When I started writing about the Intriguing Stations of each year just passed, the new phenomenon was the Adult Hits stations of the early ’00s. Bob- and Jack-FM deserved that attention. They made radio programmers just a little less rigid. They confirmed that listeners were sincere about really liking a little bit of everything, more than a decade before streaming further confirmed it.
As programmers tried to apply those lessons elsewhere, it sometimes seemed like each year’s list was dominated by stations that creatively repackaged old music, rather than following trends in current music to create something new. Because Ross on Radio has always been about yesterday and today, and the path between them, I liked creativity from gold-based stations, too, but I was always happiest when I could acknowledge both.
In 2025, the stations that most excited Ross on Radio readers weren’t just repackaging classic music, but classic radio. Connoisseur relaunched WGTZ (Z93) Dayton, Ohio, as a newer-leaning Classic Hits station drawing on the station’s ’80s and ’90s CHR legacy. UK broadcaster Global created a pop-up version of WSQK (The Squawk), the ’80s CHR that figured so prominently in the latest season of Stranger Things, to international acclaim.
I enjoyed those stations, too. It was gratifying to see so many broadcasters excited about a station launch. In 2026, the challenge for radio is to create the same excitement about something forward-looking. (I did appreciate that Connoisseur also launched Alternative at sister WCLI (The Fridge) Dayton and returned the format to San Antonio.) I know that even channeling the mid-’80s is an achievement with 2025 budgets and infrastructure, but I also wonder about carrying that forward. Stranger Things reminded broadcasters and taught younger viewers how central radio was in that moment. What else can we do with that?
There were stations built around new music that excited me in 2025. SCA’s 2DAY Sydney, Australia, was one of the first gold-based CHRs a decade ago. Last year, it became “2DAY AF,” imaged around “hits before they hit.” Hearing it in America was an even fresher experience because of an increased emphasis on Australian music that made it inherently different, but also because the station (and Australian CHR overall) latched on to any song from a name artist with a streaming story, including some of the songs from Sombr, Sabrina Carpenter, Lady Gaga, Olivia Dean, and Tate McRae that could got lost waiting their turn on the U.S. charts.
In the U.S., one of the most successful examples of music advocacy outside Triple-A was Cumulus’s Country outlet WKDF Nashville. PD Travis Daily’s willingness to play album cuts or songs that weren’t radio singles generated industry buzz throughout the year. 2DAY hasn’t yet seen a ratings bump from its new music commitment. But in December, WKDF edged ahead to become the top Country station in a three-way format battle.
The place you did hear a body of current music take hold on the radio was Atlanta, where both Urban One’s existing R&B Oldies WAMJ-HD2 (Classix 102.9) and Steve Hegwood’s newly launched Adult R&B WTBS-TV (87.7 the Vibe) made today’s “Southern Soul” a prominent part of the mix. While that genre has always contributed a song or two to Adult R&B radio each year, it had a bigger footprint in 2026, in part owing to songs that reflected the Country/Pop fusion of recent years.
That same convergence of styles led to iHeart’s WBWL (101.7 the Bull) Boston adding a handful of pop titles this year, largely from folky-leaning artists such as Noah Kahan and Teddy Swims. There was an especially intriguing mix at CKOI Montreal, whose Adult CHR format has evolved largely to a mix of crossover Country, including some not heard on Hot AC/CHR here; folky crossovers; and French-Canadian pop that has always had a folky feel to it.
Bluewater Broadcasting’s WQKS-HD-2 (Streamz 100.5) Montgomery, Ala., launched a Hip-Hop/R&B format in November based on streaming data from Bridge Ratings. One nice touch is that the station talks about “this week’s No. 9 song” and other chart numbers in a way that few stations have in years. It says something, also, about the state of current Hip-Hop and R&B that following streaming actually makes Streamz more recurrent, not newer.
The now-networked KXBS (Boost Radio) St. Louis had its best year in 2026 with a Christian Hip-Hop/R&B format that often beat the mainstream Hip-Hop/R&B outlet in its home market. Boost had the advantage of a phenomenal core artist in former Surfaces leader Forrest Frank.
The station that sounded like nothing else at the end of 2025 was the recently profiled WAXB (X-perimental Radio 85X) Danbury, Conn., an streaming outlet (soon to return to AM) currently positioned as music-from-outer-space. Like the Squawk, 85X is its own elaborately created universe. I couldn’t wait for Intriguing to write about it, or Draper’s WINX-FM (94.3 Dockside Radio) doing a version of the “beach town” format that has popped up occasionally over the years. WINX promises “yacht rock, Buffett, and coastal Country,” but it’s broader than that, and more uptempo than other versions.
The other creative gold-based outlet was SiriusXM and Alex Cooper’s Unwell Music. If today’s CHR radio often seemed too dominated by older titles, Unwell Music had a unique take, including the ’10s hits that are still lost on Top 40 and Hot AC formats, as well as the early-’00s Radio Disney pop that was clearly a part of listeners’ lives, but never on mainstream radio. Just now, they’ve gone from Ciara’s “1,2 Step” into the Cheetah Girls.
In recent years, SXM has clearly been looking to celebrity- and artist-driven channels to be its new calling cards. In 2025, its original celebrity channel, Howard 100, got renewed attention. While Howard Stern’s contract negotiations are generally agreed to have been, in part, a publicity stunt in the past, it’s hard to imagine that the threat of Stern joining Stephen Colbert as a culture-wars trophy was entirely calculated.
At Hip-Hop WQHT (Hot 97) New York, night host Funkmaster Flex pretended to leave, then the Ebro in the Morning show did. Hip-Hop radio has struggled in the city that built it, but the publicity around both moves was an apparent reminder of what Hot has meant to the market, judging from a pre-holiday boost for the station. The former morning show’s new home at YouTube Music has ample potential to be part of Intriguing 2026. The new morning show’s first day was the subject of a New York Times feature this week.
Besides stations that evolved their formats, there’s always one that holds the line, especially in Classic Hits. I wrote about Cumulus’s KCMO-FM Kansas City at the end of the year when it went to a 15 share. A month later, it climbed to a 15.8. As a successful station that hasn’t moved aggressively into the ’90s or beyond, it’s both an important reminder that there is no one way to do any format and a great-sounding radio station.
Some of the stations that ROR readers liked most weren’t new launches but international stations that I came upon last year. Pepper 96.6 Athens was where Mainstream AC met hip-restaurant-playlist. Portugal’s RFM was exciting as a place to hear current music in a Mainstream AC context, but also as a station heard in every taxi and Uber in a way that stations here once were.
If there are stations that seem like obvious omissions here, they might have already been among the Intriguing Stations of 2024. You might also find them on the thread where readers and Facebook friends shared their nominations. In the near future, I’m also planning to revisit some of the consistent winners — an achievement unto itself now — that haven’t been featured here recently. If this list gives you some listening tips for the next few weeks, yours are always appreciated as well.
