Earlier this year, I promised to profile more of the stations featuring or programmed by Ross On Radio readers. I wrote one column on rock formats, another on Classic Hits and other multi-era pop stations. Then I looked up and it was summer. So it’s time for another half-dozen stations spanning a variety of formats programmed by or featuring Ross On Radio readers.
WHBC-FM (Mix 94.1) Canton, Ohio
PD “Java” Joel Murphy has been an outspoken advocate of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” as a current pop-radio record from almost the moment that Stranger Things opened the discussion. When I asked readers for the best thing that they’d heard on the radio that week, he wrote “hearing ‘Running Up That Hill’ in power rotation with our processing.” When I heard him play it, he announced, “We play the full version. Other stations play some crappy edit.”
Mix 94.1 had a number of nice little touches. There was a “sounds like summer” sweeper that I heard play before Magic’s “Rude” and others, and an “all the feels” sweeper that played into “Before You Go.” This weekend, the station is presenting a free downtown concert, “Total Rewind Live,” featuring members of the Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, and O-Town. Here’s Mix 94.1 on June 29 at 4:15 p.m.:
- Zedd w/Maren Morris & Grey, “The Middle”
- Lizzo, “About Damn Time”
- Sia, “Cheap Thrills”
- Justin Bieber, “Ghost”
- Dua Lipa, “Levitating”
- Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill”
- Harry Styles, “Watermelon Sugar”
- Dove Cameron, “Boyfriend”
- Lizzo, “Good as Hell”
- The Kid Laroi & Justin Bieber, “Stay”
- Glass Animals, “Heat Waves”
- Harry Styles, “Adore You”
- Maroon 5 f/Cardi B, “Girls Like You”
- Em Beihold, “Numb Little Bug”
- Lewis Capaldi, “Before You Go”
- Pitbull f/Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer, “Give Me Everything”
KOBM (Boomer Radio) Omaha
Since the last time I wrote about Boomer Radio in 2016, its format has become a more recognizable category: the AM station, heard on an FM translator, doing a mix of ‘60s oldies and ‘70s pop. Boomer deserves credit for being there early under OM J.J. Morgan. I went back on the recommendation of reader Jason Steiner, who had recently discovered it.
Boomer’s music is a little older and more ‘60s-driven than many of the other stations in the category, and it also has a pre-Beatles component that sets it apart. I also enjoyed hearing morning man Dave Wingert, who returned to Omaha after a long stint in Seattle radio, doing the sort of two-person morning show with his newsman/sidekick that was common in the pre-Morning Zoo era. Here’s Boomer on July 5 just before 7 a.m.:
- Pete Townshend, “Let My Love Open the Door”
- Bill Haley & Comets, “Shake, Rattle and Roll”
- Every Mother’s Son, “Come on Down to My Boat”
- Daryl Hall & John Oates, “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)”
- Alan O’Day, “Undercover Angel”
- Jay & Americans, “Cara Mia”
- Spanky & Our Gang, “Sunday Will Never Be the Same”
- Cat Stevens, “Another Saturday Night”
- Beatles, “Love Me Do”
- Percy Sledge, “When A Man Loves a Woman”
- Exile, “Kiss You All Over”
WBTL (Boomtown Radio) Richmond, Va.
What stations like Boomer are to Classic Hits, Boomtown Richmond is to Classic Rock. It has appeared in this column before, but I was recently steered back to the midday all-request hour that is part of “Jason’s Jukebox.”
Here’s Boomtown Richmond’s all-request hour joined at 12:15 p.m.:
- Three Dog Night, “Never Been to Spain”
- ZZ Top, “Brown Sugar” — from their debut album, not the Rolling Stones song, the host noted
- Roxy Music, “Avalon”
- David Rose, “Highway to Heaven” — the TV theme of the day
- Donovan, “Wear Your Love Like Heaven”
- Captain & Tennille, “Muskrat Love” — occasioned a bit about whether it was really such a bad song; as somebody with a great deal of sympathy for a lot of ‘70s soft pop, I’m pretty unconflicted about that one. But the next song was …
- John Lee Hooker, “Boogie Chillen”
- Johnny Burnette, “Dreamin’”
- BB King f/Willie Nelson, “Night Life”
- Foreigner, “Women”
- REO Speedwagon, “Time for Me to Fly”
Oldies XL
As an online Oldies station, PopRadio77 differed from other outlets in the presence of live hosts, including Northeast radio veteran “Big” Jay Sorensen. He’s still there, but the station has rebranded as “Oldies XL,” while Sorensen has been joined by Ira Wolf, formerly WPOW (Power 96) Miami’s Tony the Tiger, and WBEB (B101) Philadelphia’s Mark Shepperd.
The station relaunched on July 4, targeting the area between the Delaware Valley and the New York Tri-State. (I have no connection with Oldies XL, but if the name sounds familiar, it’s because I’ve been using the phrase as my categorization of those stations offering something other than the ‘80s-based playlist heard on large-market Classic Hits FMs).
Here’s Oldies XL on July 4 at 11 a.m. with Big Jay:
- Kenny Loggins, “Footloose”
- Tom Jones, “She’s a Lady”
- Boston, “More Than a Feeling”
- Van Morrison, “Brown Eyed Girl”
- Stealers Wheel, “Stuck in the Middle with You”
- Tymes, “So Much in Love”
- Raydio, “Jack and Jill”
- Tom Petty, “I Won’t Back Down”
- O’Jays, “Love Train”
- Prince, “Little Red Corvette”
- Wilson Pickett, “Land of 1000 Dances”
- Dionne Warwick, “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again”
- Dawn, “Knock Three Times”
- Ohio Players, “Fire”
- Johnny Nash, “Hold Me Tight”
- Elton John, “Tiny Dancer”
98ACM Tyler, Texas
In April, reader Justin Walters launched online station 98ACM, which he describes as “like [Triple-A-turned-Hot-AC KTCZ] Cities 97.1 [Minneapolis], but with my little spin on it.” On the air, the station describes itself as “your home for rock, pop, and everything in between.” (The poppy end is along the lines of Ed Sheeran’s “I Don’t Care,” which I heard a few songs after this monitor.) Here’s 98ACM on June 29 at 1:30 p.m.
- St. Vincent, “Cruel”
- Vanessa Carlton, “A Thousand Miles”
- Feelies, “The Boy With the Perpetual Nervousness”
- Marshmello & Kane Brown, “One Thing Right”
- Inhaler, “It Won’t Always”
- Astrid S, “Hurts So Good”
- Evanescence, “Going Under”
- Skylar Green, “Falling Apart”
- Father John Misty, “Q4”
- Death Cab for Cutie, “Crooked Teeth”
- Stereophonics, “Just Looking”
KCLQ (The Coyote) Lebanon, Mo.
For nearly a decade, the “New Country” positioner dominated Country radio, even when the enthusiasm for new country music wore down. As other Country stations figure out how to back away from that position, KCLQ (The Coyote), serving the Lake of the Ozarks area, doesn’t use the slogan, but it is still “new country” in a good way, with a greater percentage of songs and artists that I cared about than many others. It’s also punctuated with two Classic Rock songs every hour.
Owner Kit Caldwell programs the Coyote. Middayer Jamie Turner recommended it to me. Here’s the station at 2 p.m. on June 28:
- Jon Pardi, “Last Night Lonely”
- Chase Rice & Florida Georgia Line, “Drinkin’ Beer, Talkin’ God, Amen”
- Mark Wills, “19 Something”
- Joe Nichols, “Good Day for Living”
- Ramones, “I Wanna Be Sedated”
- Maren Morris, “Circles Around This Town”
- Miranda Lambert, “Bluebird”
- Ernest f/Morgan Wallen, “Flower Shops”
- Jason Aldean, “The Trouble With a Heartbreak”
- Kane Brown & Lauren Alaina, “What Ifs”
- Blue Oyster Cult, “Burning for You”
- Kelsea Ballerini, “Heartfirst”
- Zac Brown Band, “Same Boat”
