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WHO DOES RADIO BETTER...L.A. OR NEW YORK?

A

airpab

Help me settle a dispute! Got a radio-junkie buddy who's a lifetime New Yorker except for a short 2 year stint in L.A. back in the late 80's...Still goes to L.A. all the time for biz, but insists that for the past 25 years up to now, N.Y.'s radio overall, is way better...and West Coast radio overall, is weak??

I think it's exactly the opposite. I go at him saying, yeah...If you like having 5 retread rock stations that play retread Springsteen cuts as if they were ever any good anyway...and unlistenable Hip-Hop stations along with an unsophisticated, non-innovative, kind of boring radio dial, then you're good. And when loser, bottom-feeding personalities the likes of Don Imus and Howard Stern are 2 of the biggest radio personalities out of the Big Apple, you've got a winner! He gets steamed!
 
I'd tend to agree with you but then I am not a huge fan of most radio genre's, just Oldies, Classic Hits and Classic Rock.

I lived in NYC when Imus was on WNBC(?). He was pretty good being a normal DJ. He is totally boring now. Stern always has been and continues to be pure garbage.
 
As someone who has never lived in either city, my opinion is that historically and today L.A. does radio far better than New York.

You have far more choice on the dial in L.A. than you do in New York.

Back in the day, KHJ was more interesting and better than WABC. KMPC was better than WNEW, KMET better than WNEW-FM, KABC better than WOR and so on. I don't know of any situation where a particular format in the past was done better in New York than Los Angeles.

Today, New York has no country station and there is no New York equal of KROQ or Indie. I do think WHTZ is better than KIIS, but that is just personal music taste.

It could also be argued that Chicago has usually done radio better than either NYC or L.A.
 
I agree living in la la radio is far superior to nyc. But i must agree Z-100 is far superior to kiss 102.7 in los angeles. Kiss 102.7 was great till they went rhythmic leaning several years ago i never listen now. A good balance which Z-100 is.In fact in radio world the only kinda station missing in la is a chr/pop like Z-100. My fave is indie 1031 and kroq and 100.3 the sound. Even the triple a 100.3 the sound is much better then 101.9 which has way to much classic rock(yuk)

But new jersey does have a good commercial alt station by the jersey shore. www.grockradio.com 106.3 and 106.5 to bad nyc does not even have one alternative rock station thats just sad and that sad excuse for a k-rock you guys have is well sad sorry but the truth hurts!!!
 
hotpatrick2004 said:
I agree living in la la radio is far superior to nyc. But i must agree Z-100 is far superior to kiss 102.7 in los angeles. Kiss 102.7 was great till they went rhythmic leaning several years ago i never listen now. A good balance which Z-100 is.In fact in radio world the only kinda station missing in la is a chr/pop like Z-100. My fave is indie 1031 and kroq and 100.3 the sound. Even the triple a 100.3 the sound is much better then 101.9 which has way to much classic rock(yuk)

But new jersey does have a good commercial alt station by the jersey shore. www.grockradio.com 106.3 and 106.5 to bad nyc does not even have one alternative rock station thats just sad and that sad excuse for a k-rock you guys have is well sad sorry but the truth hurts!!!
Click to expand...

My first thought was that NYC vs LA = equally bad or put another way, Democrat or Republican? Take your pick. But on 2nd thought, I have to say LA has more diversity and better stations overall. I doubt any NY talk station can equal KFI and the same goes for the music stations as mentioned above.

I will also agree the Grock radio IS pretty good. Re AAA; well its not a good comparison because 'RXP is not a true AAA station IMO. A fairer comparison would be WXPK (107.1 The Peak) in "New York's BackYard". Ironically, I only discovered this station because of the news when WRXP went on the air. At the NYC board they were also talking about The Peak. Years ago I first checked them out when they first went on the air and at that time I wasn't impressed. My second take on them is that they have vastly improved. I got my AAA fix for a few months until The Sound 100.3 came on. While The Sound is just finding themselves, I think in time they will be better than The Paek.
 
I've lived in both places and while I haven't worked in radio for quite some time (gave it up when all, the consolidation happened) I can honestly say radio in NYC is way better. Hell it's better in SF than it is in LA. Radio here is boring. It's nothing but shout-outs!!!! If Seacrest is the benchmark, then we're screwed!

LA radio back in the 80's was great! Having programmed for 10+ years, I can honestly say...thank God for my IPOD.
 
Having spent plenty of time in both places, I'd have to opine that - 30 or 40 years ago - NY radio was probably a bit better than LA. However, those days ended by 1980 (IMO) and LA radio has been better ever since. In fact, today, LA is a MUCH better radio market than NY. More variety, more interesting stations, even better local personalities (because too many in NY end up nationally syndicated and are no longer local).

To pile on a bit, I must add that Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco and Philly are also better radio markets than New York. For the same reasons as cited above. Again, this wasn't true years ago - but New York radio is too constrained by corporate edicts and too 'conservative' when it comes to programming. Being the flagship for everything is no longer a good thing.

If you don't agree with my opinion (and it's just an opinion), check out this survey that was done by Edison Research: http://www.infinitedial.com/2007/11/the_ten_best_markets_for_radio_11.php

New York wasn't even in their top 10.
 
New York Urban Stations are alot better than LA. WBLS and 98.7 Kiss FM, are Better than KJLH and 92.3 in LA. Hot 97 and Power 105 New York, is Better than Power 106 and Kday in LA . But all these Urban/Rhythmic stations are better than Jamn 94.5 Boston ( My Crappy Hometown Radio Market ).
 
This thread is a matter of opinion...happy to add mine...I grew up in the late 60's and 70's just outside NYC in Connecticut, and began visiting the Los Angeles area in the 70's, moving there in the 80's..I had a lot of exposure to both markets..WABC was better than KHJ, 99X was a great top 40 FM but I loved K100 (KIQQ)...KLOS was better than WPLJ, KMET better than WNEW-FM, WNBC better than KFI..however 10Q and the mighty 690 were great sounding top 40 AM's. WCBS a much better all news than KNX, KFWB better than WINS...

In the 80's Z-100 was better than KIIS-FM, KROQ better than WLIR and K-Earth 101 a much better station than CBS-FM which was boring and kind of an "old fart" station that I have NEVER liked. Of course NY was the original home to the greatest talk radio personality ever...Howard Stern.

Today Indie is the best station anywhere ever, 100.3 the Sound is a great sounding AAA...RXP is the only thing NY has to offer for music.. WFAN is the best and original all sports station and WCBS still the best all news station...all the rest in either market are cookie cutter crap.
 
Saying RXP is the best thing new york radio has to offer ain't sayin much from the way people diss rxp. why don't rxp become a real triple a station and not so much classic rock
 
Indielover wrote: "WABC was better than KHJ"

I assume you must be talking about the period after 1977 when KHJ quickly went downhill.

But between 1965 and 1977, KHJ was a far better sounding radio station than WABC. KHJ's music was more interesting compared to the same top 10 on WABC.

You don't get any better than The Real Don Steele, Robert W. Morgan, Charlie Tuna, Mark Elliott, Machine Gun Kelley, Charlie Van Dyke, Johnny Mitchell, Humble Harv etc.

With the exception of Dan Ingram, WABC's djs aren't in the same league as the above list.
 
Having lived both places, I have to agree that overall LA is a better market than NY. However, Z100 is amazingly better than KIIS. The KIIS of today, while undoubtedly a ratings success, leaves much to be desired as, and in fact is not, a mainstream pop station. Z100 is.
 
I disagree...but as I said this is all a matter of opinion...
 
WCBS 101.1 is supreme over L.A. oldies radio. KRTH was great in the mid 80's.

CBS does now, what KRTH did in the 80's by far!!
 
They both do an equally good job of playing to the nuances and idiosyncracies of their respective markets, in my opinion. There are lifestyle differences between the two cities, and that's just the beginning.
 
LA radio is historically more generic and BORING than NYC radio.

Radio in New York has had the most cutting edge personalities to ever grace the dial.

Can LA really make that claim? LA radio has often been a mix of tired game show hosts and Rick Dees types. Yeah, great radio.
 
But cm454 los angeles radio offers far better formats today then nyc. Aside from Z-100 and pulse it is cookie cutter all the way in the apple.

NYC K-rock has got to be on of the worst stations in the country right now. That doesn't speak well for the big apple.
 
cm454 said:
Radio in New York has had the most cutting edge personalities to ever grace the dial.
Can LA really make that claim?
Click to expand...

Gee... LA radio only had Robert W Morgan, The Real Don Steele, Casey Kasem, Gary Owens ...all nobodies apparently.
 
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