Fushigi said:
Mostly I wind up listening to WBBM for news & traffic during my commute. It lets me somewhat stay informed without having to take time away from anything else. For music radio, I float between about 10 presets (including 97.9) .. but mostly I only find commercials so I listen to CDs more than music radio. When they aren't playing commercials, I prefer classic rock from the 70s & early 80s. Eagles, Styx, that sort of thing. Mostly I listen to "The River" 95.9 but I doubt Merc could get it as they're predominantly in the western 'burbs. Mancow can be interesting sometimes but again there's just too much non-content to keep me interested.
I never was a Kev-head but did find his shows to be entertaining when I would listen in. Gotta love Jim Shorts...
- Fushigi
I have a radio everywhere I spend significant time, and if it's on, it's tuned to WBEZ (91.5), the National Public Radio station. I'm enough of an addict that I've volunteered for their pledge drives, gone in at 3:30 to work through "Morning Edition".
Chicago is unique in public radio. More nationally syndicated shows come from Navy Pier than NPR's headquarters in Washington, or from New York, Boston or LA.
The amazing thing is, the good stuff isn't dry, vaguely left-of-center news, it's
entertainment programming. I have a favorite radio prgram -
This American Life which alternates between laugh-out-loud funny and utterly profound, and everywhere in between.
Examples (streaming realaudio links):
A David Sedaris Xmas
Trail of Tears
When You Talk About Music
Fiasco!
Letters
Please, if my opinions matter about anything, listen to a couple of those programs. It's like nothing else on American radio.
WBEZ is also one of a VERY few stations in the US that gives "real" jazz - not Kenny G but Miles Davis - airplay.
Chicago was also unique until very recently for supporting TWO classical stations. The late, lamented WNIB that was recent sold to those mormon Bonneville International asstards that turned a unique station (not generic at all - WNIB's owners believed they had a niche as "the educational station" and purposefully programmed for neophyte listeners. Even better was te character of the broadcast. The station had pets, and every once in awhile you could hear a dog or cat in the booth with the DJ. That's called character) into a cookie-cutter middle-of-the-road 80s/90s rock station.
Chicago is also the only city in the US with a newspaper column about the business of radio. It's a neglected medium at this point, especially given the almost neglegible differences between our Clear Channel/Infinity/Bonneville/ABC oppressors. I might not listen to the music everyone does, but if Chicago has 15 stations that ALL play 70s/80s/90s rock, and no full-time jazz, that's a problem. I can only imagine how hard it must be for niche-popular-music listeners to swallow the radio market as it exists now. No one caters to them.
I kind of got off track, didn't I?
