WHVW in Hyde Park, NY does something similar. Mostly automated pre-1960's music, though there is a classical music program in the evenings. Run by a former pirate radio guy who does some shows on WBCQ shortwave.
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Most Unique/Eclectic Small-Market Stations?
- Thread starter AKDXer
- Start date
WHVW in Hyde Park, NY does something similar. Mostly automated pre-1960's music, though there is a classical music program in the evenings. Run by a former pirate radio guy who does some shows on WBCQ shortwave.
I see KBUX in Quartzsite has come up. I talked to Buck several times before cancer took him and Maude a few times. Buck told me he was sort of out of his element programming for people about 15 to 20 years his senior. Lacking a record library, he borrowed records from folks in town to comprise his primarily easy listening/MOR format that was assembled on reel to reel. All in all he began with 24 hours of recordings on reel to reel with each song back announced. Every three songs he'd include K-B-U-X The Heart of Quartzsite. It seems he added quite a bit to his music collection over the years. I know they both liked Rockabilly, so they tossed in one here or there.
The last time I passed through, Marvin (I think that was his name) was purchasing the station that still operated from the Burdette's home. Maude said the format had been pretty much oldies based lite rock for a few years. Except for a few local PSAs (they got one or two a week to announce a couple of times a day), the station was 100% music with liners every quarter hour. There was a 5 minute weekday devotional and the 15 minute Salvation Army program on Sunday, the only non-music events of the week. It was only during the months winter visitors came to the area that KBUX had any advertising and that wasn't much. The spot rate of $6 and annual income of about $16,000 to $18,000 a year was earned over about 4 or 5 months with a good chunk during the February event when Quartzsite and the nearby area swells to about 1,200,000 people for a week or so. A recording I have on cassette somewhere had about 10 spots an hour during that February show but to be fair, Buck and Maude had to manually play all commercials in pre-computer days, so I'm guessing Buck jocking live was an opportunity to clear as many spots as he could.
KBUX was eclectic for sure, even down to their operations facility.
KFAN FM in Fredericksburg, Texas is pretty eclectic, billing itself as Texas Rebel Radio. The format centers on lots of Texas artists, has a sound more like the early album rock stations and has a wide variety of music as diverse as Buddy Holly to Willie Nelson to Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. Many artists aired play local and Austin venues. While they had a music wheel with 12 songs hourly from several categories, the songs aired were the choice of the DJ and they brag they are freeform. Even so, there is a good deal of consistency since there is an objective to sustain a certain audio feel for the station. KFAN is at all the local music festivals and rather popular with locals and advertisers. One unique thing for this commercial FM is clubs and bars that are music venues don't buy 'spots' but pay to be included in the 'Fan Club Check' detailing all the paying clubs and bars with who is playing live, cover charge and drink specials. I thought that was a nice way of doing club advertising that changes so frequently. The station has features like 'Local Licks at 6' featuring unsigned acts, 'The Texas 6 Pack', a set of 6 songs by Texas artists and the 5 o'clock 'Traffic Jam', a rocking set for your drive home. Favorite liner: "stay cool this summer, keep the Fan on".
The last time I passed through, Marvin (I think that was his name) was purchasing the station that still operated from the Burdette's home. Maude said the format had been pretty much oldies based lite rock for a few years. Except for a few local PSAs (they got one or two a week to announce a couple of times a day), the station was 100% music with liners every quarter hour. There was a 5 minute weekday devotional and the 15 minute Salvation Army program on Sunday, the only non-music events of the week. It was only during the months winter visitors came to the area that KBUX had any advertising and that wasn't much. The spot rate of $6 and annual income of about $16,000 to $18,000 a year was earned over about 4 or 5 months with a good chunk during the February event when Quartzsite and the nearby area swells to about 1,200,000 people for a week or so. A recording I have on cassette somewhere had about 10 spots an hour during that February show but to be fair, Buck and Maude had to manually play all commercials in pre-computer days, so I'm guessing Buck jocking live was an opportunity to clear as many spots as he could.
KBUX was eclectic for sure, even down to their operations facility.
KFAN FM in Fredericksburg, Texas is pretty eclectic, billing itself as Texas Rebel Radio. The format centers on lots of Texas artists, has a sound more like the early album rock stations and has a wide variety of music as diverse as Buddy Holly to Willie Nelson to Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. Many artists aired play local and Austin venues. While they had a music wheel with 12 songs hourly from several categories, the songs aired were the choice of the DJ and they brag they are freeform. Even so, there is a good deal of consistency since there is an objective to sustain a certain audio feel for the station. KFAN is at all the local music festivals and rather popular with locals and advertisers. One unique thing for this commercial FM is clubs and bars that are music venues don't buy 'spots' but pay to be included in the 'Fan Club Check' detailing all the paying clubs and bars with who is playing live, cover charge and drink specials. I thought that was a nice way of doing club advertising that changes so frequently. The station has features like 'Local Licks at 6' featuring unsigned acts, 'The Texas 6 Pack', a set of 6 songs by Texas artists and the 5 o'clock 'Traffic Jam', a rocking set for your drive home. Favorite liner: "stay cool this summer, keep the Fan on".
A full-power Class A not noted yet in this thread is "WXJK 101.3" in Farmville, Virginia, a small college-agricultural town southwest of Richmond. Too bad the Internet audio stream has long-suffered from hum.. 32kbps MP3 is all. This seems to be a one-man operations. David Layne, the owner, has a deep Virginian rural accent -something quite honest and refreshing in lieu of "artificial sounding jocks". Keep it up! Hear it at wxjkfm.com <WXJK 101.3 FM>
Don't forget KHIL in Willcox, Arizona - a true , local-centric country station : <KHIL Radio 1250 AM 98.1 FM>
Honorable mention goes to KORJ in Butte Falls, Oregon. Basically stunting "Acoustic, Chill, New Age, Smooth Jazz, etc" since launching as they have pushed any commercials. This Class "A", the station targets the Medford, Oregon area.
Finally, the LPFMs should be eccletic by their very nature.... Let's hope.
Don't forget KHIL in Willcox, Arizona - a true , local-centric country station : <KHIL Radio 1250 AM 98.1 FM>
Honorable mention goes to KORJ in Butte Falls, Oregon. Basically stunting "Acoustic, Chill, New Age, Smooth Jazz, etc" since launching as they have pushed any commercials. This Class "A", the station targets the Medford, Oregon area.
Finally, the LPFMs should be eccletic by their very nature.... Let's hope.
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The old KSRW and WIMI streams were 16kbps mono MP3! I mean, what could you do in an isolated town of a couple thousand without a lot of high-speed internet access? I will have to listen to that relatively-new KORJ FM, as it does play some SJ music...albeit I'm not particularly a chill music fan.
KXLL- I remember them! Also, KINY in Juneau comes to mind!
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Groove1670
Guest
WZEW 92.5 FM (HD3) - This HD fed translator is called the "Soul Of Mobile" they play classic R&B, Disco, 80's 90's etc. It has severe audio issues. The HD shifts to a lower quality audio several times during the day.
WZEW 96.5 FM (HD3) - "The Crab" electic classic rock and live cuts.
The main signal 92.1 WZEW is a AAA format.
WZEW 96.5 FM (HD3) - "The Crab" electic classic rock and live cuts.
The main signal 92.1 WZEW is a AAA format.
WPCI 1490 Greenville SC
Also, I agree with the comments about LPFM stations. If a music oriented LPFM has a good number of volunteers, with new ones added as others leave, the station can be interesting to listen to. One thing though, volunteers can focus on a music style they favor or are an expert in. Eventually a given volunteer gets stale. I enjoy be-bop jazz or doo-wop style, but not so sure I want to hear four hours of it every week, or even every month. Even the big hits from my youth, I don't need to hear them every week.
Also, I agree with the comments about LPFM stations. If a music oriented LPFM has a good number of volunteers, with new ones added as others leave, the station can be interesting to listen to. One thing though, volunteers can focus on a music style they favor or are an expert in. Eventually a given volunteer gets stale. I enjoy be-bop jazz or doo-wop style, but not so sure I want to hear four hours of it every week, or even every month. Even the big hits from my youth, I don't need to hear them every week.
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Not quite a small-market station now but KPND has real announcers who are interested in the music. Originally from Sandpoint, Idaho, KPND has been migrating its COL and transmitter sites over the years towards the Spokane market.
The broadcaster is local and independent - Blue Sky Broadcasting.
More at kpndradio.com
The broadcaster is local and independent - Blue Sky Broadcasting.
More at kpndradio.com
I just found another awesome small-town station this past week:
WARR Warrenton NC (1520 AM, 103.5 FM Translator) - An extremely wide playlist of R&B, gospel, and even smooth jazz, from the '60s on up. They seem to air some music in 'block' form - one night at a certain time I've heard traditional jazz, another night it's black gospel music. But the R&B I've heard is excellent. Everything from Isaac Hayes' 'Love Attack,' to classic songs by The Temptations and Supremes, 'Save the Overtime for Me' by Gladys Knight, smooth jazz songs by Kirk Whalum, George Howard, Najee, and way more. Definitely a must-listen.
WARR Warrenton NC (1520 AM, 103.5 FM Translator) - An extremely wide playlist of R&B, gospel, and even smooth jazz, from the '60s on up. They seem to air some music in 'block' form - one night at a certain time I've heard traditional jazz, another night it's black gospel music. But the R&B I've heard is excellent. Everything from Isaac Hayes' 'Love Attack,' to classic songs by The Temptations and Supremes, 'Save the Overtime for Me' by Gladys Knight, smooth jazz songs by Kirk Whalum, George Howard, Najee, and way more. Definitely a must-listen.
Big fan of Pirate Radio Key West (WKYZ-FM).
Adult alternative-focused station that has a great mix I haven't found in any other market. Their morning show is live and local, with lots of local flavor, and nothing like amazing weather reports which remind us how unlucky the rest of us are in the rest of the country. hah
Adult alternative-focused station that has a great mix I haven't found in any other market. Their morning show is live and local, with lots of local flavor, and nothing like amazing weather reports which remind us how unlucky the rest of us are in the rest of the country. hah
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Groove1670
Guest
Kim GM at Pirate Radio gave me first job in radio 1986. She is a great person and thinks out of the box which is the reason for the Pirate's success.
The "other" Key West station that would conform to this thread would be WXKW 104.9 . They offer broad mix of tunes with local announcers. (Just this morning the announcers were talking about waste and environomental issues on the island.) The 680-watt station on 104.9 was recently sold for about $61,000 (FCC approval pending). Their website is xkeywest.com and they do stream although inside an annoying SecureNetSystems "container."
Test them out:
WXKW 104.9 X KEY WEIRD RADIO key west radio
(If anyone can extract the underlying audio stream and make it work that would be neat. Unexpectedly, this HTTPS port 443 offering does not decode: ice9.securenetsystems.net/WXKW )
Test them out:
WXKW 104.9 X KEY WEIRD RADIO key west radio
(If anyone can extract the underlying audio stream and make it work that would be neat. Unexpectedly, this HTTPS port 443 offering does not decode: ice9.securenetsystems.net/WXKW )
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KSKO is still unique, and getting even more so under the new PD that arrived last year
thats my goal.. make this place unique. working on a native language thing soon among other things
Do many nightclubs own radio stations these days? "Ocean 98" WOCM in Ocean City, MD (licensed to Selbyville, DE) is a class A running a AAA format. Regular format leans alternative rock, but they have talk and specialty music shows on nights/weekends.
Another unique small-town station...AM with no translator either.
WMGJ 1240 Gadsden AL. Most of the time they are a no-commercial jukebox of vintage R&B up to 2000s hits. I have heard a lot of oh wow's on this station. Regina Belle, Shalamar, Babyface, George Benson, Patti LaBelle, even album cuts from Atlantic Starr that never went to the charts. Mono audio on the stream, but worth a listen on a weeknight or weekend. Occasionally I have also heard some local talk shows on this station.
WMGJ 1240 Gadsden AL. Most of the time they are a no-commercial jukebox of vintage R&B up to 2000s hits. I have heard a lot of oh wow's on this station. Regina Belle, Shalamar, Babyface, George Benson, Patti LaBelle, even album cuts from Atlantic Starr that never went to the charts. Mono audio on the stream, but worth a listen on a weeknight or weekend. Occasionally I have also heard some local talk shows on this station.
Wow who says eclectic unique commercial radio is dead, just seeing this list so far proves otherwise. These "type" of stations are what I enjoy listening to the most. There are many out there. To name just a few that haven't been mentioned:
KJAA Globe, AZ, obscure 50's 60's oldies. A hobby station for broadcaster Rollye James (she also hosts a nightly talk show on WGN radio from her home in AZ). A must listen if you like "real deep" oldies.
KLEB Golden Meadow, LA. All Louisiana Cajun music.
KTNN Window Rock,AZ. Navajo language and music artists mixed in with traditional country A real plus is when they play cultural Navajo chanting and drum beating once or twice an hour
There's also the various "beach oldies" stations on the east coast
KJAA Globe, AZ, obscure 50's 60's oldies. A hobby station for broadcaster Rollye James (she also hosts a nightly talk show on WGN radio from her home in AZ). A must listen if you like "real deep" oldies.
KLEB Golden Meadow, LA. All Louisiana Cajun music.
KTNN Window Rock,AZ. Navajo language and music artists mixed in with traditional country A real plus is when they play cultural Navajo chanting and drum beating once or twice an hour
There's also the various "beach oldies" stations on the east coast
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