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Wildly bizarre ideas of radio formats that would never fly...

N

new_friends_gr

Every now and then I get these wild ideas of formats for FM radio stations that are completely ridiculous and would never work in any market. It's fun for me to imagine formats like this:

  • An FM station that plays nothing but circus/carnival music 24/7
  • An FM station that plays nothing but polka music
  • An FM station that plays nothing but video game music all the time
  • An FM station that plays Barney, Elmo, toddler tunes, etc.
  • An FM station dedicated to certain causes - charities and so on
  • An FM station that plays "music" by cats, animals, cows, and other animals making their sounds - moos, meows, etc. (This would be called "FM whatever - The Zoo")

I could probably think of a dozen more ridiculous ideas. I get a kick out of imagining tuning in to an FM station and hearing stuff like this. In a bizarre world, maybe. LOL

Does anyone have any silly ideas to share for fun?
 
FM station playing all Klezmer Punk
AM station carrying 24 hour Cricket play-by-play
AM station carrying brokered medical call-in shows in Esperanto
FM station playing the Greatest Hits of various shortwave numbers stations
AM station playing Classic Static
FM station carrying all-Hospital Intercom
FM station carrying Easy Listening music, all played on kazoos
AM station playing clips of the greatest Format Change moments of other stations
AM station carrying live feed of a telephone party line from a really backwards rural area
FM station playing AOL Dial-up Modem sounds
FM station playing all records backwards to reveal hidden messages from Satan
FM station playing the Greatest Emergency Broadcast System Tests from the 60's, 70's amd 80's
AM station carrying call-in sex therapy talk shows hosted by nuns
FM station playing the Greatest Military Marching Music from the former Soviet bloc
AM station with live 24 hour relay of Radio North Korea
AM station playing the soundtrack portion of old TV soap operas
FM station playing recordings of huge explosions in HD digital quality
FM station carrying lectures in Calculus, Post-Modernist Icelandic Poetry and East Asian Macroeconomics
from Youngstown State University
AM station playing clips of classic stations signing on and off

And, of course, whatever the heck it is that WAOB in Pittsburgh is trying to do.
 
new_friends_gr said:
Every now and then I get these wild ideas of formats for FM radio stations that are completely ridiculous and would never work in any market. It's fun for me to imagine formats like this:

  • An FM station that plays nothing but circus/carnival music 24/7
  • An FM station that plays nothing but polka music
  • An FM station that plays nothing but video game music all the time
  • An FM station that plays Barney, Elmo, toddler tunes, etc.
  • An FM station dedicated to certain causes - charities and so on
  • An FM station that plays "music" by cats, animals, cows, and other animals making their sounds - moos, meows, etc. (This would be called "FM whatever - The Zoo")
I could probably think of a dozen more ridiculous ideas. I get a kick out of imagining tuning in to an FM station and hearing stuff like this. In a bizarre world, maybe. LOL
Does anyone have any silly ideas to share for fun?
Click to expand...

Your ideas draw perilously close to plagurism. They sound like a few of my own.

One idea I have (that you thankfully haven't yet hijacked) would be an AM or FM station, WACAT, "All Commercials All the Time".

Only kidding about plagurism and hijacking.
 
jfrancispastirchak said:
One idea I have (that you thankfully haven't yet hijacked) would be an AM or FM station, WACAT, "All Commercials All the Time".
Click to expand...

Unfortunately in another thread I found out that there are all infomercial formats.  :p

I mentioned all EAS all the time in the same thread.

A few more:
Dog Whistles 24/7
Live remotes from the drive-thru at McDonald's
Records played sideways - If they're finding messages backwards, why not try sideways?
CDs played with the bits in random order - Possibly even more likely to find hidden messages
Punk Polka
Yiddish speed metal
Amish rap
Heavy metal Gregorian chants
A station where all the DJs sound like Donald Duck

And the most bizarre format ever:
Florence Foster Jenkins 24/7 - http://larrythekidman.blogspot.com/2009/10/florence-foster-jenkins-worst-opera.html  :eek: :eek: :eek:  ;D
 
Sports play-by-play in pig-Latin
Just mentions of foods, with a board op going "Mmmmm! MMMMMMM!" in the background
Solitaire talk
24-hour traffic----oops AM 730 Vancouver.....scratch that :p

cd
 
FreddyE1977 said:
FM station playing recordings of huge explosions in HD digital quality
Click to expand...

You're tuned to the Explosive sound of K-BOOM. KBUM-FM 107.1, Fargo-Moorehead.
We're a blast! Turn us on, and we'll blow you away!
 
Aussie Rules Radio-Oh wait that's already been a proven success down under.
24/7 Pageants
TNS-The Transylvania News Service
Swahili Polka
Brazilian Portugese Jazz
Polish Death Metal
Thai Country & Western
Live Public Address System recordings
Party Line Radio
The DJ's, yep, they all sound like Stewie Griffin
Icelandic Novels translated into Pre-1976 Chinese
Audio Recordings of 1990's Warner Bros. Cartoons

and last, but certainly not least, whatever the format of the week it is this week on KTWIN.
 
new_friends_gr said:
Every now and then I get these wild ideas of formats for FM radio stations that are completely ridiculous and would never work in any market. It's fun for me to imagine formats like this:

  • An FM station that plays nothing but polka music
Click to expand...
...actually, WTKM-FM/104.9 in Hartford, Wisconsin, on the northwestern fringe of the Milwaukee market, ran an all-polka format for 39 years, up until a few months ago when it flipped to Classic Country...
 
One idea I have (that you thankfully haven't yet hijacked) would be an AM or FM station, WACAT, "All Commercials All the Time".
Click to expand...

Some years ago there was a station in Georgia that did all commercials. It billed itself as "Visitor Information Radio".
 
Rube Dali said:
Swahili Polka
Brazilian Portugese Jazz
Polish Death Metal
Thai Country & Western
Click to expand...

I think those are actual channels on my DirecTV Sonic Tap package.
 
As I recall Saturday Night Live did a bit years ago about a station that just did the time and nothing else.
 
Here's one of mine:
-An NPR or other similar public radio station that did the typical NPR, etc. programming, but played ALL rock/classic rock/pop music (Wait...this could work in some markets?)
 
Kelly A said:
Any station that would intentionally play Kokomo by the Beach Boys.
Click to expand...

I thought that song was pretty much a staple on classic hits/oldies stations that don't lean rock. I remember hearing it on both WODS Boston and WDRC-FM Hartford before they flipped to other formats. It must test well with the 45 and younger set, despite its poor reputation with codgers like me who remember the "classic" Beach Boys sound and their late '60s experimentations.
 
I remember the station in Adel, Georgia that ran all commercials. They did a short trivia question a couple of times an hour and a short weather cast but it was easily 58+ minutes of commercials even when you added in the IDs they ran. As I understand it, the guy owned bunches of billboards along the freeway and most of the businesses at the main Adel exit. It was supposedly to bring customers to his businesses in Adel. Other advertisers could buy a combination of billboards and radio spots but as I understand it, competitors of the Adel exit businesses, it seems, were not called on.

After that format there was a loop of about 15 to 20 minutes for some amusement park/theme park. I guess they leased that.

By the way, the AM, under the same owner, was Southern Gospel.

A real life AM radio format in Maine on an AM station was shopping radio offering gift certificates listeners could buy. I believe it ran on a repeating cassette tape, just one voice talking about the items and how to buy the gift certificates. I though it was a novel idea for a station that had nothing as far as billing went. I talked to someone up there and I recall they used the station to make new believers of the effectiveness of radio. Makes sense to me but an odd format for a fulltime format.
 
new_friends_gr said:
Every now and then I get these wild ideas of formats for FM radio stations that are completely ridiculous and would never work in any market. It's fun for me to imagine formats like this:

  • An FM station that plays nothing but circus/carnival music 24/7
  • An FM station that plays nothing but polka music
  • An FM station that plays nothing but video game music all the time
  • An FM station that plays Barney, Elmo, toddler tunes, etc.
  • An FM station dedicated to certain causes - charities and so on
  • An FM station that plays "music" by cats, animals, cows, and other animals making their sounds - moos, meows, etc. (This would be called "FM whatever - The Zoo")

I could probably think of a dozen more ridiculous ideas. I get a kick out of imagining tuning in to an FM station and hearing stuff like this. In a bizarre world, maybe. LOL

Does anyone have any silly ideas to share for fun?
Click to expand...

The children's music one might actually work in a large market.
 
I actually did all of these on my Part 15 station last year when I first launched it, while I was stunting and testing. These would never fly on a real radio station!

-The "Excalibur" song from the anime series "Soul Eater" played on a loop for hours on end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kuhc8RROw10
-A recording of a numbers station played on a loop.
-The "Uh-Oh" Montage from "Sealab 2021" http://uhooooooooh.ytmnd.com/
-The audio from the entire six-part anime series "FLCL" (English dub, of course. This show is hard to follow while actually watching it!)
-Anime theme songs and other Japanese pop songs. (Simulcast from AnimeNfo Radio on Shoutcast.)

And, the one I had the most fun with-
-"Ridiculous" Variety Hits! (Also informally ID'd as "Stupid Ridiculous Variety" and "Variety Hits on Crack")- Not your typical Jack, Bob, or Chuck style variety hits format, limited to rock and pop hits from the 70s through today, but almost literally ANYTHING! -Current top 40/pop hits, classic country, 50's and 60s oldies, hard rock/classic rock/alternative rock, soft AC/easy listening, rap/hip-hop, 70s through 90s pop hits, obscure southern rock, and some anime theme songs/Japanese pop, all mixed together as one format! (And I made sure to play songs from totally different styles back-to-back, so that it would sound like a trainwreck, ON PURPOSE!) (What? You've never heard Ariana Grande and Merle Haggard played back-to back on the same station before?)
 
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Here's something that I would do: A Sounds Of The Seasons-esque radio station that would play music for all sorts of holidays-St. Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Mardi Gras, Summer Time, and Halloween-and of course, the Christmas and New Year's holidays. And in between holidays, we can play an assortment of ambient, jazz, rap and hip hop, with slow jams during the overnights and gospel music all day and night on Sundays. That hasn't been tried on radio before; let's give it a shot!
 
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