As the recheck, redo, revision, and revitalization of the Radio page continues, I wanted to stop for a moment again and feature three of the stations that I have recently added to the list. The title of “All A’s” refers to the fact that all of these outlets are based in US states that begin with the letter A.
First up is my list’s first representative from the great State of Alaska, and it is indeed great even though its current most famous resident, Sarah Palin, is an embarrassment even to most conservatives that I know. Making up for Palin’s utter lameness on a daily basis is KNBA in Anchorage. Known both as “A Signal of Change” and “Alaska’s Native Voice,” KNBA is a non-commercial station that is mostly classified as having an “adult alternative” format. However, as is often the case with the stations I link to, it is actually so much more than that. There are generous portions of other music included as well as programming created by and for Alaska’s native communities. It is certainly a pleasure to listen to at almost any time of the day. Click on KNBA’s logo (or, in this case, it’s log) below to go to its website and check out its live stream and other information.
Click here to visit the KNBA website.
Next is another station with an even stronger Native American connection. KUYI (when pronounced as a word, KUU-yi, the Hopi word for “water”) is a non-commercial outlet located in Hotevilla, Arizona in the northeastern portion of the Grand Canyon State. While sometimes tagged as “Hopi Radio,” KUYI also serves the Navajo and Tewa communities located on reservations throughout the general area. Despite its main aim to serve the native populations, the music is far more diverse than stereotypical drums and certainly not the pseudo-Indian new age crap passed off in many gift stores as being authentic. The music on KUIY is usually extremely accessible to almost any ear and does not strictly come from Native American artists. It’s a very well-produced station on what must be an extremely limited budget even with some help from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I believe it is another station good to listen to at almost any time of the day or night.
Click here to visit the KUYI website.
Finally in this threesome of stations from states beginning with the letter A is my list’s first entry from a state where I used to live in the mid-1970′s — Arkansas. KXNA-FM is a commercial station located in Springdale up in the northwestern corner of the state near Fayetteville where the University of Arkansas is located. “The X” as it is also called is noteworthy as being nationally recognized as one of the best “alternative rock” format stations in the entire United States of America. I wholeheartedly agree as it certainly stands out from 99.9% of the others claiming that format which are so narrow in their playlists and outlook that it seems to me that one could bring a lawsuit against them claiming false advertising for calling themselves “alternative.” For those that like hard-edged rock but still prefer it to be somewhat familiar, this is a great choice.
Click here to visit the KXNA-FM website.
After tiring for the night of my second go-through on my Radio project, I decided to clean up and arrange some of the websites I had saved over the past few months while I was out on the road looking for a new job. While going through these sites on various subjects, I found that I had saved a radio station that is special for two different reasons.
WGAG located in Princeton, West Virginia near Bluefield is mostly classified as an “oldies” station. However, it is actually so much more. It is one of the USA’s “low power,” “community” FM band stations so it has a great deal of freedom to open up its playlist…and open it up, it does. In addition to a good portion of traditional oldies from artists like the Beach Boys, Beatles, and so on, there are a lot of other forgotten-by-commercial-radio songs especially in the genre of R&B. They even throw in blues, some good country, and even a few more modern but still fitting tunes, thus making it an almost perfect station for this area of West Virginia.
The other special thing about WGAG is it is run by a non-profit organization called The Denver Foundation, an entity dedicated to helping the handicapped and disadvantage people living in the area where the station broadcasts. The Denver Foundation was the final legacy set up by its namesake for his beloved adopted state, none other than the man most people know as the beatnik Maynard G. Krebs or, more likely, the habitually accident-prone Gilligan — yes, none other than Bob Denver. The Gilligan connection is why WGAG is more popularly known as Little Buddy Radio.
This is truly a very wonderful legacy Denver left behind as it not only serves the community he adopted in his later years but also because it shows how he fully came to terms with something that is very difficult for many actors — finally embracing the role for which they were typecast for the remainder of their lives. Bob was not always happy always being identified as Gilligan, but it seems his time in West Virginia especially after starting WGAG (on which he was a disk jockey for many years up until his death) mellowed that attitude to the point that he came to accept it and then relish it.
Whether or not one was a fan of Gilligan’s Island or The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, those that enjoy great variety in their oldies music and even hearing the disk jockey stray from that genre on occasion will certainly enjoy WGAG, Little Buddy Radio.
Bob Denver as Gilligan
As I mentioned in my previous entry, I have begun a second major go-through of stations in Canada and the United States of America to get those I missed due to a Windows computer snafu when first creating my Radio page. This also included a recheck of my currently listed stations to make sure they will also all work for those smart folks that use Linux. While I did remove some entries, I believe that only one of them was due to an incompatibility with Linux and that none of them were of any special note.
I have just completed checking all Canadian stations again and have six new ones I have already added that I want to bring to everybody’s attention. Because the main resource I use for seeking out radio stations all over the world arranges listings by ratings and advertising markets, one station located in the State of Washington is included as it actually falls under the Victoria, British Columbia market.
Four of the new stations on my Radio page are fairly typical “community/variety” format outlets, especially for Canada where they are at least somewhat attached to a local college but not truly a “college radio” format. Although I use the word “typical,” the music that will be heard on their streams is anything but typical. These new stations are CJSF from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia near Vancouver, CJTR that is loosely affiliated with the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, CKLN from Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario, and CKUW broadcasting from the University of Winnipeg in Manitoba.
One other station in Canada proper is worthy of extra note for its uniqueness. For those near my age and likes in comedy, it will be remembered that the only reason that the characters of Bob & Doug McKenzie were created for SCTV was because of (and a spoof of) Canada’s “Canadian Content” laws — regulations created to try and prevent all of Canada from being steamrolled by the USA’s various media juggernauts that could sadly care less about ever finding Canadian talent. Yet, if this station’s site is to be believed, after all of that effort by the Canadian government for so many years, only CKHC Radio Humber in Toronto is playing a 100% all-Canadian music format. Depending on the host, the music can lean toward the pop side at times or feature bands that are internationally popular such as Nickleback. However, there are plenty more discoveries to be made from artists that would unfortunately never be heard from in the Lower 48 and I highly recommend it.
The final addition for now is located in Sequim, Washington which is on the Strait of Juan de Fuca south of Victoria, British Columbia. KSQM is one of the very few full-time “nostalgia” stations left anywhere in the world. In KSQM’s case, they focus on music of the 1940′s and 1950′s with just a little non-rock music from the early 1960′s thrown in. Occasional old time radio shows and “transcriptions” can be heard along with other locally-focused programming aimed at this highly under-served area. KSQM might not be the type of stream that one wants to have playing on a regular basis, but it is fun to hear how things used to be and is great for when more mellow, vocal-style music fits the mood.
