For those that do not follow my Twitter feed or my Tumblr blog, I got yet another chance to get really pissed off at the big radio conglomerates.  As a big feature of this particular blog is my list of what I consider to be the only good English language radio stations left in this world, I thought it would be a good thing to reevaluate the few “corporate radio” stations I allowed on that list, remove ones that no longer warranted inclusion, and explain why the ones remaining stayed put.

Before I continue, hardly any commercial radio station on my list is a single-outlet enterprise.  Many are traditional as the owner holds one AM and one FM licence.  More are held by some of the new local groups where an owner might hold three or more licenses in a market.  A few others are regional where the owner concentrates on many stations in a single state or other well-defined area.  Regardless of that type of ownership, I look to see if such a station is still connected to the community, is not on automation or playing syndicated programming for more than a fraction of its broadcast day, and — of course — plays a good selection of music in its chosen format.

What I am talking about here are the big media conglomerates like Clear Channel, the behemoth that has set the pace for the ruination of having radio be a local service (although no CC stations have ever been on my list and, thus, need to be removed…they are simply the best known example).

The first group of stations I need to explain are owned by Entercom Communications Corporation.  Entercom is usually one of the better behaved radio conglomerates in the United States but that isn’t really saying much.  It is probably my disappointment with what Entercom did to one of my favorite stations that makes me want to purge as many of their outlets from my list as possible, and I will get to that in a moment.

Click on the logo to visit the WKQK website.

The first “keeper” I have from Entercom is WKQK that serves the Memphis, Tennessee market out of the suburb of Germantown.  So far in my searches across the Internet for good radio, it is the only station I have found playing the “classic hits” format not owned by an even more detestable conglomerate or, perhaps even worse, using the hideous no-DJ “Jack FM” type of presentation (known in some cities under other names like “Dave FM,” “Bob FM,” etc. and even used on country stations with monikers such as “Hank FM” or “Willie FM”).  For a format where the station obviously picks from only a set amount of songs, they do a very good job of it…yet another thing that is often so frustrating about Entercom stations in how they can do one thing so well but screw the rest of it up (again, more on that below).

Click on the logo to visit the KNRK - 94/7 - Alternative Portland website.

Entercom also stays on the list for another station that is also the only type of its format that I have found passable for sharing, KNRK that serves the Portland, Oregon market but is licensed to Camas, Washington. In this case, it is the “modern rock” format which has truly lost its way at almost every other station I have found still attempting to play it.  I cannot completely fathom how KNRK might still be good other than the fact that, if a station in a city that is proud to call itself weird gives itself a secondary name like “Alternative Portland,” it had better come through.

Click on the logo to visit the KSEG-FM - The Eagle website.

The last of the Entercom stations remaining on my list is KSEG-FM in Sacramento, California.  This is an admittedly personal selection because anybody looking at my Radio list can easily see there are several “classic rock” format stations to choose from.  This station has a lot going against it as it runs the syndicated morning atrocity known as the Mark & Brian Show and is what seems like one of over 9000 outlets in North America that has nicknamed itself The Eagle.  What saves this station is that it is located where I went to junior high and high school and is one of the only two that has some of the great disk jockeys of “my time” left on the air (60s & 70s oldies station KCCL being the other).  These are not just men that bring back fond memories, they are among the very people that made me want to get into the radio business myself and continue to have an appreciation for what makes a good announcer and overall show.  Of most note to me on KSEG-FM are Tom Nakashima who was a staple on the old KXOA-FM “K-108 The Mellow Beaver” soft rock station (back when “soft rock” meant singer/songwriter type stuff instead of glorified pop) and especially Bob Keller and his signature lunchtime segment, The Café Rock, that goes back to the late, lamented, original KZAP.

Now I come to the two Entercom stations that I felt had to be removed from my list.  Perhaps one of the greatest disappointments in my entire life of radio fandom was listening to how Entercom ruined KQMT in Denver and its other “The Mountain” branded stations including KMTT in Tacoma/Seattle.  This was especially true of KQMT because it became my favorite station in Denver even before I moved there for a while in 2004.  It was everything I could ever ask for out of a commercial radio station — distinctive promos, bumpers, and station IDs that were effective without being overwhelming…disk jockeys that were connected to the community, knowledgeable about music, and that talked like real people…and, most of all, a rock format that was a great blend of old, new, and obscure.  It was the kind of station I had not experienced in years — one where I would not mind sitting though a song I did not like as something good was surely coming up next.  Even though KQMT got very good ratings, Entercom couldn’t help but try to make it “better” and, thus, fucked it all up every which way from Sunday.  They went to a strict classic rock format that was not much better than their Clear Channel competitor down the dial, alienated most of their best talent (most of whom seem to have escaped to “adult alternative” stations up in Aspen and Vail), and are now to the point where there are now only two live hosts with the remainder of the day being automated while churning out what now sounds like a crappy iPod.  I don’t think the fall at KMTT in Tacoma/Seattle was quite as bad as they kept a little “AAA” around plus one more disk jockey.  Still, what happened on these and all of Entercom’s other stations branded “The Mountain” ripped listeners’ hearts out who originally flocked to these stations in droves as an oasis in an otherwise barren radio landscape.  I simply cannot in good consience steer my readers to them anymore even if they do still have times of occasional competence.  The other “classic rock” and “adult alternative” staions on my list are just too much better to leave KQMT and KMTT up on my Radio list.

Click on the logo to visit the WVVR - The Beaver website.

Getting back to a radio conglomerate station that will remain on my Radio page, this one is owned by Saga Communications which, for some reason, seems to fly under the radar as far as making news for itself.  They own one of the two country stations that I can still tolerate, WVVR that is licensed to Hopkinsville, Kentucky and serves the overall market of Clarksville, Tennessee.  I am not keeping this station on the list just because it’s in my home state of Kentucky and the mascot leads itself to an almost infinite amount of double entendre jokes (which the station uses to perfection even with it lying in the heart of the Bible Belt).  The Beaver truly is a good country station, something amazingly lacking in North America considering it is the most popular music format found on the radio dial.

Click on the logo to visit the KZOK website.

One more station owned by a conglomerate that will remain on my list was a surprise to me when I spent two weeks being able to listen to it over the air in the summer of 2010.  KZOK is a “classic rock” station in Seattle and owned by CBS Radio.  Not only is the music selection not as repetitive as many of their ilk, KZOK is one of the last stations even in a big city to have a live disk jockey on at all times except during its very few syndicated programs and specials.  While many might find this surprising, KZOK recently hired Danny Bonaduce as its morning man.  For those not aware of this, the former “Danny Partridge” has been in radio for a while now and I thought he did a very good job during his time in Los Angeles on KYSR and never understood why he was let go.  After a stint in Philadelphia, it will be interesting to see if, on KZOK’s second attempt to do so, Bonaduce is the man to fill the shoes of the person that was on mornings at KZOK for ages, Bob Rivers, who most people know as the guy that does funny Christmas songs.  Aside from all that, KZOK is the only decent thing I can find in the CBS Radio stable that is not an all-news station.  It might not be my first choice for streaming a “classic rock” station, but it is still worth recommending.

Click on the logo to visit the KSLX website.

The final station owned by one of the “big boys” that will remain on my list is owned by Sandusky Radio.  KSLX is a “classic rock” station licensed to Scottsdale, Arizona serving the greater Phoenix area.  I don’t know why other Sandusky outlets of a similar genre can’t do the same, but KSLX is deeply embedded in its community.  It is also one of the few stations that still retain a “live “graveyard shift” disk jockey.  Like KZOK, it does a lot better than most at not being too repetitive with its song selections.

So…why do I even bother with these very few stations held by radio conglomerates?  While my Radio page does focus on smaller and non-commercial stations, I think it is also important that it focuses on good radio.  Despite the owners, these stations are good.  While I am certainly a supporter of the movements going on these days against too much centralized power of all types, I also believe it is only fair to point out that not every big corporation is always bad and not every small one is always good.  I also believe it is important to recognize when a big company does something well as there might be a small chance it takes hold and they start doing better everywhere they do business.

All of that being said, I would not be honest if I also did not say that all of the stations featured above are always on a very short leash with me at all times.  With the owners of these outlets more beholden to the whims of all too many overly-selfish shareholders instead of the public (or, at least, the audience ratings), they are always in danger of turning bad on a moment’s notice.  That’s one reason why I so often close my posts on this blog by saying, in one form or another, keep sticking it to the man…because — especially in radio which has always been a flighty business — if you don’t stick it to him first, he will surely stick it to you.  If you don’t believe me, just ask Jim Ladd and “The Tribe” that used to listen to him on KLOS.

As the second round of my Radio project slogs along, it was nice to be rewarded with three good new-to-me stations to be able to add for my readers to try out.  All of these come from Louisiana.  The Bayou State is a tough nut to crack as far as streaming radio goes because many of the stations there are terribly underfunded and located in very small markets.  Thus, many do not stream or even have a website to look at.  Many others are run on a shoestring budget with stations left on auto-pilot playing the same old thing and never even giving a hint of the rich culture of their home state.

Click on the logo to visit the KMRC Radio website.

KMRC is located in Morgan City, Louisiana.  It is officially designated as part of the Houma market although that is sort of a sub-market of New Orleans.  KMRC is a rarity for two reasons.  First, it is one of the very few AM stations listed on my Radio page (although the online stream sounds just as good as one from an FM station).  Second, it is the only radio station I have linked with a “swamp pop” format which I can only describe as sort of a rockin’ electrified Cajun style of music.  It’s really great stuff so, despite being a commercial station, I believe that many of my readers will really enjoy it.

Click on the logo to visit the KXOR-FM - LA 106.3 Rock Hits Radio website.

KXOR-FM, better known as LA 106.3 Rock Hits Radio, is licensed to Thibodaux, Louisiana which is also part of the Houma market.  I have had this station in my bookmarks for a very long time, probably first saved from being part of an old sports network or even in preparation for a hurricane strike.  Previously, KXOR-FM was a very standard and not terribly noteworthy blend between a “classic hard rock”  and “active rock” station.  However, it seems they have recently taken a wider tack in their playlist and toned down the “Oh, dude, we rock so hard” pinhead attitude to let the music speak for itself.  Sure, they still play hard rock but a lot more “classic” material of all types has been put into the mix.  I also like how they have dumped their previous X-style logo (because, of course, anything with an X in it is edgy, dangerous, and naughty…jeez) and used a version of the Louisiana State Highway shield even down to the correct fonts (although that design is now being phased out to a black-and-white version).  While a small detail, it is a good way to set a tone that a station is local and cares about the immediate community.  This is obviously a commercial station in a world filled with “classic rock” outlets and I believe it is also put on “auto-pilot” at times.  Still, it is one of the better stations of its type out there right now and is quickly becoming one of my favorites to turn to when I want something familiar but still rockin’.

Click on the logo to visit the WTUL website.

If any of my readers wonder why I would torture myself to go through all of the world’s English-language radio stations again to get the ones I missed the first time I was crazy enough to pull such a stunt, WTUL would be a prime example.  I am fairly certain that the corrupted database I had while I was still using Windows preventing me from listening to some streams was the reason why I did not post this great station sooner.  While mostly staffed by the students of the station’s owner, the prestigious Tulane University in New Orleans, there are also enough other volunteers contributing to the programming that I decided this was best classified as a “community/variety” station rather than a college radio outlet.  The variety of programming on this station is mind-blowing.  For one example, on the day I am writing this, two hours of very interesting children’s music was followed by two hours of opera, then two hours of folk, then two hours of a show called Hayride to Hell which was almost impossible to describe but was a hoot to listen to anyway.  Very similar to WWOZ that I wrote about in my previous entry, WTUL (along with the entire Tulane campus) was hit very hard by Hurricane Katrina.  The station struggled hard to remain active but, at least online, remained on the air thanks to assistance from Stanford University in California.  WTUL resumed over-the-air broadcasting in December 2005 and is still fighting back with an amazing spirit.

If any of my readers have wondered about this…yes, I do listen to all of the stations I link to on my Radio page periodically.  Of course, there are some I listen to much more than others.  Still, I like to take occasions such as this to check in on all of the stations I have linked from a certain state or broadcasting a certain format to make sure there have not been any changes.  I did this today for all of the stations I have linked from Louisiana.  Sadly, I must report that I found one that I felt must be removed.  KLSU in Baton Rouge, the station owned and operated by Louisiana State University, no longer meets my standards.  I feel that their programming has become too similar and, worst of all, they have begun running on “auto-pilot” every night.  In a city that is as diverse and musically rich as Baton Rouge, it is a shame that a university as huge as LSU does not take the same tack as one such as Tulane with WTUL to invite members of the community to contribute fresh, vibrant programming instead of just burning electricity to do nothing but basically broadcast somebody’s crappy iPod playlist.

A few days ago, I happened to stumble across a webpage with a list of all of the radio stations in the United States and Canada that claim to have a jazz format.  Sadly, it is a very small list.  Worse yet, many of the stations listed as “jazz” on this particular page were actually “smooth jazz” which is just about as much real jazz as as Diet Dr Pepper tastes like regular Dr Pepper (and I don’t care what the commercials say, Diet Dr Pepper tastes like cat vomit dissolved in turpentine).

That list I found was also somewhat incomplete, so I found a few other resources where I could look at or sort stations by format.  Even then there are “errors” of a sort.  For instance, take a couple of stations that I enjoy listening to when I am in their broadcast areas; KXJZ in Sacramento, California and KPLU in Tacoma, Washington.  These are among some of the remaining “NPR Jazz” stations left in America.  Unfortunately, these outlets spend much of the meat of their broadcasting day churning out NPR’s news and talk programming.  As I have said before, I enjoy NPR…but only when I’m in the mood for it.  When I want jazz, I want jazz.  As with KPLU during my stay in Washington last year, it was a huge bummer to have the music stopped at 3:00 PM and not have it resume until 7:30 (not to mention having it blotted out in the morning for another five hours).

I just find it stunning that this great American art form exists full-time in so few cities.  Even many major markets only get one or two doses on any kind of jazz per week on a local college/variety or community/variety station.

If there is any type of music that still needs a crew of good and well-informed disk jockeys to present it, it’s jazz.  Unlike rock, there are few big hits and it’s a genre averse to “top 100″ charts in the first place.  Jazz requires storytellers and historians to weave the fabric of the music and make the connections between where artist X or song Y came from and where they went from the point in time a recording was made.  Jazz requires somebody that truly feels the music and the mood of the day — something that cannot be accomplished with a random, computerized playlist and a set of jingles that plays between each song as can be done with rock (even though I don’t like that crap on rock stations, either).  Jazz is also a genre where multiple versions of the same song, even by the same artist, are not only welcome but highly desired, and a chopped-off digital display of the artist and performance just doesn’t cut it for those that then want to go out and own that track for themselves.

While it is a shame that so many stations have given up on a full-time jazz format leaving most of the country no way to enjoy that type of music — with the all-important element of surprise that no mp3 player can ever provide — at least the modern miracle known as the World Wide Web provides much more access.

So…deviating for just a moment from my state-by-state search for the remaining good English-language radio stations left on this Earth, I now feature what I believe are the ten best jazz and jazz/blues format radio outlets in the United States of America.  Seven of these have been listed on my Radio page for quite some time while three are recent additions.  These ten outlets cover all four of America’s main time zones so, if a public affairs program starts on one, others will still be focusing on music (not to put down public affairs programming, but the focus of my Radio page is on music as it is much more universal…after all, what interest does somebody sitting in Bumfuck, Arizona have in a 30-minute program discussing the rise of trash collection rates in Short Hairs, New Jersey?).  Best of all, each of these stations is unique in their outlook on programming.

Here they are listed in alphabetical order by call letters.

Click on the logo to visit the KCCK website.

KCCK might appear to some to be in an unusual place to have a jazz station.  When compared to most of the other outlets listed below, it just seems odd that anywhere in Iowa would be considered a hotbed of jazz.  Yet, KCCK churns it out 24/7 in Cedar Rapids from the campus of Kirkwood Community College.  While not all of the programming is local, the few syndicated shows they do take are all of excellent quality.  Friday nights on KCCK are dedicated to blues ending with one hour of jam band music.  As is the case with many jazz and jazz/blues stations, the weekends get very diverse.

Click on the logo to visit the KKJZ - K-Jazz 88.1 FM website.

In 1981, a station then known as KLON in Long Beach, California switched to an all-jazz format.  With a signal strong enough to cover almost all of the greater Los Angeles area — except where I live :-( — it did not take long for it to gather an audience.  Rechristened as KKJZ (“K-Jazz”) in 2002, it is now the most listened to jazz outlet and the fifth most listened to public (non-commercial) radio station in the entire US.  This impressive ranking is well deserved and doesn’t come just because it is situated in the country’s second largest metropolitan area.  KKJZ does an excellent job of mixing different genres in each set and has plenty of great specialty programming as well.  While I try to avoid featuring stations that use large blocks of syndicated programming, this is one I have selected that carries the nightly program by San Francisco jazz disk jockey legend Bob Parlocha (ironically enough, distributed by classical station WFMT in Chicago that I featured in my previous post).  LA being LA, even a non-commercial station needs a little star power.  Beginning this past May 2nd, the morning DJ on KKJZ is now none other than David Benoit.

Click on the logo to visit the KMHD Jazz Radio website.

While I do not want to discourage anybody from listening to the other nine stations in this list, my current overall favorite jazz station is KMHD in Gresham, Oregon.  While visiting the Portland area last year, this was the outlet that fully rekindled my interest in jazz after having been an occasional dabbler in the late 1980′s and early 1990′s (first lit again by another station I will get to further down the list).  KMHD is one of the oldest surviving all-jazz stations in the United States, originally founded in 1984 by Mount Hood Community College.  In 2009 when the school ran into financial difficulties due to budget cuts forced by The Great Recession, instead of just selling off the frequency (as others have done lately in situations I have described here in some recent posts), they entered into an operating agreement with the very well respected Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) that runs a great deal of the state’s NPR radio stations and PBS television stations.  OPB was smart enough to keep the call letters and the format, and the college was smart enough to retain ownership.  Both organizations seem to be profiting very well from this arrangement as KMHD often pulls in very close to a 2.0 in the Arbitron ratings for Portland (for those not familiar with Arbitron, just take my word for it that 2.0 is pretty damn good for a non-commercial station especially in a crowded radio market like Portland).

Click on the logo to visit the KSDS website.

KSDS in San Diego, California is a station that I have come to like more and more over recent months; so much so that it is one of the three new additions to my Radio page.  Owned by San Diego City College, I think KSDS does the best job of any jazz station in being musically connected to its community.  They do a fantastic job of promoting local jazz artists and even feature them for an hour every Sunday.

Click on the logo to visit the KUVO website.

In my description of KMHD above, I mentioned there had been another station that had begun to rekindle my interest in jazz.  That station was KUVO in Denver, Colorado.  When I pulled my first stint of living in Denver from 2004 through 2005, the number of good radio stations there was extremely small.  Thus, it was sort of out of desperation that I filled up one of my car radio preset buttons with KUVO since the signal was strong and it was at least a temporary oasis from my two favorite rock stations there that seemed, between them, to never be able to play enough Aerosmith (barf) or R.E.M. (double-barf).  As time went on, I found myself staying on KUVO for longer and longer periods of time.  I was most impressed with how they played different varieties of jazz and, as opposed to other stations of that genre I had known in the past, did not constantly play really slow tunes that would put me to sleep.  Aside from the wonderful staff on KUVO that selects the music, a good portion of that might be that the station actually identifies itself as having a jazz/blues format instead of just strictly jazz.

Click on the logo to visit the WBGO website.

Another of the three new additions to this website’s Radio page is WBGO in Newark, New Jersey.  ”Jazz 88″ as it is sometimes called is now the only jazz outlet that serves the New York City market.  This station just oozes everything good about New York attitude and style which, as one might imagine, goes very well with jazz considering how much history those two entities share.  WBGO does carry a somewhat larger amount of public affairs programming than some of the other stations on this list and, during the area’s morning commute time, is a bit more chatty in that slot than what one might be accustomed to coming from a jazz station.  That being said, I think it still fits the tone of the station and certainly works well for the area.  I don’t find it to be a put-off and I don’t believe most other jazz fans will either.

Click on the logo to visit the WDCB 90.9 FM website.

While WDCB, located in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, is officially part of the Aurora market, make no mistake — this is Chicago’s jazz and blues station.  Just as WBGO is a excellent reflection of New York City’s style and deep history with jazz, WDCB does the same in a style well fitting for a place called “The City of Broad Shoulders.”  Nighttime and weekend programming certainly gets broad as, in addition to jazz and, of course, plenty of Chicago blues, WDCB will delight its audience with one or two hours devoted to other types of programming including bluegrass, Irish folk, reggae, and even a Sunday slot dedicated to rebroadcasting old-time radio programs.

Click on the logo to visit the WUMR website.

WUMR has been churning out jazz to Memphis, Tennessee and the surrounding area since the University of Memphis took over the license in 1979.  This is the most solid jazz station on my list with hardly any time spent on any other genre including blues.  While WUMR might have some of the highest amount of students actually performing on-air tasks, this station is still loaded with knowledgeable professionals that have spent many years on this station keeping folks entertained and educated about the great American musical art form.

Click on the logo to visit the WVAS website.

As my radio station suggestions try to stay focused strictly on music, I normally avoid highlighting stations that broadcast sports.  However, I just cannot help but love WVAS coming from the campus of Alabama State University in Montgomery.  I look at them as the little station that could; an outlet that probably does more with less than almost any other college radio station of any format, especially one tied to an HBC (historically black college).  Both faculty and students alike work their butts off to make WVAS as professional sounding and fun to listen to as possible and their love for this station just shines through.  I hope my readers will give WVAS a chance even if they are not into listening to an occasional Alabama State Hornets football or basketball game.

Click on the logo to visit the WWOZ website.

The last of my list of the ten best jazz radio stations (and the last of the three new additions to my Radio page) is certainly fitting as it comes from the birthplace of the music itself, New Orleans, Louisiana.  Of course, “jazz” includes a lot of different things just like its home city.  Thus, when listening to WWOZ, don’t always expect it to stick just with stalwarts like Louis Armstrong and the Marsalis Brothers.  There’s lots of spice in this station’s programming just like in Louisiana cooking.  Best of all might be that those hosting each show on WWOZ are volunteers doing it simply for the love of the music and their city.  This is why the station’s call letters are WWOZ which stand for “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” in that the station’s founders wanted people to focus on the music being payed instead of “the man behind the curtain” playing it.  As with much of New Orleans, WWOZ and its staff suffered terribly due to Hurricane Katrina.  Donations and an untold amount of hard work have kept this treasure running and perhaps even more resolute than ever to make sure that, no matter what happens on the commercial side of the dial, the unique music of New Orleans will always have a free, over-the-air home.