8.05.2006
Cool Radio
Sounds like an oxymoron, yes? If you know where to look, there can be some real delights out there. Ian nudged me to offer a list in a comment on a recent post. Rather than bury it there, I thought I'd just create a new post so you can find and read this easily. Here are a few I enjoy on the high-speed connection in my office cubicle. These all offer free listening:
WYEP, Pittsburgh
WFUV, New York
WFPK, Louisville
KEXP, Seattle
BBC 6 Radio
This last one is truly amazing as it is soooo professional AND non-commercial. Some of you may even have LPs or CDs by one of the DJs - Tom Robinson hosts a great segment each day. The six hour time difference can throw you, but it's pretty cool stuff.
College radio:
WWVU, Morgantown
I am really spoiled as this is set in my car. DJs may be shaky but they deliver the new tunes that may blow-up big a few months from now. It's naot all the latest stuff. They mix in three to four cuts and hour of tunes that go back to the mid-80's. A few times a year, I sit in and spin my faves for a few hours AND I get to break format! WoooHooo!
WARC, Meadville
I gotta include my alma mater. This is old-style free-form radio. Right now I think a computer is picking the tunes as it is summer on this 2000-person campus. DJs are a bit rough, but they play most anything. It could go from trance to Dead to punk in three songs. It can be a real adventure. I returned last fall and did four hours on a Saturday morning. I was on an adrenaline high the whole time as this is where I started with my first radio shift in Janury 1980.
One other option to check is Pandora Internet Radio. You can customize your own personal stations by keying in bands you like. Pandora scans their extensive databse of tagged music to find matches then lines them up to play. You can boot a tune if it doesn't fit and Pandora fine-tunes the picks. Kinda neat.
Feel free to add your own recommendations in the comments. It's a big world out there.
WYEP, Pittsburgh
WFUV, New York
WFPK, Louisville
KEXP, Seattle
BBC 6 Radio
This last one is truly amazing as it is soooo professional AND non-commercial. Some of you may even have LPs or CDs by one of the DJs - Tom Robinson hosts a great segment each day. The six hour time difference can throw you, but it's pretty cool stuff.
College radio:
WWVU, Morgantown
I am really spoiled as this is set in my car. DJs may be shaky but they deliver the new tunes that may blow-up big a few months from now. It's naot all the latest stuff. They mix in three to four cuts and hour of tunes that go back to the mid-80's. A few times a year, I sit in and spin my faves for a few hours AND I get to break format! WoooHooo!
WARC, Meadville
I gotta include my alma mater. This is old-style free-form radio. Right now I think a computer is picking the tunes as it is summer on this 2000-person campus. DJs are a bit rough, but they play most anything. It could go from trance to Dead to punk in three songs. It can be a real adventure. I returned last fall and did four hours on a Saturday morning. I was on an adrenaline high the whole time as this is where I started with my first radio shift in Janury 1980.
One other option to check is Pandora Internet Radio. You can customize your own personal stations by keying in bands you like. Pandora scans their extensive databse of tagged music to find matches then lines them up to play. You can boot a tune if it doesn't fit and Pandora fine-tunes the picks. Kinda neat.
Feel free to add your own recommendations in the comments. It's a big world out there.
# posted by E-Mann @ 9:19 AM 
Comments:
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While in Savannah, I found a great locally owned rock station, WRHQ: www.whrq.com We enjoyed listening all week, and now on the web.
With all due respect to my colleague the Senator from West Virginia, there is only ONE radio station listened to in the Pino house: WFMU in NJ. Besides streaming in every known format for every possible internet hookup, they have a terrific blog and a great online archive of downloadable musical goodies - my favorite being a high school marching band doing the Tubes "White Punks On Dope".
Great programming, something for every taste, excellent DJs and a sense of humor missing from many "freeform" radio stations, who take themselves way too seriously (like, ahem, WRTC from CMU. There's a difference between playing "weird stuff no one else plays" and being freeform.) Probably the only station I don't shut off when the Country Western and Folk programs come on.
It's the radio station other radio stations want to be when they grow up.
My response when students ask me what kind of music I listen to is : "I like all kinds of music - Viacom AND Clear Channel!" They usually don't get it.
Great programming, something for every taste, excellent DJs and a sense of humor missing from many "freeform" radio stations, who take themselves way too seriously (like, ahem, WRTC from CMU. There's a difference between playing "weird stuff no one else plays" and being freeform.) Probably the only station I don't shut off when the Country Western and Folk programs come on.
It's the radio station other radio stations want to be when they grow up.
My response when students ask me what kind of music I listen to is : "I like all kinds of music - Viacom AND Clear Channel!" They usually don't get it.
Joe - Thanks for adding WFMU. I got addicted to that in the car as I cruised NJ to attend college fairs.
I forgot one other that I discovered while waiting to cross the Verrazano Bridge one day. WBGO is mostly jazz and done exceptionally well. But I found a Sunday morning soul show that just blew me away. I've never been disappointed when I tune in.
http://www.wbgo.org/
Commercial radio is in BIG trouble folks, cause it pretty much sucks. Our generation in particular has grown most dissatisfied with what is on the commercial airwaves. Tune in and support a non-commercial station. You may not like everything they play, but you at least get a chance to hear something different.
I opened my old record store because I always felt that music shouldn't be about least-common-denominator stuff. Music should match your personality and mood. And when you discover a really cool musician or song, you remember that for life. Commercial radio just doesn't do this anymore.
I forgot one other that I discovered while waiting to cross the Verrazano Bridge one day. WBGO is mostly jazz and done exceptionally well. But I found a Sunday morning soul show that just blew me away. I've never been disappointed when I tune in.
http://www.wbgo.org/
Commercial radio is in BIG trouble folks, cause it pretty much sucks. Our generation in particular has grown most dissatisfied with what is on the commercial airwaves. Tune in and support a non-commercial station. You may not like everything they play, but you at least get a chance to hear something different.
I opened my old record store because I always felt that music shouldn't be about least-common-denominator stuff. Music should match your personality and mood. And when you discover a really cool musician or song, you remember that for life. Commercial radio just doesn't do this anymore.
I think that's part of the problem. I haven't listened to radio regularly for about 20 years. Everything is compartmentalized and I don't fit the compartments. So, thanks.
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