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Best Stations in Phoenix?

There used to be a number of very good radio stations in Phoenix. Not any longer.
 
There used to be really good radio stations here in Phoenix until big giant companies like Clear Channel took control over them when they bought them! But here are a few that i think are good: 93.9 KWSS, Alternative KQ 99.1 or KQRocks.com, 92.7/90.7 KVIT "Pulse Radio", and 103.1 KCDX out of Florence,AZ.
 
There are NO great stations in Phoenix

The LAST great stations in Phoenix were KZRX-FM 100.3 ZROCK in 92-93.... The KOOL FM station in 1981 to 1987.... And KRUX and KRIZ in the sixties and seventies.....

Right now it is VANILLA radio, bland with liner jocks........
 
radioresearcher, Maybe not all of the stations listed above, may not have a large listening audience and a great cash flow, or a great signal in the Valley, but the smaller and independently owned stations do play a variety of good music and are well programmed unlike larger stations with 100,000 watt sticks a top South Mountain like Clear Channel owned that are cookie cutter programmed!
 
^^ Hahaha....Wow. Well goes to show ya that your average person who listens to 97.5, 104.7, 98.3, 96.9 or 101.5 isn't active on this board. I guess us "Radio Nerds" appreciate the underdog, but somebody from the big dogs wants to mock that....interesting.

Nobody is mocking the less listened to stations. But the idea that stations with few listeners are "the best" is certainly a contradiction of terms.

While there may be very fanatical followers of some of these stations, they are small in number indicating that all we have are tiny groups that find such stations to be great, while most of the market could not care any less about them.

The OP posted too broad a question. "Best" can be... from an owner's perspective... the most profitable station. From a newspaper reporter's point of view, it is the one with the most listeners. And to individual listeners, it depends on their personal tastes.
 
His post was "And all of the stations above have large listening audiences and great cash flow." which is completely sarcastic, therefore mocking. Your words claiming the rest of the market could care less, also indicates the bigger ones are favored, and thats fine. I can handle fact. But the product is very lacking, and shows how simple minded people are by accepting spoon fed programming. We all know who is in the top. If that makes them the best, then I choose to listen to the rebel forces! B-)
 
Nobody is mocking the less listened to stations. But the idea that stations with few listeners are "the best" is certainly a contradiction of terms. ]

Not if one's an LP that ostensibly has to split signal between East Valley and West Valley and the other is a consultant-dictated, book-subscribing conglomerate. That's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. There's only one station in town that plays (former KUPD host) Jonathan L's syndicated show and the syndicated Passport Approved, both of which break artists like .fun, Adele, and Gotye before Clear Channel and CBS get to them. If the station had a better signal, it doesn't take a consultant to calculate its the projected shares it would get.
 
I was mocking the queston, as David kind of hinted at, it wasn't clear . I actually find KCDX interesting to listen to as a person who loves music. Unfortunately, the problem is, most of these stations, unless you are independently wealthy, are going to need to be for profit ventures. KNRJ is a locally owned station providing a mix of new and older hip-hop music and it has some small shares. I certainly think it's not a bad station.

By the way, just because a station is owned by CBS or Clear Channel it doesn't make them bad either.
 
By the way, just because a station is owned by CBS or Clear Channel it doesn't make them bad either.

No, but because CBS and Clear Channel are both for-profit corporations, the only volunteers you'll see there are the interns. However, KWSS-LP's on-air staff is pretty much all volunteer - CBS and Clear Channel can't afford to be "labor of love" like KWSS can because they (the for-profits) have shareholders to report to. That's why it's more likely to see it described as a "valley" best. I'm a little perplexed at how any of this can be seen as subjective - CBS and CC aren't "bad," there are lot of good people who work there, but even they would admit it's "bad" radio. Good numbers, good books, but "good radio" as an entertainment medium? Really?
 
Let's just be honest here. Researcher pointed out how independent stations are more likely to break new music, but do the corporate ones really care? No, they MIGHT be listening, but they are not gonna mirror the trend of a local station. They will always look to Billboard, or iTunes sales, and trends that test well nationally. No guts. They only started playing Gotye or Adele because they crossed over, NOT because they were 1st played on KWSS.
 
Let's just be honest here. Researcher pointed out how independent stations are more likely to break new music, but do the corporate ones really care? No, they MIGHT be listening, but they are not gonna mirror the trend of a local station. They will always look to Billboard, or iTunes sales, and trends that test well nationally. No guts. They only started playing Gotye or Adele because they crossed over, NOT because they were 1st played on KWSS.

I don't recall a station I've visited or been familiar with subscribing to Billboard in the last several decades. Most radio stations use other sources, particularly BDS and MediaBase to look at playlists and get Soundscan, download and similar information off websites or web subscriptions. There are also sites like AllAccess.com that have charts and trending data, as do more format-specific publications like FMQB.

The problem with the national charts is that we don't know what demo, ethnicity, gender or even geographic area is influencing sales and we don't know if the consumers are our potential listeners or listeners driven by other formats.
 
I'm a little perplexed at how any of this can be seen as subjective - CBS and CC aren't "bad," there are lot of good people who work there, but even they would admit it's "bad" radio.

I think you will find that nearly all the staff at the "big owner" stations will agree that they are doing the best radio they can under the difficult and complex conditions that OTA radio has to deal with today. Personally, I don't know anyone in such a situation that thinks they are doing "bad" radio... if we are realistic, we all know we can do better radio and we are challenged to find new ways to do that in today's economy.
 
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