This is the last weekend for WNKU weekend programming.  Apparently the weekday stuff will continue for another month or so...not sure if it's going to be dead air on the weekends or what. 

 

Last night was the last Mr. Rhythm Man show, after 21 years.  This was really the only great regular radio show left in Cincinnati and the host almost cracked up more than once last night.  He does a usual clever spoken send-off in which takes 45 seconds to basically say "see you next week", and he couldn't pull it off.  It was really, really sad.  I know that there had to have been a few hundred or maybe a few thousand regular listeners around the city who all kind of hung their heads in unison. 

 

So WNKU is being replaced by a station featuring...the Creation Museum/Arc guy, who probably donated to Matt Bevin's campaign.  I think the horror of what is replacing WNKU is part of why it's such an upsetting event.  Bevin is like the kid whose dad owns the swim club who comes over and kicks a little kid's sand castle. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't understand how traditional radio stations that have been around forever, even survive anymore. Yeah, some people listen to it in their car but it's nothing like it used to be. Even with Sirius/XM and iTunes/mp3 playlists and CDs aside, people are listening to podcasts and so many alternative forms of streaming content specifically catered to their own personality and beliefs, that it just doesn't seem like any of these stations could obtain enough loyal listeners to make enough from advertising to pay a salary or for equipment and other operation costs. I suppose that's why guys like Alex Jones have to resort to peddling T-Shirts and worthless supplements that are unregulated by the FDA for purity and claims of health benefits - sometimes spending a quarter of the duration of the show just talking about the products they're selling.

While a lot of radio stations are complete garbage any more, I've found that I get more enjoyment out of finding new music from places like WNKU over streaming services like Spotify. I'd rather not have my music selection hyper-tailored to me based on an algorithm guessing what I like to listen to. Same goes with Youtube suggestions - at some point you completely miss out on whole genres or opinions because these formulas try to rope you in with the stuff they know you like so that they can try to... sell you more crap.

While a lot of radio stations are complete garbage any more, I've found that I get more enjoyment out of finding new music from places like WNKU over streaming services like Spotify. I'd rather not have my music selection hyper-tailored to me based on an algorithm guessing what I like to listen to. Same goes with Youtube suggestions - at some point you completely miss out on whole genres or opinions because these formulas try to rope you in with the stuff they know you like so that they can try to... sell you more crap.

 

Some of those algorithms are a lot more accurate than others. Youtube is a lot more dynamic (interactive.) I think YouTube's suggestions are much more helpful; those suggestions are based on the various types of videos you've watched as a result of many keywords you've entered, decisions you've made and matching it with a wide variety of keywords and decisions of others. They can also sort your suggestions by popularity or ratio of thumbs up to thumbs down or however else they want, based on user input. Most of those music streaming services don't receive as much input from the user. Songs are very different, anyway. It's far less accurate suggesting a song simply because it's in the same genre or uses similar instraments or vocal range or tempo or whatever else. It's interesting how music is so hit or miss with all of us, even if we prefer a certain genre. A random related video, I think is much more entertaining and worthwhile than a random, related song.

 

I'm the same way, dude. My musical taste is all over the place. There's no way an algorithm that could determine what I'd like. I just hear a song and like it or don't like it. There's days I'll literally listen to Rap, Classic Rock, Metal, Country, R&B, etc. all in the same day. The only thing that an algorithm from a music streaming service could determine for me is that the new music artists are putting out is absolute garbage and probably not worth the time listening to.

While a lot of radio stations are complete garbage any more, I've found that I get more enjoyment out of finding new music from places like WNKU over streaming services like Spotify. I'd rather not have my music selection hyper-tailored to me based on an algorithm guessing what I like to listen to. Same goes with Youtube suggestions - at some point you completely miss out on whole genres or opinions because these formulas try to rope you in with the stuff they know you like so that they can try to... sell you more crap.

 

Yeah I prefer listening to a music show that mostly but not precisely covers what I'm already interested in.  I also have listened to the Grateful Dead Hour on WNKU almost every Saturday night for the last 8 years (it's a nationally syndicated show hosted continuously by the same guy since about 1988) and grew to really like the show despite having been in high school when Jerry Garcia died and never liking the scene that surrounds the band.  It was just a really great unpretentious 1-hour show where they played 2-3 15-minute live songs, mixed in interviews, and gave updates on related events around the country.  Last night they had a really great interview with a guy who played with Jerry Garcia before the Grateful Dead was formed.  Talked about how he heard the following song while traveling around the South in the early 1960s from a variety of old musicians, how he taught it to Jerry Garcia in passing, and how he was amazed when it showed up on the first Dead album.  The band ended up playing it live thousands of times.

 

WOBO has hibilly music, jazz and whatever the DJ decides to play.  My car radio can pick it up on the east side of Cincinnati.

 

http://www.wobofm.com/

 

WOBO is probably one of the most entertaining radio stations just by virtue of the fact that you never knowing what you're gonna get. I was listening at 3:00 on a Thursday one time and got an hour of German music immediately followed by a bluegrass set, and then a few minutes of silence that the DJ later explained was because he couldn't remember how to work the new computer.

Don't forget WMKV 89.3. It is a station run by a retirement community so it is a little like a radio museum but I enjoy what they are doing. I use to listen to WOBO when I lived in Amelia but now I have a hard time getting the signal in Deer Park.

I forgot about WOBO. I used to listen to the Sunday Night Jazz/Monday Morning Blues shows years ago.

 

This is the last weekend for WNKU weekend programming.  Apparently the weekday stuff will continue for another month or so...not sure if it's going to be dead air on the weekends or what. 

 

They are laying off most of the staff at the end of this month but I'm sure preprogrammed playlists will continue until the new owners take over.

hmm...i'm usually not able to get radio reception except online.

 

wmfu is a staple at home -- when doing weekend house stuff like the dishes and cleaning or cooking. i go to their great annual record fairs too.

 

i stream wqxr classical or wbgo jazz at work when i am writing.

 

otherwise, as far as radio its all about online versions of hot97, various public radio, various japanese radio (yeah their jpop is crap, but i have a sweet tooth for it), sports talk when i can listen at work in the morning like that blowhard francesca, espn, mike&mike (mike&trey?) and anything stephen a because he is always top shelf entertainment, and then a mix of other stations, including ohio stations like wbgu, wcsb, wzak...and others, yadda yadda.

It's almost August and WNKU is still on the air with live DJ's.  All of the local weekend shows are gone, but the syndicated Grateful Dead Hour is still being broadcast at midnight.  The playlist has even gotten a little adventurous at times because they don't think anyone is listening.  I have heard them randomly play stuff like Public Enemy and The Circle Jerks.  Unfortunately, the general playlist still centers around boring indie rock and all the dumb neo-synth pop. 

 

Meanwhile, Urban Artifact just announced that they're starting a low-wattage AM station dedicated to local music:

http://www.wcpo.com/news/insider/northside-brewery-urban-artifact-to-launch-local-music-radio-station

WNKU is dead as of two weeks ago. Has been replaced by full-time religious programming.  Total crap!  For the creation museum crowd.  Typical of the sort of religious crap you hear in-between cities on a cross-country trip. 

 

My dial has shifted leftward to WAIF.  Today it's just like how it was back in 1993 or so when I started listening to it, except it's on full-time.  Back then there were two different radio stations at 88.3FM.  It switched to WAIF community radio around 6pm each night and got really weird, but awesome.  It was the one place where you could hear Frank Zappa-type stuff on the regular. 

 

I'll never forget my first listen to WAIF.  It changed my life.  That was my introduction to 80s punk and hardcore, which I had previously heard only the thinnest slices of.  WAIF laid it on thick.  I remember having a blank tape in my home radio and recording pieces of three songs from that first listen and then taking the tape to school where I asked an older kid who the bands were.  It was the Dead Kennedys and Black Flag.  The songs were "Riot", "Six Pack", and "TV Party".  I still consider those three songs to be three of the greatest of the genre.  Considering that The Misfits are now bigger than ever and are cashing in on huge shows with their original lineups, it's not hard to imagine that DK and Black Flag reunions with Henry Rollins would set those guys up forever. 

 

 

 

oWownow.com.  Internet, but since it's run by John Gorman it's definitely a Clevelandcentric station.

WNKU is dead as of two weeks ago. Has been replaced by full-time religious programming.  Total crap!  For the creation museum crowd.  Typical of the sort of religious crap you hear in-between cities on a cross-country trip. 

 

You can still get WNKU on 105.9, at least for a few more weeks.

 

I had completely forgotten about WAIF, mostly because I listen to the radio in the morning and they're always gospel then.

WNKU is dead as of two weeks ago. Has been replaced by full-time religious programming.  Total crap!  For the creation museum crowd.  Typical of the sort of religious crap you hear in-between cities on a cross-country trip. 

 

You can still get WNKU on 105.9, at least for a few more weeks.

 

I had completely forgotten about WAIF, mostly because I listen to the radio in the morning and they're always gospel then.

 

WAIF is nuts.  On Friday nights they play 3 hours (not 3 songs) of "novelty records".  So it's Weird Al, Fish Heads, that sort of thing for...3 hours.  It's intense.  This after 2 hours of 1980s/90s R&B (Keith Sweat, Bel Biv Devoe, etc.). 

 

Sunday nights they have back-to-back Afro/Caribbean hosts.  They're always hyping up some bar in Fairfield called "Lug Nuts", where "all of the Africans in the Cincinnati" come together and dance on Tuesday nights.  It reminds me of listening to local radio stations on the east coast in the 90s and 2000s, before the internet, when each immigrant group had their own radio shows. 

 

So apparently they have a regular Afro-Caribbean night at this unassuming sports bar:

https://www.yelp.com/biz/lugnutz-bar-and-grill-fairfield

 

 

On Sunday I listened to the WEBN fireworks soundtrack in the car...it was okay compared to how bad so many have been recently.  I am in the habit of recording the road whenever a song I like is on in the offhand hope that something weird happens (auto collision, deer crossing, etc.) so that I can get rich on youtube. 

 

Anyway, this was pretty hilarious:

Radio died after Bill Clinton signed a bill to allow corporations to monopolize the media.

I definitely was able to listen to WNKU on 105.9 this morning. It was not Jesus.

Radio died after Bill Clinton signed a bill to allow corporations to monopolize the media.

 

That was in exchange for ignoring his scandals, until Drudge got ahold of one they couldn't without looking clueless.

Well, WNKU officially gone. Kinda sucked flipping through my presets this evening and just having a wall of static come out of my car's radio when I got to 105.9

Sad day yesterday for me as well, as I had really grown to like WNKU over the past couple years.

 

I too switched over to 105.9 several times on the way into work this morning.  I knew I'd only hear static, but I think I still did it out of habit.

WCPN 90.3 FM.

There is a new community radio station called "Inhailer" but their website does not really provide any information about who's running it, how they're funded, etc.

 

https://www.inhailer.com/

I have been listening to WAIF a lot more along with 99.5 WDJO, which is an oldies station that isn't infested with The Beatles.  Lots of Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Elvis, James Brown, etc.  103.5 is typical of the Beatles-obsessed oldies channels around the country that can't go an hour without playing them.  When you load up an oldies channel's playlist with 300 songs in semi-regular rotation and simply delete The Beatles it's a breath of fresh air. 

 

 

I have been listening to WAIF a lot more along with 99.5 WDJO, which is an oldies station that isn't infested with The Beatles.  Lots of Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Elvis, James Brown, etc.  103.5 is typical of the Beatles-obsessed oldies channels around the country that can't go an hour without playing them.  When you load up an oldies channel's playlist with 300 songs in semi-regular rotation and simply delete The Beatles it's a breath of fresh air. 

 

 

 

Insanely talented from Beatlemania! up to Let it Be. There's a reason why they are on heavy rotation. When the Beatles broke up George Harrison immediately released a three-album set. Lennon-McCartney-Harrison wrote so many great songs in such a short period that technology of the time couldn't keep up and Harrison was the "screwed" Beatle.

 

Speaking of Chuck Berry...one of the best YouTube videos is a rehashing of a TV program where Lennon and Berry played together in '72. Yoko Ono is playing the bongo and then begins visceral screaming and Chuck Berry's eyes open like two giant saucers. Best moment is when the sound guy shuts her mike off.

 

Sorry, carry on......

^^ I don't even consider WGRR to be a real "oldies" station any more, since its rotation is way too heavy on 70s classic rock. If 50's rock and roll and doo-wop and early 60s rock and pop aren't making up most of your setlist, you're just a more boring version of a "purely classic rock" format station, which aren't that exciting to begin with anyway. If I hear the Eagles or Chicago I have to change the station, I'm so sick of them at this point.

Yeah, I don't know who these people are who really want to hear goddamn Hotel California 5 times per week.  It's not a good song.  I just blank out whenever that song comes on. 

 

Classic Rock stations are aimed at males in their teens and 20s who haven't yet gotten burned out on the songs.

Yeah, I don't know who these people are who really want to hear goddamn Hotel California 5 times per week.  It's not a good song.  I just blank out whenever that song comes on. 

 

I have never understood how it became popular.  I got sick of hearing it about the 4th time I did, which considering the album rock playlists of the era was probably the same day.

Yeah, I don't know who these people are who really want to hear goddamn Hotel California 5 times per week.  It's not a good song.  I just blank out whenever that song comes on. 

 

I have never understood how it became popular.  I got sick of hearing it about the 4th time I did, which considering the album rock playlists of the era was probably the same day.

.

My "favorite" Hotel California story is how Don Henley once went off on a Plain Dealer reporter after said reporter pointed out that wine is not a spirit. Don went on claiming that the "we haven't had that spirit here since 1969" was some grand sociopolitical metaphor that the poor reporter was just too stupid to pick up on.

1. Glenn Frey was the mastermind behind the song's lyrics

 

The late Glenn Frey penned the lyrics for the hit song along with band members Don Henley and Don Felder.

2. The song is about "excess in America"

 

While there have been many theories that contemplate what the song represents, the Eagles' band members have revealed in multiple interviews that the true meaning behind "Hotel California" is a commentary on the hedonism and self-indulgence of America.

 

“It’s basically a song about the dark underbelly of the American dream and about excess in America, which is something we knew a lot about,” Henley said in a 2002 interview with "60 Minutes."

 

In 2005, Henley further explained the meaning of the song to Rolling Stone magazine, which placed "Hotel California" at no. 49 on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

 

“We were all middle class kids from the Midwest," Henley said. "'Hotel California' was our interpretation of the high life in L.A.”

 

 

Um, okay. 

 

I worked at a restaurant with a dishwasher from Columbia.  One time I asked him what his favorite American song was and he said "Hotel California".  I kind of winced I think, but then I realized that that the acoustic guitar on that song is sort-of Spanish sounding, so maybe he liked that. 

 

That same guy told me the last time he went back to Columbia around 1990 he told somebody to go get him $100 worth of cocaine.  He have him a U.S. $100 bill.  The guy came back the next day with a *brick* of cocaine.  He said he an a few friends "partied for a month". 

That same guy told me the last time he went back to Columbia around 1990 he told somebody to go get him $100 worth of cocaine.  He have him a U.S. $100 bill.  The guy came back the next day with a *brick* of cocaine.  He said he an a few friends "partied for a month". 

 

A month?  He ain't partying right!

Yeah, I don't know who these people are who really want to hear goddamn Hotel California 5 times per week.  It's not a good song.  I just blank out whenever that song comes on. 

 

 

This article pretty much sums up Zappa's history as a whole. You could replace Zappa with Phish or Stevie Ray Vaughn in this article and get the same results as well.

 

http://www.theonion.com/article/frank-zappa-fan-thinks-you-just-havent-heard-the-r-4644

 

Also, I'm not quite sure which white people could do more damage to jazz -- Zappa or the producers of La La Land. I think it's a tie.  :-D

1480 WDJO Cincinnati -- the locally owned low wattage 1950s rock & roll channel -- had been simulcasting at 99.5FM for a year but the FM channel appears to have switched to pop. 

When I lived in the Akron area, it was WQMX until they started playing the same worn out stuff way too many times.  I then switched over to WGAR until someone turned me on to WNWV and I immediately fell in love with the smoot jazz music.  I'm glad they returned WNWV to the jazz format and will often switch the radio over to that when I'm home visiting.

 

When I lived in Columbus, I listened to the jazz station there until they axed it.  Then, it was WMNI until they went to all-talk.  I later on found that they reverted to their old format and kept on listening (unfortunately, it looks like they dropped their adult standards format last year).  In the interim while WMNI was goofing off, I found a low-power jazz station in Bexley on 102.1

 

As far as the Dayton area, it's the KLOVE stations or I'll plug in my mp3 player.  I'm sick of radio, really.  I don't care for a lot of the new country music and there's really no jazz on the radio.

I moved to Toledo recently, and within the city I listen to WXTS 88.3FM, the Toledo Public Schools radio station. They play jazz from 8am-8PM daily, very little talk, a few PSAs, little to interrupt the fine music. The University of Toledo station WXUT broadcasts on the same frequency from 8PM-8am.

 

http://onlineradiobox.com/us/wxts/?cs=us.wxts

 

My other stations in Toledo are:

WGTE - Toledo Public Radio

WEMU - Public Radio from Eastern Michigan/Ypsilanti

WUOM - Michigan Public Radio from the University of Michigan

 

The commercial radio stations in Toledo are mostly corporate, full of commercials.

 

 

As far as the Dayton area, it's the KLOVE stations or I'll plug in my mp3 player.  I'm sick of radio, really.  I don't care for a lot of the new country music and there's really no jazz on the radio.

 

Just an FYI, I believe 89.5 plays jazz in Dayton.

Just an FYI, I believe 89.5 plays jazz in Dayton.

 

You're right!  I forgot about them!  I think the last time I listened, they only played jazz for a certain period during the day, then became Hispanic music after something like 4 or 5 PM.

You may be right but everytime I scroll through it, it plays all kinds of jazz.

I've complained about classic rock format stations on this thread before, but I have a new vendetta against those stations that play "80s, 90s, and 'now'" music. Not that I particularly care for most of the 2000s crap played on these stations, but it's weird how they just lump the 00s and the 10s together into a single "music decade". It feels like a ploy so that they can keep 80s songs in their rotation instead of sticking with the 20-30 year arc of similar-format stations in the past.

Music from 2008 and later is vastly different than early-mid 2000s hubris stuff for sure.

1480 WDJO Cincinnati -- the locally owned low wattage 1950s rock & roll channel -- had been simulcasting at 99.5FM for a year but the FM channel appears to have switched to pop. 

 

That was a one day anomaly.  Somehow a totally different radio station was broadcasting at that frequency for one day.  The oldies channel is back. 

 

They play everything from Jerry Lee to Al Green.  So like 1953-1973. 

Reviving an old topic... legendary station WOXY 97X lives again, at least for a week. That was definitely my favorite station growing up, but reception was pretty terrible across most of the east side thanks to some awful country station in Georgetown. I mostly listened at home with my receiver and giant directional roof antenna. I kept listening after I moved and they went online before eventually going away, so I'm pretty excited.

 

I had no idea the Cincinnati-based streaming station Inhailer was a thing, but I will be checking that out moving forward if they have an indie-centric playlist. Not useful for me since I'm not local anymore, but looks like its also available as a HD radio streaming station.

 

https://www.citybeat.com/music/woxy-fms-modern-rock-500-countdown-finally-returns-in-may-after-20-years-off-the-radio-dial-14894043

 

 

When I was a kid a guy over at the trailer park stole a motorcycle then put 97X stickers all over it so that people wouldn't think it was local (to Columbus). He still got busted.

43 minutes ago, GCrites80s said:

When I was a kid a guy over at the trailer park stole a motorcycle then put 97X stickers all over it so that people wouldn't think it was local (to Columbus). He still got busted.

 

I still have a few of those stickers. I'm afraid to use them, because once I do I'll never be able to sell that car.

On 3/6/2018 at 1:20 AM, GCrites80s said:

Music from 2008 and later is vastly different than early-mid 2000s hubris stuff for sure.

 

Nobody screams in music anymore.  1990-2008 - tons and tons of screaming/yelling.  

Sure they do. There is still tons of it.

20 minutes ago, Mendo said:

Sure they do. There is still tons of it.

 

They're called streaming services, not screaming services.  

Emo's back