Radio Stations

[glorplaxy]

Houston's radio stations are, for the most part, the same bland, boring, mass-produced type garbage that fills the airways over the majority of the country. 104.1, 99.1, 94.5, 97.9, 96.5, 104.9 are just a few examples.

I like 91.7 KTRU because it has such a wide array of different types of music...not just the same 10 songs that corporations are only allowed to play (Clear Channel). There is just such a great variety. I have heard many great things on KTRU. Unfortuantely, it might get sold and be turned into 24 hour classical station...which is really, really bad.

90.1 is good occasionally because they are also quite eclectic, but they have a lot of talk and I hate talk radio.

88.7 is good on occasion, also, but for the most part it's just generic classical (yawn) or talk (yawwwn). At nights they sometimes have cool shows, though.

[MrSykes]

Originally Posted by glorplaxy

I like 91.7 KTRU because it has such a wide array of different types of music...not just the same 10 songs that corporations are only allowed to play (Clear Channel). There is just such a great variety. I have heard many great things on KTRU. Unfortuantely, it might get sold and be turned into 24 hour classical station...which is really, really bad.

Not for this classical music lover! People like me comprise perhaps the most underserved radio demographic in the entire market. I welcome the change, although admittedly I will miss the dual classical/news format presently offered by KUHF. Fortunately both stations (88.7 for news, 91.7 for music) will still be NPR affiliates. It will certainly take some getting used to.

[nbour]

Originally Posted by MrSykes

Not for this classical music lover! People like me comprise perhaps the most underserved radio demographic in the entire market. I welcome the change, although admittedly I will miss the dual classical/news format presently offered by KUHF. Fortunately both stations (88.7 for news, 91.7 for music) will still be NPR affiliates. It will certainly take some getting used to.

Given that 88.7 plays quite a bit of classical music, I'd hesitate before calling classical music fans the most underserved radio demographic in Houston.

For example, fans of old time country and bluegrass and extreme metal have no radio stations to listen to whatsoever, though I guess that KTRU will play those genres once in a blue moon.

The upshot of the change is that fans of freeform radio will get shafted and fans of classical music will get a little more. I happen to like classical music too (though mostly early music and 20th century music), and it seems like a pretty lousy trade.

[glorplaxy]

Originally Posted by nbour

Given that 88.7 plays quite a bit of classical music, I'd hesitate before calling classical music fans the most underserved radio demographic in Houston.

For example, fans of old time country and bluegrass and extreme metal have no radio stations to listen to whatsoever, though I guess that KTRU will play those genres once in a blue moon.

The upshot of the change is that fans of freeform radio will get shafted and fans of classical music will get a little more. I happen to like classical music too (though mostly early music and 20th century music), and it seems like a pretty lousy trade.

KTRU has shows that play old country and bluegrass and extreme metal. These types of music definitely don't show up only "once in a blue moon".

The thing about classical music is that no new classical music is coming out! Remember, "symphonic" does not mean "classical." For instance, Bach and Vivaldi aren't going to be releasing any new CDs anytime soon. But with KTRU, you get everything....new, old, popular, obscure, etc etc etc. It's really horrible that they're trying to take that away.

[glorplaxy]

Originally Posted by MrSykes

Not for this classical music lover! People like me comprise perhaps the most underserved radio demographic in the entire market. I welcome the change, although admittedly I will miss the dual classical/news format presently offered by KUHF. Fortunately both stations (88.7 for news, 91.7 for music) will still be NPR affiliates. It will certainly take some getting used to.

Classical music fans are definitely not underserved. KUHF already plays classical music for a vast majority of its schedule. And as I said in my previous post, it's not like there is any new classical music coming out (even if some classical stations play modern symphonic pieces occasionally). With KTRU you have so much more diversity than what you could ever possibly get on a classical-focused station like KUHF.

On KTRU I have heard so many different types of music...bluegrass, all types of rap/hip-hop, all types of rock and metal, arabic music, kurdish music, latin music, indian music (Navarang show), Asian music (China, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, etc), music from all across the globe (world music show), ambient, noise, trance and all other flavors of electronic music, African music (Africana show), spoken word, old country (Americana show), etc etc etc. There is even an entire show dedicated to local artists.

Turning KTRU into a classical station is a horrible idea and simply destroys the biggest piece of diversity on our Houston radio dials and replaces it with the same, generic stuff that is available EVERYWHERE! I have heard classical music my entire life but I can turn on KTRU any time of day and always find something new and exciting.

[crone]

You will get the same if you change your dial to 90.1 They have several Cajun, Bluegrass and local Texas music plus blues all weekend. The mornings have music from all over the world.

[glorplaxy]

Originally Posted by crone

You will get the same if you change your dial to 90.1 They have several Cajun, Bluegrass and local Texas music plus blues all weekend. The mornings have music from all over the world.

90.1 is nice but it is not the same as 91.7. 90.1 has much, much more talk than 91.7 and their music, while well varied, is not as varied as 91.7. Who knows, though? Maybe if 91.7 goes under they can join forces with 90.1

It's sad that the cool radio stations all rely on listener support while the crappiest, mass produced crap gets billions of dollars.

[Metro Matt]

Satellite & Internet radio are the ways to go. Forget a bunch of FM. The majority of it is recycled garbage.