They could flip it to dance/EDM, like C89.5 in Seattle. They could play a variety, like Edge 88.1 in Des Moines. They could make an effort to do something that would draw listeners under 70, rather than just pay someone to automate it with music that students grandparents listened to.
I had the same conversation with the station's G.M. a couple of years back. I felt they were programming to that all-important nursing home demo, people whose hearing is so bad that they can't even hear the music they grew up loving. He made the case that there have been live events featuring that era and style of music, and the demo that attends those events consists of the grandkids of the people who grew up in that era. It's not a barnburner format, but again, if there are listeners willing to support it, and there aren't a whole lot of other musical choices (the sub-92 part of the dial has at least one station on every channel, so the things you suggest are probably already being done somewhere else), where's the harm for a 100 watt station whose signal can barely make it from one end of its home county to the other? You do what you can with the cards you've been dealt.
Just, no.
I don't see any harm.
I suggested Dance/EDM just as an example of a format that would attract people under 80 and based on the fact that the former KREV ran it, and before that when it was KNGY, since this station reaches the East BayKCEA has been among my stream bookmarks since the early 2010s and I don't have one grey hair on my head. I can't say the mood strikes me to listen to KCEA every week, or even for months at a time. But when it does, I will usually spend a great deal of time with it before tiring and moving on -- "until next time."
Lots of people enjoy the era of standards, big band, jazz, and swing it plays. Some musical styles have become evergreen and are appreciated across generations. I mean, classical ... everyone who was around in its heyday is certifiably post-nursing home now, and yet legions from all ages brackets are fans today.
I know KCEA wouldn't last 5 seconds in a commercial market. But fortuitous circumstances like some high school not knowing what to do with a useless 100 watt transmitter the students couldn't care less about anymore represents one of the few ways material like this can survive. When people say how it should be blown up and flipped to something like "Dance/EDM," my mind instantly thinks back to that scene in Betelgeuse where the husband says, "but why don't you just leave this room alone -- okay?"
Just because YOU don't like the music, doesn't mean it has no value and shouldn't be allowed to exist. Plus, it's a 100 watt non comm that for some weird reason you think should be programmed like a commercial radio station. And please, grow up and stop trashing other people's taste in music.
Believe it or not, I like some standards. I never said it shouldn't exist. In fact, I've posted a few times on here about listening to WJEJ, a commercial station that plays standards in Maryland.
I don't like it when they try to get hip or eclectic.
Did listen and like it, very different!
I read it differently. "Kludge 94.1" ("A whole bunch of music held together with duct tape".)
There are even more ways to interpret those calls. "K-LARGE" is one, or "KOLLEGE". (Eureka-Arcata is one market, and Arcata is home to Humboldt State University in the CSU system.) It's the tyranny of ambiguity.
My favorite Eureka call letters are KSLG, on air it's K-SLUG. If you've ever been to Eureka, you see those slimy things everywhere!
great sound and mix! thanks
They have a sister station that plays Classic Hits, WWKY. There may be a mix up with the Recently played at the 2 stations.
