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What Do You Think Is the Best Radio Station(s) EVER!

E

eyg2181

Guest
just list your favorite stations. format, name/frequency, and location. all of the following i listen to in Levittown pa other than the ones in italic(obviously means not in good listening range if at all). stations in bold are my absolute favorites. you can list 1, 5 , 10, 100, however many you feel like. im not asking anyone to go into detail with it like i did. if you want keep it simple. this could get interesting, so lets get this thing going.

Rock:
93.3 WMMR (Philadelphia)
94.1 WYSP (Philadelphia)
107.1 The Bone (Lehigh Valley)
104.5 WRFF (Philadelphia)
106.5 G Rock (Jersey Shore)

Classic Rock:
105.7 The Hawk (Jersey Shore)
102.9 WMGK (Philadelphia)
107.5 Frank-FM (Reading)
95.5 KLOS (LA)
96.5 WHTQ (Orlando)

Top-40:
93.7 WSTW (Wilmington)
94.5 WPST (Trenton)
 
..."EVER"??:

KHJ Los Angeles (1965-1979)
KMPX San Francisco (1967-1968)
KTNQ Los Angeles (1977-1979)
WCFL Chicago (1926-1976)
WGN Chicago (entire span of operation)
WNIB Chicago (1955-2001)
WLS Chicago (1925-1989)
 
I'm guessing that Ultimajock is Chicago-based - and old like me! ;D

The absolute best stations I ever heard include two of his, WCFL and WLS '68-'74, CKLW Detroit/Windsor, WKBW Buffalo during the Jackson Armstrong era, and WNBC NY with Imus when he was entertaining (middle '70s).

I never heard the west coast stations "back in the day", but some of the airchecks are outstanding. The problem with airchecks is that they don't give you the same "feel" for a station and for continuity over time that you get from daily listening.

There are still some great shows out there, but I can't think of any station that has a killer lineup all day.
 
SirRoxalot said:
I'm guessing that Ultimajock is Chicago-based - and old like me! ;D
Click to expand...

...I *was* Chicagoland-based, a claim which an awful lot of us here in Phoenix, both in radio and civilians ;D, are able to make. And, while I don't consider 47 particularly old (although that may be the prevailing attitude regarding certain topics on the ASU campus, unfortunately), I am an OTR buff and have a ton of old airchecks from even the pre-FDR days when KYW was still in Chicago!...
 
Past and present from another ex-Chicagoan/currently Phoenix-based guy...

Rockers (All gone now, unfortunately)
WLS 890 Chicago (now news/talk)
WCFL 1000 Chicago (now sports WMVP)
WNDE 1260 Indianapolis (now sports)
WIFE 1310 Indianapolis (now gospel WTLC)
WNAP 93.1 Indianapolis (now news/talk WIBC-FM)
WAKY 790 Louisville (now sports WKRD)
KRIZ 1230 Phoenix (now adult-standards KOY)
KRUX 1360 Phoenix (now bible-banging KPXQ)
KBBC 98.7 Phoenix (now Jack-clone KPKX)
CKLW 800 Windsor/Detroit (now news/talk)
WNBC 660 New York (now sports WFAN)
WABC 770 New York (now news/talk)

News and/or Talk
WMAQ 670 Chicago (now sports WSCR)
WGN 720 Chicago
WBBM 780 Chicago
WBZ 1030 Boston
KFI 640 Los Angeles
KNX 1070 Los Angeles
WCBS 880 New York
KYW 1060 Philadelphia
KCBS 740 San Francisco

Sports
WSCR 820/1160/670 Chicago
WEEI 590/850 Boston
KGME 1360/550/910 Phoenix (better when they were on 1360 in the '90s)
KTAR 620 Phoenix
 
Rock:
KNX-FM (early-mid 70s, original jingles)
KPRI (San Diego, circa late 60s)

Talk Radio:
KLAC (60s, Communicaster era)
KGO (Up to and including the present day)

Country:
KCKC (San Bernardino, mid 60s to early 70s; GREAT jingles, "Country Sunshine")

Top 40:
KFWB (Color Radio, personality plus)
XEAK (the first Mighty 690)
KRLA

Full Service/MOR:
KFI (Earle C. Anthony, Inc.)
KMPC (The Station of the Stars)
KOGO (San Diego)

All News:
KNX (Los Angeles)
KCBS (San Francisco)

Best Jingles:
Both WLS, Chicago and KMEN, San Bernardino had the same jingle package in the early-to-mid 70s, where the sound resembled the band Chicago, and the voice would say "The ROCK of Chicago", or "The ROCK of the Inland Empire".

KNX-FM (Stereo 93, where the music is, KNX-FM)

KCKC (Western Swing flavored; made you feel like you were at a giant barbecue)
 
My AM and FM favorites are:

AM:
1)1370 AM in Chattanooga
2)1100 WTAM in Cleveland,Ohio
3)840 WHAS in Louisville,Kentucky
4)1510 WLAC in Nashville,Tennessee
5)1530 AM in Cincinnati,Ohio

FM:
1)97.3 in Cleveland,Tennessee
2)103.5 in Knoxville,Tennessee
3)107.7 WIVK in Knoxville,Tennessee
4)97.1 The River in Atlanta
5)106.5 in Chattanooga
 
Currently for news/traffic:

KOMO AM 1000 in Seattle, WTOP 103.5 DC, WCBS 880 NY

For any kind of rock, KLOO 106.3 Corvallis, OR for playing deep cuts in its classic rock format
KGSR 107.1 Austin, TX for the interesting triple A format
In the past:

93.7 Norfolk, VA area when it was "The Coast"
94.1 Albuquerque in the early 80s when the call letters was KWXL (now KZRR and still a good sounding rock)
106.5 Richmond, VA back sometime long ago when it was WVGO with the progressive rock format before switching to harder alternative, (now hip hop/R&B)
 
EVER has to be WHCN Hartford CT (105.9) which aired a ton of album oriented rock in the early 1970's. They weren't afraid to play 15 min songs like Innagadavita. But they sold out like many of the artists.
For longevity it has to be 660 in NYC currently WFAN.
 
Top 40/Album Rock:

KRLA/1110 in the "Music Power" period (1969-70). Great variety from Casey Kasem (just pre AT40) to free-form night-time programming with Jimmy Rabbitt and Johnny Hayes. Seriously skewed satirical news from the Credibility Gap (Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, etc.)

KPPC 106.7 FM- During the Les Carter era of 1969-71. A great inventive AOR station - picked up the Credibility Gap when KRLA dumped them. The best free-form jocks of the "hippie" era - better than anything KMET did after that, IMO.

Talk:
KGO 810 - Though the station is now accused by many of skewing too old (old talk hosts, old listener base), it's still the consistently best talk station in the country after 40 years. Almost all live and local.
 
WMCA v. WABC in the Sixties. Both stations had the Noo York sound and feel.

KHJ----More laid back and sounded like Elaay!

WQAM v. WFUN in the Sixties

Great smaller market Top 40's
1) KQV in Pittsburgh
2) WLEE in Richmond
3) WOLF and WNDR in Syracuse NY
4) Big WAYS in Charlotte NC
5) The Mighty 690---:The "Big Ape"-----out of Jacksonville

Great MOR/Top 40 hybrids

1) WBZ
2) WKYC

Great origionals

1) WVOK in Birmingham Ala. with Joe Rumore
2) WLAC in Nashville with John R
 
I'll keep it pretty simple: KHJ Los Angeles and WABC New York from the 60s and early 70s pretty much fight it out in my book. Because of their different styles (both of which I loved), it's like comparing apples and oranges. But each was the best at their respective style of Top 40 back then and each had an unbeatable roster of legendary jocks. Others were certainly great (WLS and WCFL come to mind), but these were the best of the best.

The best latter-day recreation of that Top 40 excitement was probably KOMA during the 90s. The jingles, playlist and excellent local jocks surpassed anything that the big market oldies stations were doing at the time. And that's saying a lot because many such stations were awfully good back 15 or so years ago.

As for the best in other formats, I'll leave that for others to hash out.
 
Musicradio 77 WABC and Cousin Brucie in the 60s/70s. Enough said!!

-crainbebo
 
Tough call!

If we're talking the "golden era" of top 40 AM radio, I could argue for any of the Storz stations....with a slight edge to WTIX (New Orleans). I'd also stack up KPOI (Honolulu) of the Jacobs/Rounds era with any top 40 station anywhere.
 
Rock:
WRCX 103.5 Chicago (1994-98)

Sports:
WSCR 820/1160/670 Chicago (1992-2001 when they railroaded Les Grobstein)

Talk:
WLUP 1000 Chicago (1987-93)
WLS 890 Chicago (1989-96 when Jay Marvin first left)

News:
WMAQ 670 Chicago (1987-2001)

Full Service:
WGN 720 Chicago (always)
 
WNEW AM and KMPC AM . They represented old time show biz along with things like The Sands, The Copa, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Sardi's, The Rat Pack , and so much that is gone for better or worse.
 
KIOA 940 in Des Moines was outstanding, even into their oldies days, until the FM simulcast, when the old jingles they used in the 60's were relegated to only Saturday night.

I really liked KKFX 1250 in Seattle in the mid to late 80's. A Soul station at the time, and a very refreshing change to other stations on the AM or FM dial. KJET 1590 in the mid to Late 80's in Seattle was THE station that I listened to at night, although automated mostly, it was the only commercial Alternative station I knew of.

I grew up in western Canada during the 80's and there were some Fantastic AM top 40's

630 CHED in Edmonton was the best I ever heard

AM 106 in Calgary in 1986/1097 was playing music 6 months ahead of everyone else. Calgarians also had XL radio (CKXL) 1140.

Many Vancouverites liked LG 73, but truthfully they really couldn't hold a candle to the Alberta or Saskatchewan stations. CKDA 1220 (later 1200) was better. AM 1040 came along in 1987 and I never listened to LG 73 again.

CKCK 620, CKOM 1250 (Later 650) CHAB 800 and CJME 1300 in Saskatchewan were great stations, all competing against each other for the same province wide audience.

CKY 580 and CFRW 1290 were great Winnipeg stations.

1050 CHUM was a legend.
 
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