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What is the best radio station you've ever heard?

F

fordranger797

While this question may only be indirectly related to programming, good radio is the result of programming, and for this reason I think the programming forum makes sense!

For me, the best radio station that I've heard is CHBM 97.3 ("Boom 97-3") in Toronto. It's a classic hits station that does classic hits better than most stations I've come across. They've got live and personalities in the morning, midday, afternoon, and evening. They've got an excellent solo morning show hosted by Stu Jeffries (I did not even know it was possible for a morning show to be music and personality driven at the same time, and yet he makes it look easy). The other personalities on the station are also clearly passionate about the format, and appear to have quite a bit of leeway with what they are allowed to do. Listeners are encouraged to interact with the hosts, as listener phone calls are a major part of the station programming. There is an all request lunch. On Tuesdays, they air "Turntable Tuesday" where some of the songs from their library are played on vinyl (I guess just because they can). To top it off, the music library is fantastic. Obviously, they play songs you would expect to hear on a classic hits radio station, but they don't shy away from playing other songs too. At 7pm they run "70's at 7" where I've heard songs that you NEVER hear on the radio anymore (like "Watching the Detectives" by Elvis Costello or "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon). During their regular programming, they also will throw in some (well selected) tracks from the 90's too.

All in all, I have been extremely impressed with this radio station. I think listeners are too, because they seem to perform extremely well in the Toronto ratings. I think that iheart does a very good job with many of their classic hits stations, but they definitely do not have the "personalized touch" that Boom has.
 
Soooo many choices.

KMPC, Los Angeles from about 1963-1972.

KHJ, Los Angeles from 1965-70.

KNX-FM, Los Angeles from 1973-79.

KFRC, San Francisco from 1966 to 1984, but especially 1973 to 1977.

...and I'm probably forgetting several.
 
I wasn’t around in the golden age of radio, but my father still raves about how great KFRC used to be when he was in San Francisco back in the late 70’s!

Another station worth me thinking is KZOK 102.5 Seattle (before they merged with iheart and things started to take a negative turn). They had great personalities and an excellent mix of classic rock. While they are still around today (and doing well in the ratings), it’s not like it used to be.
 
WQAM Miami (and the other Storz stations too) in the 50's and early 60's
WFUN Miami under Dick Starr
And the best: Tanner's Y-100 in Miami in the mid-70's to early 80's.

Also: KHJ and KFRC under Jacobs and Rounds. WLS in the early and mid-60's. WOWO in the 60's and 70's. WOR in its talk era of the later 60's and 70's, equaled by KMPC on the Left Coast. KCBQ during various administrations, mostly in the 70's. KIMN in Denver when Cecil owned it. WDIA and WENN in the earlier years of Black programming with honorable mention to Black Owned WEUP in Huntsville.

As groups: McLendon, Storz, Plough, Mooney, Crowell-Collier, Swanson, Westinghouse.
 
I am glad Dave mentioned the top 40 WOWO "with it's world famous fire escape".
TOP 40:
WCFL mid to late1960's
WMAK It is scary that a 5 KW station had that much on air talent
WKGN Knoxville Same as WMAK only with I KW
WDXB top 40 days Chattanooga (signal challenged @1KW but IMHO as good as 50 KW WFLI)
WQXI top 40 days
"The Rock of Dallas" KLIF on 1190 early 1970's
WNOE 1060 in the mid 1970's

honorable mention: WLAC (John R at night)
WVOL
and WWVA (pre talk) for spreading country to parts of Canada at night.
 
WOWO, WHAS, WBEN-AM, WGR-AM all in their waning full service days (1989-1995ish and for WHAS up until Joe Donovan's overnight show was canceled about mid 1997).

In the 1980's as a teen WBEN-FM Rock 102.

Talk on the radio in the 1980's and 1990's that had wider focus and was less political (John Otto in Buffalo, Milton Metz on WHAS, various hosts on WBZ culminating with the late David Brudnoy and now retired Steve Leveille on WBZ in the 2000's. Used to listen to Larry King overnights on WBEN-AM and the Talknet shows on WWKB-AM a lot as well but preferred the local show hosts.
 
Mrtejano said:
104 KRBE,

They won the 2020 Station of the year in the 2020 Worldwide radio summit .
Click to expand...
Hardly. That station won because KIIS and Z.100 had won too many times. KRBE is a genuinely mediocre CHR station.
 
WLS Chicago by far in the 70’s. Big time jocks who listening in my teens were entertaining and with great voices. They also had fantastic jingles, and were so proud of them they actually ran them between commercials. Yes, they used reverb but it wasn’t ever overwhelming. Of course their giant signal could heard all across the Midwest and even parts of the east coast. Listening in my teens convinced me this was the best top40 station in the country. That said, In that era KFRC San Francisco was definitely my 2nd favorite.
 
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