If you haven’t already read my bragging about it, I logged about 25,000 miles in roadtrips to the West over the summer. All of that driving gave me plenty of time to listen.
On long drives, I switch between many different platforms. SiriusXM. Podcasts. Spotify. And plenty of good old AM and FM radio.
You need multiple options because there are still some rural areas where AM/FM reception isn’t very good. There are also spots where is cliffs and tall trees block the satellite signal. And you can’t download the latest podcast or stream audio if there’s no cellular signal. I encountered all of those problems repeatedly while visiting our national parks.
When beginning my journeys west, I always spent some time listening to Farm stations like WNAX/570 (Yankton, SD), KBHB/810 (Sturgis, SD), and KRVN/880 (Lexington, NE). I’ve never worked on a farm but I’ve always been fascinated by the sound of Farm radio, not to mention these stations’ huge coverage areas. Farm radio is really the rural version of the All News format — friendlier, more relaxed, and with market updates instead of traffic reports.
Once I got to the West Coast, All News stations KNX/1070 (Los Angeles), KCBS/740 (San Francisco), and KNWN/1000 (Seattle) caught my attention, along with News/Talk outlet KIRO-FM/97.3 (Seattle). I’ve spent plenty of time listening to WBBM/780 (Chicago) in the Midwest, so it was interesting to hear similar presentations of the format.
Whenever I drive through a new city, it’s mandatory to scan the dial. Every new bandscan provides a bit of brief excitement, but it’s no revelation to say that there’s a lot of sameness in music radio from coast to coast. Occasionally I do find a spot on the dial that piques my interest.
One of the most memorable experiences of the summer was driving through L.A. traffic while listening to Classic Hip-Hop on KDAY/93.5 (Redondo Beach-Los Angeles). Sure, the format has been around for years now (and has a preset on my satellite radio), but there was something special about listening to it on KDAY while cruising L.A.
On the afternoon when I was driving, the station was in a continuous music mix with plenty of live personality. As a radio geek, I love jingles and sweepers. But as a listener, I also like when imaging plays right over the transitions so you know the music just keeps going, and that’s how KDAY was doing it on this afternoon. The format simulcasts on two transmitters, KDAY and KDEY-FM/93.5 (Ontario), and I mentioned previously that the two were a bit out of sync as I headed west on 210, creating an interesting remix of “California Love.”
Right next door on the dial was another favorite of my time in the Southland, “Cali 93.9” (KLLI Los Angeles). There’s a lot of overlap with one of my SiriusXM presets, Pitbull’s Globalization, and both feature mixes by DJ Santarosa.
I’ve spent plenty of time listening to Canadian radio here in the north, so it was also interesting to hear stations from Mexico while in southern California. San Diego’s “91X” (really XETRA-FM/91.1 Tijuana) came in pretty well on the Pacific Coast Highway in the Malibu area and in parts of the Santa Monica Mountains. And my earlier report on my visit to Joshua Tree National Park included audio from several AM radio ID’s from south of the border complete with wattage!
Later in the summer, I found that many Portland and Seattle radio stations reflect their cities’ quirkiness and diversity. I only had time to quickly drive through Portland while returning from the Oregon coast, but I enjoyed checking out the legendary KBOO/90.7 and KINK/101.9.
In Seattle, it was interesting to switch between three stations in a public radio news battle: KNKX/88.5, KUOW/94.9, and Northwest Public Broadcasting. On my travels I also listened to various feeds of “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered” on too many public radio services to list.
Toward the end of my last trip of the summer, I found myself listening to CBC Radio One coverage of the death of Queen Elizabeth II on CBU/690 (Vancouver) as I visited the Olympic Peninsula, where satellite reception of the BBC World Service was spotty due to cliffs and trees.
Back home, I head up the North Shore as often as possible and I always check out WTIP/90.7 (Grand Marais) and WGGL/91.1 (Houghton, MI).
There are many radio stations that are important parts of their communities, but perhaps none more vital than WTIP. Cook County is isolated from other broadcast media and WTIP is the major local information source for the area. It also offers a wide variety of interesting locally-produced music programs.
Meanwhile, WGGL is the opposite of local, operated by Minnesota Public Radio and carrying national feeds with network filler music instead of mid-hour breaks. The only local programming is a top-of-the-hour break with a weather forecast recorded in St. Paul and a promo that has been running for years. Though the programming is also available on MPR’s Grand Marais transmitters, WGGL came first and I enjoy listening to its signal jumping across Lake Superior (its 100kW signal from the Keweenaw Peninsula makes it listenable on about half of the Circle Tour, including Thunder Bay).
What stations did I miss? Which ones should I check out on my 2023 travels (which are yet to be planned)? Let me know at [email protected]!