San Antonio, The 7th largest city in the country has the absolute worst radio stations ever! (Dallas: buy, farmers)

[hillcountrywinefan]

I totally agree with the assessments of Bowie & manthechange on the state of San Antonio's airwaves. When I do listen to the airwaves I'll tune into KPAC and KNBT. However 98% of the time my solution is to listen to MP3s on my USB Flash Drive via the port on my car's radio. The drive fits in my pocket and is really portable; holds several thousand songs and is smaller than a pack of gum. Another benefit is no iPod to haul around exposed to potential theft.

I have a program on my computer that records to MP3 streaming audio from online radio all over the globe. I call it the frugal man's satellite radio. Some of the European stations have really good music such as Classic FM out of London, England.

Online you can find some music formats that are obscure and almost extinct on the US airwaves including Beautiful Music, Smooth Jazz, Baroque Classical, etc. So I record them and play them on my commute.

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by manthechange

As someone who has made a 14-year career out of radio...I can tell you that radio not only sucks in San Antonio, but around the country and world in general. Bowie was right when he said deregulation (in America and Canada!) was the culprit. The other culprit is faulty audience research which causes stations to be afraid of original programs and play music with the "lowest common denominator" in mind. Fortunately, Arbitron has developed PPM's or "portable people meters" that should give the industry a less generalized idea of what people like to hear.

That's why I work in public radio. krtu 91.7 fm | jazz for san antonio we don't put much faith in arbitron statistics.


PS...San Antonio is one of the few cities in the country to have a Jazz Station...and we've had to fight hard for it!

Recently, i spent a week in Los Angeles listening to a variety of stations. I noticed that the oldies songs played on K-Earth 101 were eerily similar to the ones that I hear on the local KONO. They really have made the stations in a cookie cutter way.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by hillcountrywinefan

Online you can find some music formats that are obscure and almost extinct on the US airwaves including Beautiful Music, Smooth Jazz, Baroque Classical, etc. So I record them and play them on my commute.

I wonder where the h.... "Adult contemporary" that was so popular in the 90s went to.
Now, 95% of the music on radio is pop, rap or country.

[Bo]

Originally Posted by Dopo

I wonder where the h.... "Adult contemporary" that was so popular in the 90s went to.
Now, 95% of the music on radio is pop, rap or country.

The listeners to that format got older and less appealing to advertisers. As people get older, they get less responsive to advertising. 40-somethings and 50-somethings mostly know where to find the things they want to buy and the brands they'll buy when they get there.

I was surprised to realize how much less I am listening to music radio these days, compared to when I posted in this thread earlier. I no longer have satellite radio and I rarely listen to music on FM now.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by Bowie

The listeners to that format got older and less appealing to advertisers. As people get older, they get less responsive to advertising. 40-somethings and 50-somethings mostly know where to find the things they want to buy and the brands they'll buy when they get there.

I disagree with that,
because it seemed to me like everybody except people that listened to rap and hard rock used to listen to "adult contemporary"
It was music that the whole family could enjoy listening to.

Here goes my conspiracy theory...
Seems to me like adult contemporary was faded out at exactly the same time that political talk radio was increasing. (late 90s, early 2000s)
And now there's almost no radio stations that the whole family can enjoy together.

[shoe01]

San Antonio radio was awful before deregulation. The upheavals 10-15 years ago just spread the misery nationwide.

[scuba steve]

FM radio is one of those things that I just can't understand why it still exists. Are people really that slow to get an iPod and a head unit with either an AUX or iPod line in?

[Bo]

Originally Posted by Dopo

I disagree with that,
because it seemed to me like everybody except people that listened to rap and hard rock used to listen to "adult contemporary"
It was music that the whole family could enjoy listening to.

Here goes my conspiracy theory...
Seems to me like adult contemporary was faded out at exactly the same time that political talk radio was increasing. (late 90s, early 2000s)
And now there's almost no radio stations that the whole family can enjoy together.

Doesn't matter if we still like those music formats. The point is that advertisers on them are no longer are as interested in buying ads to seek our business. Not being able to find advertisers is a bigger problem for a station than not being able to find listeners.

Sports Talk radio increased nationally at the same time as political talk, maybe even more so. The rise of syndicated talk radio has more to do with stations needing something cheap to program on AM than anything else. AM stereo was a dismal failure and with the advent of CDs, there was no way listeners would be satisfied with listening to music on AM.

[Mom2Feebs]

Wow, all I can say to the OP is this: I'm pretty sure you are wrong, and it is actually Houston that has the worst radio stations "ever". Let's see if I can get the Clear Channel Monopoly lineup right: Hip-Hop, Tejano, Tejano, Hip-Hop, Hip-Hop, Top 40, Tejano, Country.

Yep. Worst ever.

[Mom2Feebs]

Originally Posted by hillcountrywinefan

I totally agree with the assessments of Bowie & manthechange on the state of San Antonio's airwaves. When I do listen to the airwaves I'll tune into KPAC and KNBT. However 98% of the time my solution is to listen to MP3s on my USB Flash Drive via the port on my car's radio. The drive fits in my pocket and is really portable; holds several thousand songs and is smaller than a pack of gum. Another benefit is no iPod to haul around exposed to potential theft.

I have a program on my computer that records to MP3 streaming audio from online radio all over the globe. I call it the frugal man's satellite radio. Some of the European stations have really good music such as Classic FM out of London, England.

Online you can find some music formats that are obscure and almost extinct on the US airwaves including Beautiful Music, Smooth Jazz, Baroque Classical, etc. So I record them and play them on my commute.

Sunday mornings on 88.3 they do a really neat Baroque Classical program, and I love 91.7 for their jazz, but especially their Latin Jazz on Sunday afternoons. It's wonderful.

I get my big band fix from 103.7...and sometimes I can get Texas Rebel Radio in my car on 107.9. LOVE THAT!

I think San Antonio has great stations...but that's just me, I guess it all depends on what kind of music you like.