Radio’s Best & Worst: World Radio Day Edition

Last week, I asked readers to suggest international stations to check out for World Radio Day on Monday, February 13. They had dozens of great ideas that have already carried me into Wednesday and are likely to keep me busy for a while. (Facebook users can see the entire thread here.) So is TuneIn Explorer, the streaming aggregator’s just unveiled world radio visualizer. On Tuesday, my radio tourism was interspersed with Seattle rock radio, following the launch of Triple-A KPNW. (Here’s the “First Listen.”)

The recommendations from readers and industry friends were a reminder that almost any musical need can be met with a radio experience — not just a playlist. “Slow Jams” host and San Diego PD Randy “R-Dub” Williams’s favorite mix of jazz and soft R&B is in Montenegro. But Paxton Guy and Ben Reed both sent me to the Netherlands’ Sublime for a somewhat more uptempo version (as well as my favorite station slug line, “Let’s Get it On”).

Gene “Bean” Baxter and TM Studio’s Chris “UK” Stevens both recommended the U.K.’s Boom Radio, which I’ve been covering since its launch. But I also ended up listening to its new Adult Standards Boom Light. That station is an online side channel, but it was hosted. There was not only an accordion version of “April in Paris,” but the announcer I heard volunteered that he had just found it in a thrift store that week. That song was flanked by Vic Damone and Eddie Fisher, making Boom Light truly a standards station and not soft oldies (which is more Boom’s territory.) (TM does Boom’s jingles and just launched a contemporary take on News/Talk jingles at KNX Los Angeles this week.)

This column is never short on places to hear Classic Hits — either the big-market ’80s-based version or the more ’60s/’70s-based stations. There were a lot of recommendations for big names like CHBM (Boom 97.3) Toronto (from Joel Murphy, Mark Burley, and John Stevens) or Berliner Rundfunk, which Chris Huff notes was Berlin’s radio leader throughout 2022, but I tried to focus my listening on new-to-me stations.

Readers will enjoy the Caymans’ Gold 94.9, recommended by Mike Wiethorn for its broad, but hit-driven ’50s-through-’90s approach. Sander Schrik sent me back to the Netherlands’ Radio Veronica, whose “Super ’70s Week” countdown is still going. Schrik recently gave me a very different recommendation, Triple-M Perth, Australia, which was reminiscent of what I like about WWDC (DC101) Washington, D.C., another heritage-rock brand that evolved to Alternative.

The time I spent with CHR radio reminded me anew of how much fresher the European version feels, in part because of the greater infusion of dance music (and probably, perhaps, just because it’s a different set of records). I enjoyed the Netherlands’ dance/CHR Slam! because of Pure Jingles’ Thomas Giger. Eric Jon Magnuson, whose knowledge of international CHR is immense, sent me to a remote for Portugal’s Mega Hits, but when I asked him to choose one station went with Hot AC RFM.

One of the themes of the Facebook thread was how much demand there still is for jazz, smooth and otherwise, on the radio. I took a listen on Monday to the U.K.’s just launched Capital Chill, punctuating the instrumentals with hits from Mr. Probz, Klingande, and Billie Eilish. David Juhl and Neil Mathur were fans of France’s TSF Jazz, while Tom Lawler suggested CJRT (Jazz FM 91) Toronto.  Allan Nosoff went further. He posted a mock-up aircheck with his vision of what New York’s “Smooth Jazz” WQCD could have sounded like in 2023. 

Other stations I wanted to share:

• CKFG (Flow 98.7) Toronto, recently segued from Adult R&B to Hip-Hop as the result of a format change in the market, but also with a significant Afrobeat and reggae component, as you’d expect in that market.
• Sweden’s Bandit Rock, recommended by Brad Savage, with a uniquely European take on heritage rock that went literally from the Sex Pistols to Guns N’ Roses. It was also fun to hear Ghost on their local rock station, sandwiched between AC/DC and Queen.
• Australian Truck Radio, doing a mix of Country, Classic Rock, and Classic Hits, interspersed with vignettes about the local trucking industry. 
• Country KSNI (Sunny 102.5) Santa Maria, Calif. I went at the behest of p.m. driver Catfish, but I heard the week’s best sweeper, rebranding Feb. 14 as “Singles Awareness Day” for those not in love.

Finally, I asked readers and followers to tell me the best thing they heard on World Radio Day. The responses included both DC101’s Elliot in the Morning (from Brandon Charles) and sister WBIG Washington’s Don Geronimo. Also:

• WXPN Philadelphia’s  “Highs in the ’70s” — Rick Kotsull
• “The Peter Tork tribute hour on [New Jersey’s] WFMU’s “Rock’N’Soul” stream”  – Joseph McCombs
• “The 20^th-anniversary show for Chaz & AJ on WPLR New Haven” — Tim Sheehan
• “The new WCBS-FM New York morning show. The mix was fun and upbeat and the personalities were excited to be doing their first show” — Bryan Martinez
• “New Zealand radio responding to a massive cyclone” — Richard Phelps
• “I’m especially devoted to WXRT Chicago … they took a huge emotional hit when Lin Brehmer passed away. The whole city felt the blow, and I know it was hard for the air staff and programming team to work through it. Over the last year, they added a new full-time jock, Annalisa. As I listened during a long car ride Monday, I marveled at how well she has managed to sound like she’s been on XRT forever” — Bruce Cole
• “The winner of the KCAL San Bernardino $5,000 Super Square” — KCAL’s Tim Brown
• “Not on Monday, but last week. Driving through Canada [and hearing] the amazing number of AM stations still doing local, live radio” — Brian Landrum

There’s a lot of listening left to do this week, thanks to your recommendations and TuneIn’s new tool. Here’s TuneIn Explorer as seen from one of the stations featured, San Francisco 70s Hits.

The new TuneIn graphical explorer announcement was kinda cool. Points for effort ???? pic.twitter.com/FrdDZDUTV5

— SFs 70s Hits (@70smusic) February 14, 2023