A winter trip to the Southwest yielded warmer temperatures, great scenery, and some very unique public radio listening.
Across the country, public radio stations have largely focused their programming on one main format (News, Classical, Adult Alternative, or Jazz). But the earlier concept of public radio stations that offer widely varying programming for different audiences continues in New Mexico and west Texas.
Albuquerque is unique in that, even though it has several public radio services, the two largest stations don’t stick with one format.
I had briefly listened to the Albuquerque Public School District’s KANW/89.1 on a previous roadtrip and I was excited to tune in again.
KANW begins the day with “Morning Edition” and other NPR programs. In the afternoon, it switches to “New Mexico Music” presented in a commercial style, complete with jingles. Weekend programming also includes a Saturday night Classic Country show and Classical music on Sunday morning.
KANW also offers a 24-hour News format on its HD2 channel and a translator in Albuquerque, along with analog signals serving Santa Fe and some other locations.
The other main public radio station in Albuquerque, the University of New Mexico’s KUNM/89.9, offers a unique program lineup of its own with even more music genres.
KUNM is the flagship station for “National Native News” and “Native America Calling.” NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered” and Pacifica’s “Democracy Now!” are on the schedule, with blocks of Classical, Jazz, and freeform music during the day and a wide range of music programming in the evening and on weekends.
As you can hear from their ID’s, both KANW and KUNM are relayed on small networks of repeater and translator stations reaching parts of northern New Mexico.
24-hour Classical music is also available on former commercial station KHFM/95.5 (Santa Fe), now operated non-commercially, though its rimshot signal may be a little weak for some listeners in Albuquerque.
The state capital is also served by Santa Fe Community College’s KSFR/101.1 (White Rock), offering a wide range of music along with some programming from the BBC World Service, “Democracy Now!,” and a delayed airing of “Native America Calling.”
Eastern New Mexico receives a different, unique offering on KENW-FM/89.5 (Portales) and its network of repeater stations: a midday block of Easy Listening.
The music includes some vintage selections that sound like they could’ve been pulled from one of those slow-speed reel-to-reel tapes used to automate radio stations in the 1970s. (Indeed, a number of songs on the station’s now playing list show the artist as “Bonneville Custom Library.”)
But the playlist also includes a lot of the gold that would be heard on a Light Adult Contemporary station, including newer artists like Nick Jonas, Clay Aiken, and Coldplay. Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Johnny Mathis also make appearances.
This broad Easy Listening mix is presented from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in a full-service format that includes syndicated features and an automated weather forecast leading into hourly NPR News updates.
The schedule also includes news programs “Morning Edition,” “Marketplace,” “All Things Considered,” and “PBS Newshour” (KENW-FM is run alongside PBS station KENW-TV). Classical music runs in the evening and overnight.
Rural West Texas and the Permian Basin are also served by a unique public radio service, Marfa Public Radio.
The network is relatively young: flagship KRTS/93.5 (Marfa) signed on in 2007. It’s added several other signals in the region, including KXWT/91.3 (Odessa) — a rare occurrence of an established station being sold to a newer public radio service based in a smaller community.
Marfa Public Radio’s daytime schedule includes the major public radio news programs, with a two-hour midday block set aside for music programming. A wide variety of music programs, some of them locally-produced, air in the evening, followed by the BBC World Service overnight.
I enjoyed Marfa Public Radio while visiting Big Bend National Park. Though the park is outside of KRTS’ predicted coverage area, I found its signal to be listenable through much of Big Bend, especially from the Chisos Mountains. In fact, it was the only reliable FM signal at that location.
But as it turns out, KRTS was far from the only FM signal I heard at Big Bend: a massive e-skip, meteor scatter, and tropo event began just as I was wrapping up my visit. More to come in a future post.