FM radio

[Molandfreak]

I hear/read a lot of commentary about the blandness of radio, food and retail, every city looks/sounds the same, etc. But McDonald's, Starbucks, Wal-Mart and the Jack format exist, and succeed, for a reason. At the end of the day, the majority people want convenient, familiar, and quality control. Their two-shot non-fat latte will taste the same, no matter what neighborhood, city or state they're in. The lawn mower they saw in Tulsa will be available when they're ready to buy back home in Boise. People don't want to be surprised, or disappointed, so they don't want to take risks. They feel challenged enough by their jobs, their economic situation, their personal lives, and the fears and threats of the "real world." Hearing Mumford and Sons every fifth song is the 21st Century equivalent of gathering around the living room radio to listen to Jack Benny every week - it's comfort food.

Listening to music (really listening, not just hearing) requires the use of a certain part of our brains that gets "frozen" at a certain point - it's why most people's taste in music remains rooted in what they liked as adolescents or young adults - and with the amount of crap adults are bombarded with day to day, it's just too much of an investment of time and energy for most people.

I'm not saying any of this is good by any means, but it seems to be where we are today.

I agree to an extent. It's also important that every area gets served by enough genres to offer an actual choice, not just fifty versions of the same genre, playing the same songs (which, sadly, is what we're headed for).

I don't care how good of a station it usually is, if a station has such a diverse range that it has the ability play a passionate, catchy tune, immediately followed by some computer-generated, auto-tuned crap that somehow passes as music these days, they're off my list.

More genres of stations are what we need, not a 10,000 song playlist radio station in every city.

[Alps]

interesting (not polarized political) news talk for the drive

am I the only one who absolutely loathes talk?  in any form?  if the radio says "you are listening to ...", I mutter "no I'm not" and change the station.

satellite at late-night hours comes the closest to having a non-stop block of music with no interruption.

Even though I enjoy listening to local broadcast radio, I, too, hate talk in any form. That said, three of my four videos last update had a station announcement between songs.

[kphoger]

interesting (not polarized political) news talk for the drive

am I the only one who absolutely loathes talk?  in any form?  if the radio says "you are listening to ...", I mutter "no I'm not" and change the station.

satellite at late-night hours comes the closest to having a non-stop block of music with no interruption.

Even though I enjoy listening to local broadcast radio, I, too, hate talk in any form. That said, three of my four videos last update had a station announcement between songs.

I don't mind talk if it's actually a talk show or weather report or traffic report or news broadcast, but I could do without the perky, peppy blather in between songs.  I can only recall one radio host I've actually enjoyed listening to (fortunately he's currently a radio host on one of my favorite stations); all the others I'd rather just hit the play button.

[kphoger]

And when did stations stop telling you what songs you're listening to, anyway?
I don't have a smart phone, so it doesn't help me that I can find out online.

[Brandon]

And when did stations stop telling you what songs you're listening to, anyway?
I don't have a smart phone, so it doesn't help me that I can find out online.

Some do, some don't.  I've noticed that for a long time.  WDRV 97.1 FM, The Drive in Chicago is consistently good at telling what you just listened to, listing all of the songs in reverse order.  Others aren't quite as good at it.

[Desert Man]

Whenever I go across Riverside-San Bernardino, their local radio market has much to offer (plus nearby Los Angeles-Orange county radio stations). Five of them came to mind: KCAL 96.7 (rock music), KGGI 99.5 (top 40 or hip-hop), KFRG 95.1 (country-folk music), KOLA 99.5 (oldies) and KATY 101.3 (easy listening or light hits). The AM stations have more information, such as traffic reports, which FM radio doesn't typically have (consult KFI 640, KFWB 980 and KNX 1070 for them).

The "Inland Empire" is part of the L.A. TV market, but the closer you get toward San Diego, you receive some TV channels and radio stations from there such as KFMB (the radio station on AM/FM and TV station, affiliated with CBS). For radio not automated with a live human voice, consult KCRW 89.9 and KVCR 91.7 both public stations.

Now for the Palm Springs area, KNWZ 94.3FM is a news-talk format, they have live local programming and some national syndicated radio programs (Coast to Coast AM at night). I don't find that FM station any bit "boring" and "plain". Now for the other FM radio stations like KDES 98.5 (oldies), KPSI 100.5 (top 40), KKUU 92.7 (hip-hop) and KEZN 103.1 (light hits), usually have limited lists of music to play, so it's likely you hear one song today and you will hear it again tomorrow. "The Jack" 95.9 became "the Oasis", also automated, under the local owner of KPLM 106.1 (country music) as well affiliated with CBS radio.

Many radio listeners in every area market wants new and different music, not narrowed down by corporate radio companies assigned what they can offer, which means the audience defects by subscribing to Sirius/XM or head over to the internet including music videos on youtube among other channels.

[elsmere241]

And when did stations stop telling you what songs you're listening to, anyway?
I don't have a smart phone, so it doesn't help me that I can find out online.

Some do, some don't.  I've noticed that for a long time.  WDRV 97.1 FM, The Drive in Chicago is consistently good at telling what you just listened to, listing all of the songs in reverse order.  Others aren't quite as good at it.

One station in Philadelphia identifies title and artist at the end of each song.  It can be informative, but also a bit annoying at times.

[formulanone]

Most of why I generally dislike radio has been discussed already. The repetition has always been an annoyance, and to hear any song played more than once in an eight-hour span is downright scary, given how much music exists out there, past and present. Every so often, I'll find something decent or local or different (there isn't a bluegrass station in Florida, for example), but that's usually because I won't bother to take my iPod with me on a 10-minute drive. But for a two-hour drive...no way.

Once in a while, I'll find myself hooked to NPR, or find a classic rock station that seems to find no over-played numbers, but that comes and goes. I do like one or two sports-talk shows down here in South Florida, but that's usually when they talk about things that have little to do with sports.

Regarding Sirius XM, I checked the prices lately and... just no. I will never pay this much for something I'll almost only listen to while in my car. It's not nearly worth it, even to get rid of the ads.

XM offers a great mix of music, much of which can rarely be heard on radio stations (or even can't be played on  radio), but delve into the pop/latest-hits stuff, and it's as repetitive - even more so in the case of XM's "The Pulse" - as radio at times. Eventually, they have to repeat their library. I had to hear The Pulse for four days straight at a job site, which claimed to be "hit music from the 2000s to today"; despite thirteen years of pop-oriented music to choose from, they played roughly ten to twenty no less than 3-4 times a day, with a few older (the last 3-13 years) songs sprinkled in.

I can overlook and even ignore music I don't like. Art is subjective, and music is a truly magical thing, one of our greatest gifts to humanity. But the unyielding repetition of that pablum made me almost reach for a drill to put my ears out of my misery, because such behavior (for a service you pay for!) borders on brainwashing and propaganda.

[Dr Frankenstein]

formulanone, having listened to Sirius for a significant amount of time in a friend's car, I've come to the same conclusion. Different music, but it gets stale just as quickly, at least on most stations. Not worth paying so much for.

[ET21]

97.1 FM in Chicago is the best on that FM dial. All the other stations tend to play the same songs over and over again.

[jp the roadgeek]

FM Radio has become such a bore.  We had one holdout station (WCCC, yeah that one where Stern used to work) that was a holdout on the whole corporate focus group playlist thing.  Now, they've mostly sold out.  WHCN was totally corporatized back in 2002.  1995-2002 saw it transition from a heritage, play anything AOR station to the canned "River" format.  The Jump the Shark moment is when they replaced the locally produced Picozzi and the Horn with Bob & Tom.  WPLR, another classic rock station, though a lot better with the local on air talent (Lappy has been there since the 70's) is an acronym for "Play a Lotta Repeats".  The problem with classic rock radio is they play a variety of artists, but only about 5 songs by that artist.  God forbid we hear Achillies Last Stand once instead of Black Dog.  God forbid we hear something off of Animals instead of Another Brick in the Wall Part 2.  God forbid we hear Far Away Eyes once instead of Start Me Up.  I mean, the songs that are played are great songs, but mix it up once in a while.  That's why I did get SiriusXM, and listen to Deep Tracks, Jam On, E Street, and Grateful Dead radio.  I had a rental car for 2 days without it, and ended up listening to sports talk because of the tons of commercials and boring songs on FM.

[mgk920]

I got utterly sick of Led Zeppelin during my third year of college when one of the guys with whom I shared an apartment (living in University-run housing, so this guy was assigned to join the other three of us who knew each other) turned out to be utterly obsessed with their music and listened to it constantly. He never would have struck you as a Zeppelin fan, either; nerdy-looking soft-spoken guy from Chesapeake, Virginia, with a serious southern drawl, a father who drove a Vista Cruiser (seriously), and a brother they all called "Earl T.".....it sounds like a serious redneck stereotype, I know. This guy played Zeppelin so incessantly that I still have not listened to a single Zeppelin album all the way through even a single time since then, and this fall will be 20 years since I shared an apartment with that guy.

Nerds love Zeppelin.  All those Tolkien-esque lyrics.  Shit yeah.

No radio station can match the variety one can create with one's own library.  A few thousand MP3's taken from all my favorite genres and a media player set on shuffle wins.  No changing stations, no bad reception, no ads (well except a few of those old Bud Light "Real American Heroes"), no bills to pay and all the variety a randomizing algorithm can provide.

THAT is the very accurate description of my iPod - about to go over 5K files of sheer random bliss!  A pot-potpourri of nearly every genre and artist other than hard punk, death metal, gangsta (c)rap and country less than about 30 years old from the 1960s through the present.  I also have a bunch of 'playlists' on it that duplicate the entire boxful of 1970s and 1980s era cassette mix tapes (I called them 'Stuff' tapes) that I made for roadtripping, too.

Digression:
How can such a shitty beer have such great commercials?  Bud has been churning out great ads for their piss water for like 20 years now.  They're not all winners, but if there's a hilarious light beer commercial, it'll be for Bud.  Damn them.

I loved those old 'TASTES GREAT!/LESS FILLING!' Miller Lite beer ads - you couldn't get better advertising than having the crowd at a big game chanting it back and forth across the stands!  (No, I don't drink it, I just liked those ads).



As for local radio, earlier this year I tuned into the local album rocker, still drawing very strong ratings even though they have not changed AT ALL since the mid-late 1980s, to look for stuff to add to the iPod and after a couple of weeks had identified all that I wanted that I didn't already have and quickly grew bored with their 200 or song playlist - which also has not changed at all over those 25 or so years.

Bring me back to the times of those *GREAT* top-40 AM blowtorches!



Mike

[KEVIN_224]

FM Radio has become such a bore.  We had one holdout station (WCCC, yeah that one where Stern used to work) that was a holdout on the whole corporate focus group playlist thing.  Now, they've mostly sold out.  WHCN was totally corporatized back in 2002.  1995-2002 saw it transition from a heritage, play anything AOR station to the canned "River" format.  The Jump the Shark moment is when they replaced the locally produced Picozzi and the Horn with Bob & Tom.  WPLR, another classic rock station, though a lot better with the local on air talent (Lappy has been there since the 70's) is an acronym for "Play a Lotta Repeats".  The problem with classic rock radio is they play a variety of artists, but only about 5 songs by that artist.  God forbid we hear Achillies Last Stand once instead of Black Dog.  God forbid we hear something off of Animals instead of Another Brick in the Wall Part 2.  God forbid we hear Far Away Eyes once instead of Start Me Up.  I mean, the songs that are played are great songs, but mix it up once in a while.  That's why I did get SiriusXM, and listen to Deep Tracks, Jam On, E Street, and Grateful Dead radio.  I had a rental car for 2 days without it, and ended up listening to sports talk because of the tons of commercials and boring songs on FM.

You forgot about how Clear Channel ruined both WKSS-FM 95.7 of Hartford/Meriden (Kiss 95.7) and WKCI-FM 101.3 of Hamden/New Haven (KC-101.3). They now have FOX Sports Radio on WPOP-AM 1410. The only things local on that station are (every other) New Britain Rock Cats minor league baseball game or CCSU Blue Devils basketball. Despite being only 10 miles from their transmitter, WUCS-FM 97.9 of Windsor Locks/Hartford (97.9-ESPN) has a shitty signal for me here in New Britain's south end.

Moving on, anybody who lives in the Hartford/New Britain/Middletown radio market knows what the call letters of Lite 100.5 really mean. WRCH-FM and CBS Radio cater to the [W]hite [R]ich [C]onnecticut [H]ousewife. 

Lastly...WCCC-FM? They've ruined it, got rid of Michael Picozzi (a good thing, most likely) and now simply call it ROCK 106.9. Huh? 

[Pete from Boston]

FM Radio has become such a bore.  We had one holdout station (WCCC, yeah that one where Stern used to work) that was a holdout on the whole corporate focus group playlist thing.  Now, they've mostly sold out.  WHCN was totally corporatized back in 2002.  1995-2002 saw it transition from a heritage, play anything AOR station to the canned "River" format.  The Jump the Shark moment is when they replaced the locally produced Picozzi and the Horn with Bob & Tom.  WPLR, another classic rock station, though a lot better with the local on air talent (Lappy has been there since the 70's) is an acronym for "Play a Lotta Repeats".  The problem with classic rock radio is they play a variety of artists, but only about 5 songs by that artist.  God forbid we hear Achillies Last Stand once instead of Black Dog.  God forbid we hear something off of Animals instead of Another Brick in the Wall Part 2.  God forbid we hear Far Away Eyes once instead of Start Me Up.  I mean, the songs that are played are great songs, but mix it up once in a while.  That's why I did get SiriusXM, and listen to Deep Tracks, Jam On, E Street, and Grateful Dead radio.  I had a rental car for 2 days without it, and ended up listening to sports talk because of the tons of commercials and boring songs on FM.

That's funny, I just found this thread because I was thinking about the great radio I've hunted out along drives, and I have my Boston-NY non-commercial lineup that pretty much covers the whole route, with lots in Connecticut:

WMBR (88.1) Boston, gets me to 495.  Mostly music-geek DJs at the top of their game putting together well-researched, fun, amazing shows in lots of genres.
WCHC (88.1) Worcester, reaches from just west of 495 to just east of 84.  College kids playing indie rock, for the most part, but with a lot of freedom to play around.  Keeps me entertained for the 20 minutes it comes in.
WHUS (91.7) Storrs, decent eclectic college radio from UConn with a better-than average signal.  Lasts until just after Hartford, overlapping with
WNHU (88.7) New Haven, an unlikely star of good music programming and smart DJs when I've tuned in, also with a fairly good signal.  Lasts a ways into Fairfield County, which is an incredibly saturated radio area (you learn this if you use an iPod FM transmitter and need to find clear spots on the dial, which are rare there).
WPKN (89.5) Bridgeport, another great freeform outlet, formerly part of the University of Bridgeport no longer affiliated with anyone but itself, with creative music lovers running the show.  Covers most of Fairfield County.

After that, take your pick from the Greater NY airwaves -- WNYU, WFUV, WFDU, WFMU, WNYE, WBGO, etc., etc.

FM radio is not a lush cultural wonderland, but there are islands of genius if you look carefully.

[Interstatefan78]

For me I'm a country and top 40 person,but just like 102.7 KIIS FM or 104.1 WAEB FM and 96.1 WCTO traffic reports usually comes in this is the case with WAEB FM mentioning delays on US-22 from Cedar Crest (PA-29) to MacArthur Road (PA-145) or I-78 from Summit Lawn (Exit 59-60) to PA-33 (exit 71). Also WAEB FM in some occasions use 22 and I knew you were trouble by Taylor Swift after a traffic report on all Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton or Stroudsburg Freeways.

[Desert Man]

Interstatefan78, the southern California KIIS-FM is on 102.7, the flagship station of the KIIS network. When I was in L.A-Orange county, I listened to KLSX 97.1, KYSR 98.5 and KROQ 106.5(?) which are rock genre stations. One neat sounding smooth station KWVE 94.7 ("the Wave") should relieve your traffic-rattled nerves on its' freeways. KCBS-FM 93.1 remains the flagship station of "the Jack", despite some of their affiliates were dropped, like in the Palm Springs area I've mentioned earlier.

[Billy F 1988]

Our FM stations in Montana are basically suffering the same pitfalls other stations elsewhere are having. Playing the same songs over and over and over day after day. It's just annoying to some extent. How many times do we have to listen to Katy Perry on a regular basis or listen to this garish pop crap that some stations shove down our throats? After watching thenetwork's response, I feel the same way. I'm not fond of Jack FM's slogan of "playing what we want". That's a bunch of pathetic bull shit. That's Jack's way of saying "don't like what we want to play, suck it, shut the radio off or turn the dial to another station you boneheads!" I can't really say what our flagship station is in Missoula anymore because a lot of the culture is changing. It used to be that KYLT 1340 AM, KLCY 930 AM, KGGL 93.3 FM, KYSS 95.1 (now 94.9), and KZOQ 101.1 FM were the mainstay stations. I'm not sure if I want to do that now.

[Interstatefan78]

Interstatefan78, the southern California KIIS-FM is on 102.7, the flagship station of the KIIS network. When I was in L.A-Orange county, I listened to KLSX 97.1, KYSR 98.5 and KROQ 106.5(?) which are rock genre stations. One neat sounding smooth station KWVE 94.7 ("the Wave") should relieve your traffic-rattled nerves on its' freeways. KCBS-FM 93.1 remains the flagship station of "the Jack", despite some of their affiliates were dropped, like in the Palm Springs area I've mentioned earlier.

You're right, but what about KHTS 93.3 San Diego it's the same league as KIIS FM 102.7,but in SD county KIIS FM can be heard in San Onfre which is close to the LA-OC region. Whereas in my area both WCTO 96.1 or WAEB FM 104.1 can be heard in Carbon County,Monroe County, and Berks County,Pennsylvania this might explain songs like We are Never Getting Back Together,22, I knew you were trouble being played thought the day.     

[KEVIN_224]

I heard that the Kelly half of the Kelly & Kline morning radio show, Mike Kelly, recently passed away from some form of cancer. Areas they worked in included Providence, New York City and San Jose (maybe others, too?). I remember them while at WTIC-FM 96.5 of Hartford, back in the mid-90s, in between runs with morning man Gary Craig (1981-92, fired, went to rival WKSS-FM 95.7 for a time, then back to WTIC-FM from 1996 to present). They had a character named Captain Trivia. I really don't remember anything else from that time on their show.

One other radio note in Connecticut is for WBMW-FM 106.5 of Ledyard, part of the New London/Groton/Norwich market. Just recently, they upped their power to about 25,000 watts. Although there's a bit of noise with the stereo in quiet passages, I'm picking them up a lot better here in southern Hartford County.

[Brian556]

I live in the Dallas Tx area. The stations here have gotten so bad that I stopped listening a long time ago. We only have one station left that plays my kind of music; 98.7 Classic Hits. However, it's playlist is far too narrow. Jack FM is ok I guess, but is too much rock. I like some rock, but all rock gets annoying very quickly.

Radio has gotten much worse recently because the playlist have moved forward in time, so they now longer cover the good periods in music. When I was younger, radio was much better

When I was in Orlando recently, I discovered Magic 107.7. It had an excellent variety of song types (Rock/Pop/Disco/Fast/Med/Slow) They played everything from Smashmouth to Peter Cetera. They even played the obscure 90's song "How Do You Talk to an Angel? Their playlist was quite similar to what's on my media player

[Pete from Boston]

Personal rule: no radio with a first name.

[Brandon]

Personal rule: no radio with a first name.

Jack left Chicago quite some time ago and was replaced with local talent.

For those of you not around here to listen to some of the best radio AM or FM, to quote the Tenth Doctor, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

[Avalanchez71]

constant Hootie and the Blowfish, Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow, Blues Traveller's "Runaround," the Wallflowers' "One Headlight," that Celine Dion Titanic song

yep, that's basically what turned me off of radio in the mid-late 90s.  that and Matchbox 20, who are just about the most terrible band ever.

sad, because Rob Thomas is really quite talented... the song he did with Santana is excellent.  but his main project is miserable and angsty and somehow avoids spectacularly all that is cool about being miserable and angsty (see: Nirvana, who really were a great band, worthy of all the hype).

That is excatly what turned me off "top 40" radio in the mid-late 90's as well.  I went to country, "classic rock" and talk radio.  I am more on talk radio now.

[Interstatefan78]

Even for me there's one thing that 102.7 KIIS FM or 92.7 KTOM both stations do a Taylor Swift deep track this also applies to WSIX 97.9 Nashville or WTHZ 100.3 NYC/Newark and Wyckoff, NJ  songs like I'm only me when I'm with you or a Perfectly good heart being played on CHR stations as a deep track perhaps they should belong in a Country radio station like WSIX,WCTO,KKGO and KTOM. If this happen I would be listening to variety station like WHCY 106.3 Blairstown/Phillipsburg,NJ or KBIG 104.3 Los Angeles, Garden Grove, and Carson, California

[Alps]

.

Guys

Guys

He found the period key