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Bay Area Radio......The Best?

A

airpab

Wanted to see if anyone is in agreement with me about English-speaking radio in the Bay Area? I've been all over the country and lived all over too...and can easily make the statement that radio is very good, if not the best, in the Bay.

If you look at the variety of stations, the number of stations, the programming at each station in every genre, it's kinda hard to find a better big city market...at least in my opinion. What do you think?

L.A.'s a joke...predictable, boring and completely inadequate for a city that size. N.Y. is only okay too. The variety just isn't there either...boring! Chicago is off the scale boring and the list goes on and on.

Then you've got the Bay Area. Almost every station in it's genre is excellent. KBLX, KKSF, KFOG, KOIT, Alice, KFRC, The Bone, KFOX, KISS-FM, The Wolf, KMEL, KITS, Movin 99.7, Star 101.3, Channel 1049, KEZR and the list goes on. We're lucky to have such a great radio dial !
 
Your own provincial viewpoint has skewed your objectivity, just because you
like doesn't make it better. People in LA would laugh at this.
 
I can't comment on LA radio, since I have limited listening opportunities, but I wouldn't say that San Francisco radio is any better or worse. I think we have several very special stations, but so does just about every top 10 city.

BTW...who really cares that people in LA would laugh...Why would they?
 
airpab said:
Provincial? It's an opinion! Have you listened to radio in L.A., NY or Chicago?
Click to expand...

Yes I have and I've worked in 2 of those markets. What have you done besides make some
very generalized statements?. Besides, there's a lot more revenue in L.A. boys. I don't
think you understand the meaning of provincial either.
 
Revenue? Yay...most money wins. Never mind talent. Not saying there's more talent in SF, but don't bring revenue into it. I've worked a stations that made money hand over fist, but were simply boring. KOIT makes a ton of money...
 
Okay.....Let's take a vote.....For those of you that have either lived in LA or SF and/or travel there all the time and listen to the radio (listening to different genres/format types), here's the question:

If you had to choose between one of the radio dials, LA's or SF's, which would you choose and why??
 
If your interested in Spanish language radio - L.A. wins hands down. The #1 thing in the minds of the L.A. programmers is how do I win more of this audience. After that though, the Big Guys there are simply fighting themselves. CBS owns both News Stations. Emmis is (trying) to fight itself with it's Power and Movin (urban) format. And Clear Channel isn't clear with what it's doing with it's 3 AC/HOT AC stations. To answer your question though, I'd give the nod to the Bay Area. At least there is some Variety still happening and to choose from in Northern California. Long live KFOG! Geez, do I ever miss the days of the biggies only being able to own 1 T.V., 1 A.M., and 1 F.M. in each market. What has happened to creative thinking, experimenting outside the box, and in having on air personalities that had and demonstrated real personality..._
 
airpab said:
Okay.....Let's take a vote.....For those of you that have either lived in LA or SF and/or travel there all the time and listen to the radio (listening to different genres/format types), here's the question:

If you had to choose between one of the radio dials, LA's or SF's, which would you choose and why??
Click to expand...

For music radio, I take Los Angeles. Wider variety of choices, more live DJs and just all around better stations.

For talk radio, I take SF. I think KGO and KNBR are about as good as it gets in their particular areas of talk.
 
As I mentioned in another post, I think KGO Radio is a true icon in talk radio and one of the top models of radio these days. I stream real audio from here in Atlanta, and enjoy the likes of Ronn Owens, Dr. Bill Wattenburg, John Rothmann and Ray Taliaferro.

Other SF stations that I stream are KCBS and KFOG.
 
"As I mentioned in another post, I think KGO Radio is a true icon in talk radio and one of the top models of radio these days. I stream real audio from here in Atlanta, and enjoy the likes of Ronn Owens, Dr. Bill Wattenburg, John Rothmann and Ray Taliaferro. Other SF stations that I stream are KCBS and KFOG."

We spend a lot of time complaining about bad Bay Area radio on this board, but there is no disputing that KGO and KFOG are 2 great radio stations. KGO is recognized nationwide as one of the best, if not THE consistently best talk station.

Regarding my own personal taste in music, I prefer jazz and classical, and when I get into rock, I seem to prefer "hit" oriented stations. I find a lot of "album rock" dull. But that's just my personal taste - there is no doubt that KFOG is a first rate station, especially Dave Morey's consistently intelligent morning show. I've been listening top The Bone a bit lately too, and have been impressed with the DJs...though I can't recall names at the moment.

Maybe slightly off the subject, since it's not about Bay Area radio specifically - I'm also hoping that "HD" radio becomes popular, despite the stupid name. I sprung for an HD car radio a few months ago, and I'm impressed with the offerings so far - including real jazz on 103.7 HD2 (now I have 2 choices - the other being KCSM), 50s-60s Oldies on 96.5 HD2, a second classical stream, and a host of other choices.
 
KFOG is good, but living on it's rep a little more than it used to. I thought they sounded astounding in the early to mid 80's
KGO, simply a great radio station, has been for decades. Honestly until 1996 when station groups grew so large as to defy imagination I always thought that SF was better than LA, but only slightly as LA has had it's share of greats as well and many PD's and Air Talent worked in both, but now days with all the same companies owning in most markets, it's all pretty boring now. Both LA and SF have some good stations as do most cities. People who listen to KFI just love it, and KOST has its fans too, plus there's KROQ. All LA icons. SF has KOIT and KGO to fill those rolls in Northern California, so as you can see you can find good stations in both markets. Overall, it's a tough call and everyone has their own opinion. If this was 35 years ago we'd be debating the merits of KHJ, KMET and KABC in LA and KFRC, KSAN and KGO in SF and I can truly say that they all sounded amazing then which would bring out some really good discussions had Radio -Info been around then...
 
Of what possible value will be the music-only radio stations of the future? I can't imagine music stations that play 16 in a row can survive the pending ubiquity of the iPod.

The radio of the future will only succeed on it's ability to provide compelling, entertaining, informative content.

Right now on my iPod I can get 967 favorite songs in a row and not have to put up with stop-sets, jingles and/or juvenile potty jokes and pranks. Funny thing, tho, I would like to rely on music radio to tip me to the "new" songs, but those stations either don't play new songs or if they do, they don't identify them.

My iPod has eliminated the need for music radio completely and though I don't find much else on the radio, if I do want an alternative to a fixed jukebox with commercials, I can still find a good news station and a few talkers.
 
"Of what possible value will be the music-only radio stations of the future? I can't imagine music stations that play 16 in a row can survive the pending ubiquity of the iPod."

Maybe iPods will make radio programmers work harder. I'm thinking that they have to be realizing that they will need to compete with MORE content than just music, whether that be clever and snarky imaging (Jack), intelligent and witty personalities that are allowed to talk a little, or whatever. People want more than just music, or those "more music in the morning" shows would get higher ratings.

Sure, there are more media choices than ever before, but I think they can all co-exist. Some analogies: the prognosticators predicted TV would kill movie theaters, VCRs would kill commercial TV, DVRs would kill commercial TV, hundreds of cable channels would kill network TV, etc. But they have all learned to adapt and coexist, and all that competition has made both movies and TV programming far superior than before.

I think music radio can survive. Besides, we underestimate the laziness factor - people like me with busy lives who buy an iPod but never seem to have the time to sit down and download songs onto the #*&%#+ thing. I guess I should get off this board and start downloading...
 
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