KJAC based on playlist review is arguably a purer form of AAA and has more of a coffee house music vibe. If an artist that has crossed over into the mainstream is played, chances are quite good you will hear a deep album track as opposed to a recognizable single.
Indie 102.3 seems to be less mellow and is also more likely to play a recognizable single, especially if the artist in question was a big 90's modern rock artist. That said, 102.3 still plays a plenty of true indie material. For instance, a review of recent hours of music showed "Island in the Sun" by Weezer and "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails, two songs that are well known among longtime alternative rock listeners.
KJAC will go deeper, to be sure, and can be especially fond of music that you might have heard on a college radio station in the 1980s and 1990s. It also programs Americana from time to time, something that's totally absent from Indie. Conversely, Indie will program a bit of hip-hop, which KJAC tends not to do. I think doing either could lead to tune-out. I run the risk of projecting my own tastes here, but I will say that I'm more likely to tune away from hip-hop than I am from Americana. Maybe it plays better in Pueblo.
KJAC also has more speciality programs - "Torch and Twang" (Americana), "Music 101" (thematic retrospectives), "Colorado Playlist" (local artists), compared to Indie.
I went over the coverage situation upthread, but will remind that Indie has a broader network of stations than KJAC...likewise for CPR in general.
In another thread, someone asked why NPR isn't exclusive to one station in a market. The answer is because NPR is a membership organization similar to the Associated Press. Stations pay NPR to air their shows. So in Denver, there are two stations that carry NPR News. There are also two public stations that run the AAA format. What makes KUNC different from KCPR? Their presentation. What makes Indie different from the Sound? Their presentation.
Definitely agree about the presentation. Again, my opinion: KJAC just has better communicators. I haven't been one to put too much emphasis on personalities (hence my frequent jabs at "The Cult of the Deejay"), but, for a AAA format, I think personalities are quite important. They have to be good communicators who sound like they're interested in the music without trying too hard to be so cool and impressing you with their knowledge. That's where Indie often stumbles. To be fair, KJAC has actually been in its present format longer than Indie ... ten years versus about six (before that Indie was "Open Air", a more eclectic format). It feels as though KJAC is a more settled product while Indie is still trying to find its niche.
One shouldn't forget that there's an established commercial AAA station in the market (KBCO). Figuring out how to compete against it can't be easy.
As for KUNC versus CPR News (the calls are actually KCFR, by the way, though that's not how people know it) - the main difference between them is weekdays between 9 am and 3 pm, plus evenings and weekends. Their weekday schedules are identical at other times, including the BBC World Service, Morning Edition (KUNC carries an additional hour of ME 9-10 am that CPR News uses for its own "Colorado Matters"), Marketplace, and All Things Considered. In other words, the "hits" of public news/talk radio are covered equally by both. There is some coverage overlap...I can receive both well, even without relying upon KUNC's Lookout Mountain translator...but they co-exist. I donate to both.
There's also Rocky Mountain PBS's KUVO, a jazz station that carries NPR news on the hour. Obviously, due to its format, it's quite distinct from the other stations.
In comparing KVOQ to KJAC, the measure of success isn't in 6+ Nielsen ratings. What matters is the ability of each station to attract memberships. So it's possible that Indie is getting great ratings, but losing money. Or perhaps isn't capitalizing on those ratings by converting listeners to members.
If I had to guess, I'd pick the latter. It would also be fair to say KUNC/KJAC has less overhead than CPR. It's a smaller organization, its network is smaller, and its news programming is more short-form in nature. CPR may still need to cut costs.
That might be why its PD is leaving the area for new adventures, where perhaps the measure of success is more aligned to what he wants to do.
He really didn't say very much in his departure announcement other than point to what he considered to be his successes at Indie. Which is fine; he launched the current format and it's got something of a foothold. Maybe it was time for someone else to come along and advance the station's objectives further.
