Are These the Intriguing Stations of 2023?

One of the happiest duties of Ross on Radio is hearing from readers about the stations I helped them find. The First Listens to big new stations are the companion pieces for the listening they might do anyway, similar to reading a recap about a TV episode you just watched. But I can also count on a reader’s “thanks for telling me about” most of those stations profiled in the newsletter.

My recent listening has included a unique station that has been around since 2017 and four brand new launches. Two are Country/Classic Rock hybrids, yet different from the one I recently profiled. (The nature of Country/Classic Rock hybrids is that no two are the same.) There’s a new place to hear a deeper/wider oldies mix. One station is dedicated to pickleball! 

It’s nice to have candidates for the Intriguing Stations of 2023. Look for those on January 11, 2024.

Fix Radio London

Veteran UK programmer Paul Chantler’s Podcast Radio is in the headlines this week because of the launch of Podcast Radio U.S. on four Beasley-owned stations. That venture deserves a separate discussion, but Chantler is also involved with Fix Radio, a full-service mix of music and talk targeted to the building trades and heard there on DAB. That station seems like a candidate for an American version as well.

Fix Radio has shows geared to plumbers, electricians, decorators, and other tradespeople. I started with one of its all-music hours, “At Work Anthems.” The morning team is The Bald Builders, whose bits include having other men call in to affirm (or joke about) their baldness. Their upcoming morning promotion is a “Beat the Bomb” variant called “Face the Frog” in conjunction with Frogtape.

Even in the course of the music programming, you get a sense of the station’s uniqueness, particularly from its ads — for liability insurance, heat pumps, online tools, etc. One of the station sweepers declares Fix Radio to be “playing the tunes and cleaning up after ourselves.” Another one is just “Fix Radio: Nice one, brutha.”

It’s interesting to consider what an American station targeted to the building trades would sound like. Would it be the mix of Active Rock and Hip-Hop that has largely eluded programmers? In the UK, there’s a considerable dance element. The three songs on Fix’s “recently played” listing as I write this are Coi Leray’s “Players,” Fragma’s “Toca’s Miracle,” and MGMT’s “Kids.” 

Here’s Fix Radio’s “At Work Anthems” just before 11 a.m., Sept. 11:

• Futureheads, “Hounds of Love”
• J-Kwon, “Tipsy”
• Bon Jovi, “Livin’ on a Prayer”
• Moony, “Dove (I’ll Be Loving You)”
• Baby D, “Let Me Be Your Fantasy”
• Panic! at the Disco, “High Hopes”
• Metallica, “Nothing Else Matters”
• Steppenwolf, “Born to Be Wild”
• White Stripes, “Seven Nation Army”
• Fatboy Slim, “Praise You”
• Judas Priest, “Breaking the Law”
• Stereophonics, “Pick a Part That’s New”
• Modjo, “Lady (Hear Me Tonight)”
• Silk City, “Electricity”

KDPM (The Depot) Marshall/Longview, Texas

A month ago, I wrote about Abilene, Texas’s WesTex Radio and its cluster, which included both a broad Adult Hits station and a unique Americana/Classic Rock hybrid, KKHR (The Patriot). Soon thereafter, I heard from veteran programmer Chip Arledge, now (according to his signature block) the “Director of Commotion and Product Development”/morning host of KDPM (The Depot) Marshall/Longview, Texas. 

The Depot’s hybrid is based more in mainstream Country with Classic Rock spikes. It’s also distinguished by what Arledge calls the station’s mission of “moving Marshall and East Texas forward, both culturally and economically.” Among those efforts:

• Hourly salutes to famous former residents from Lady Bird Johnson to Johnny Mathis to Bill Moyers to Jim Reeves;
• A similar salute to famous alumni of HBCU Wiley College, produced in conjunction with students;
• Donating an advertising campaign to “a local Hispanic restaurant owner who was accosted for speaking in his native Spanish tongue in public”;
• The annual “Texas Sounds International” festival, an awards competition for worldwide acts playing American-style Country music; during my listening to the station, it was teaming with the artist Dale Watson for “Boogie Woogie Fest” as well as promoting an upcoming T. Graham Brown concert. 

Here’s The Depot just after 6 a.m., Sept. 11. (I’d heard a little of the station the night before, playing Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Pride and Joy” into Lainey Wilson’s “Watermelon Moonshine.”)

• Kylie Morgan, “If He Wanted to He Would”
• John Mellencamp, “Authority Song”
• Morgan Wallen, “More Than My Hometown”
• Tom T. Hall, “I Like Beer”
• Chris Stapleton, “White Horse”
• Bob Seger, “Roll Me Away”
• Thomas Rhett, “Unforgettable”
• Jordan Davis, “Singles You Up”
• Travis Tritt, “T-R-O-U-B-L-E”
• Lainey Wilson, “Smell Like Smoke”
• Eric Church, “Drink in My Hand”
• Luke Combs, “Fast Car”
• Tim McGraw, “How I’ll Always Be”

WMBA (The Beaver) Beaver Falls, Pa.

Country/Classic Rock is a format that remains experimental after more than 30 years. Every programmer hears something different. Western Pennsylvania’s recently launched WMBA (The Beaver), is the inverse of The Depot — mostly Classic Rock with mainstream Country spikes. In the 2010s, a few broadcasters partnered with health-care providers, including, for two years, WDAS-AM Philadelphia. WMBA is owned by St. Barnabas Health System, which was the primary sponsor when I listened.

Here’s Beaver 95.7 at 9:10 a.m., Sept. 22:

• Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Keep a Little Soul” — a 1982 Petty song that was finally released five years ago
• Mitchell Tenpenny, “We Got History”
• Foo Fighters, “Under You” — their current single
• Cars, “Bye Bye Love”
• Bruce Springsteen, “She’s the One”
• Van Halen, “Dreams”
• Chris Janson, “Done”
• Alice Cooper, “Rock & Roll” — 2021 Velvet Underground cover
• Giovannie & Hired Guns, “Ramon Ayala”
• Big & Rich, “Big Time”
• Florida Georgia Line, “Sun Daze”
• Van Halen, “Ice Cream Man”
• Yes, “Roundabout”
• Alan Jackson, “It Must Be Love”

TuneIn’s Country-A-Go-Go 

I should have already written by now about TuneIn’s Boss Radio 66, the collector’s oldies station programmed by Debbie Daughtry, who previously programmed WFMU Jersey City, N.J.’s similar Ichiban Radio. Like Boss Radio 66, Country-A-Go-Go, which launched two weeks ago, also features the involvement of Tom Hanks. It’s a mix of Classic Country (most of it beyond the charts), rockabilly, and some early rock with Country elements. 

Here’s Country-A-Go-Go around 10:10 a.m., Sept. 19. The hour also included a vintage mid-’60s ad for a show sponsored by then-Top 40 KNUZ Houston starring local band Neal Ford & the Fanatics. (B.J. Thomas is also on the bill; he’s second.)

• O.C. Smith, “Moody” (1970) — late-’60s “Little Green Apples” hitmaker who had footprints in both R&B and country; cited by the station website as a core artist
• Red Simpson, “Runaway Truck” (1966) — toward the beginning of a decade-long streak of truckin’-themed hits that peaked with 1971’s “I’m a Truck.”
• Roy Clark, “Weepin’ Willow Twist” (1962)
• Bobby Jameson, “Okey Fanokey Baby” (1964) – Great discovery from an artist I knew for that year’s minor pop hit, “I’m So Lonely”
• Blasters, “Big Green Vette” (1964) — not the “I’m Shakin’” rockabilly revivalists
• Gene Vincent, “Dance to the Bop” (1957)
• Charline Arthur, “Burn That Candle” (1955)
• Tex Williams, “Smokey Hollow” (1965) — murder-ballad variant on “Wolverton Mountain,” sung from the POV of a killer brought to justice “because folks in Smokey Hollow take care of their own”
• Dixie Drifter, “Little Hero” (1964) — one of the “best of set” contenders; Bo Diddley/Buddy Holly beat, early-’60s gunslinger lyric
• Carl Smith, “No, I Don’t Believe I Will” (1955)
• Mysterions, “Amnesia” (1959 instrumental)
• Ronnie Toth, “Miss Lazy” (1961) — variant on “Dizzy Miss Lizzy”
• Wanda Jackson, “This Gun Don’t Care” (1966) — a few months after Loretta Lynn’s “You Ain’t Woman Enough [To Take My Man],” a similar warning to a rival that “this gun don’t care/who it shoots” and a track reminiscent of “Hi-Heel Sneakers.”

Picklejamz

Reader Woody Nelson was early to offer a number of variety-themed online channels. His most recent is the centerpiece of a pickleball-themed site that looks to combine music and social media. The common musical thread on Picklejamz here is “music that you can play pickleball to,” but since it’s almost 100% spikes (in every sense of the word), there are definitely ROR readers who will enjoy this. (The Sneaker song alone is a secret handshake for at least a few of you.) Here’s the station on Sept. 28 at 4 p.m.

• Savage, “I’m Losing You”
• Nine Inch Nails, “We’re in This Together”
• Commentators, “N-N-Nineteen Not Out”
• Oingo Boingo, “I Am the Walrus”
• Zombie Nation, “Kernkraft 400”
• Jam, “Going Underground”
• Our Lady Peace, “One Man Army”
• Commander Cody, “Hot Rod Lincoln”
• Sneaker, “More Than Just the Two of Us”
• Style Council, “You’re the Best Thing”
• Staind, “Fade”
• Eagles, “Seven Bridges Road”

CFAJ (Classic 1220) St. Catherines, Ontario

Readers know that at least once a year I will have a new favorite station for “oh wow” oldies. Usually this is a station outside the U.S., but also deeper than the average large-market Classic Hits outlet, meaning that my chances at “oh wow” are doubled. The new favorite is CFAJ (Classic 1220) St. Catherines, Ontario, which after a convoluted history and two years of on-air testing, has returned heritage AM CHSC to the air at a time when other heritage Canadian AMs are being shut down.

Classic 1220’s mix is ’70s through ’90s. The ’70s Canadian music includes some pop from that era that has been hard to find on the radio for years. The ’90s are more than the usual handful of safelist songs, meaning that I heard Paula Abdul’s “The Promise of a New Day” into Burton Cummings’ “Your Backyard.” (There was also Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” into Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979.”) 

CFAJ is making a point of being by-locals/for-locals. I heard a great hour of local morning show with morning co-host Stef, p.m. driver Pete Dictor (filling in as co-host), and newsperson Chuck LaFleur. Here’s Classic 1220 around 9:35 p.m., October 2:

• Lou Rawls, “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine”
• Maureen McGovern, “The Morning After” — as a bonus, this came after a Canadian broadcasters’ promo about disaster relief
• Bells, “Moody Manitoba Morning” (Canadian)
• Queen, “Another One Bites the Dust”
• April Wine, “Just Between You and Me” (Canadian) — have also come across the less-known “Weeping Widow”
• Chilliwack, “Arms of Mary” (Canadian)
• Tina Turner, “What’s Love Got to Do With It”
• Lynyrd Skynrd, “Sweet Home Alabama”
• Klymaxx, “I Miss You”
• Ken Tobias, “Every Bit of Love” (Canadian)
• White Town, “Your Woman”
• Michael Johnson, “This Night Won’t Last Forever”
• Anne Murray, “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You” (Canadian)
• Peaches & Herb, “Shake Your Groove Thing”