in music and talk hosts, topics and guests. Truly enlightening.
I think the trick is to get away from the metropolises.
A dozen years ago, I drove from Dallas to Anchorage, then back a year later. Besides the scenery and my cat’s litter box, one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip was searching for new stations along the 4500 mile route. I was amazed by the diversity of small stations and local flavor, both in music and talk hosts, topics and guests. Truly enlightening.
I think the trick is to get away from the metropolises.
You mean you actually have a hard time finding a (decent) talk radio station where you live? We’ve picked up 2 sports talk and 2 news talk (all syndicated stuff all the time) stations in the past year. In addition to the 1 talk station we already had and the various religious/talk/preaching stations we have, plus the translator rebroadcasts of r/t/p stations from elsewhere.
I have 1 station of music on the AM dial left, let’s see how long it lasts! WKAC 1080 AM, long may you last, you noble dinosaur.