What's the best radio station in town?

Marty Agather · Post by **Marty Agather** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 4:24 pm

So maybe you're hosting a race, and we're driving in. Or maybe we're just visiting the out laws, or heaven forbid, in town working. BUT....

What is the radio station that you think should be the one that this group tunes in to in order to get their musical jones satisfied?

This will be subjective, because obviously if you are like Pops, and want to have Abba's Dancing Queen on your next skater video, you are going to list the local (but produced and hosted 2,000 miles away) lite rock station. So do the bro's a favor, try to provide some context to your pick: "I like WKCR because it plays all country all the time."

As is the drill, I'll start. Some of you know that I spent quite a bit of town in Chicago prior to moving north, so I'll start there. The Chi crew can confirm or berate me as necessary:

Chicago, WXRT 93.1 on your FM dial.
Home of the blues, and one of the best radio stations in the world.

This is the longest running single format FM station in the US. Started in 1974 with album (those big black disks for you young'uns) oriented rock. On any given day you will hear blues, classical, jazz, and every flavor of rock from 60's british invasion to punk to indy to you name it. A station that loves music, and isn't afraid to push the boundaries, and educate their listeners. And hosting two of the best rock critics in the genre: Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot. Find them if you can.

Minneapolis/St. Paul, The Current 89.3
Twin Cities, MN

When I moved here in mid 2001, I thought I'd died and gone to radio hell. What had appeared at occassional listening to be a good XRT surrogate turned out to be formulaic top 50 crap, playing the same song list over and over. It got to the point where there are a number of pretty good songs that I'd rather not ever hear again.

Thankfully, a year and a half ago, the left wing liberals (thrown in for the benefit of WT) have stepped into the breach, and funded a Public Radio Station that doesn't have to kow tow to the almight market demographic. Again, a very eclectic mix of music, heavily influenced by local music, with a dose of Hip Hop thrown in for good measure.

Fire at will,

Francois

RL · Post by RL » Sun Nov 12, 2006 5:54 am

Milwaukee - WMSE 91.7 fm

Milwaukee - WUWM 89.7 NPR/ days and world Cafe at night

Madison - WORT 90.? fm

Chi. -- Yup its XRT

Tom Mangelsdorf · Post by **Tom Mangelsdorf** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 2:47 pm

Madison area:

I used to like WORT - Wisconsin's Dairy Air. But it's run by mostly college kids and they are just a little too political in all their self-agrandizing pontificating between the music for me.

WMMM (105.5FM) in Madison started out like XRT used to be (I grew up in Chicago and was a dedicated XRT listener in the middle to late 70's). Triple-M plays a pretty broad selection of rock, blues, reggae, even some progressive country. They don't play heavy metal or speed rock. If that's your genre you want WJJO (94.1FM).

JJO has a really great morning crew and I listen to them every morning on the way to work. They do a thing every weekday morning around 8:00 called the "Fake at Eight". Women call in and fake an orgasm for concert tickets. The fakes all sound pretty much the same, but the best part is the judging. They open phone lines and guys call in to rate 'em. That commentary can contain some pretty funny stuff.

Wesley Tucker · Post by **Wesley Tucker** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 3:34 pm

So,

How many tickets has CNova won over the years?

Chris Favero · Post by **Chris Favero** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 4:01 am

I gotta go with 97.9-the loop.

Tom Mangelsdorf · Post by **Tom Mangelsdorf** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 9:33 pm

I'm so old I can remember when 97.9 was WSDM - Wisdom! Right in the middle of your radio dial.

Jonathan Harms · Post by **Jonathan Harms** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:19 am

St. Louis - KDHX, FM 88.1 community radio.

Mainly left-leaning (sorry, WT),

but they play a little bit of everything, from Irish folk songs, to gnarly rap, blues, country, bluegrass, garage/punk, Eastern European hill music, poetry readings--you name it, they've likely got a slot for it. And you can listen online 24/7 at www.kdhx.org .

And if you want your dinosaur/classic rock fix, there's always the venerable KSHE-95 (actually 94.7, but who's counting).

RL · Post by RL » Fri Nov 17, 2006 2:01 am

IMO.
everything that goes left is good...

Marty Agather · Post by **Marty Agather** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 10:52 pm

A couple of weeks back, prior to the midwest forum renaissance, I was contemplating throwing either the political or religious rocks into the pond, just to make some waves. Thankfully, the bretheren decided to come to life without me having to descend to those dark depths.

But, should we come to an impasse of quiet, I might just have to reach into the magic bag of tricks and throw a controversial shot across the bow, just to keep things going. I'm always up for a good debate, but usually think that these things are better discussed over a beer than typed up longhand. I'm a verbose son of a gun, (I know you hadn't noticed) and it takes too long to express the complex nature of most of these types of issues.

Of course you can always resort to the Dan Akroyd version of discussion:

"(Insert name of your debate partner here) you ignorant slut...."

And too often that's what these discussions devolve into.

"There's mosquitos on the river. Fish are rising up like birds."

F-

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