The Resurrection of Radio (Part Two)

I have been thinking about Austin radio for a while, especially since KUTX launched and reinvigorated the scene for me.  If you've read my blog before, then you know I am a musical omnivore and a data nerd, so the rest of this post certainly fits into the zone created by those two interests converging.

Two new stations that launched after KUTX and caught my attention for a while have already died, but when The Fringe and KOKE were on, they were sweet.  And do you know why?  Because they played their own style of excellent music, and not a playlist handed down from corporate.  But with what is left, and as promised in my earlier Part One post, here are my thoughts about the current landscape of Austin radio.  These are listed in my approximate order of preference and only include the ones I actually listen to.

KUTX  98.9
Sample Five:  The Sword, Paul McCartney, Lissie (covering Fleetwood Mac), Gary Clark Jr., Hank Williams.
Comment:  The new gold standard in Austin radio.  I had a moment this last weekend when I took my oldest out to my dad's place to do some woodwork in the barn and build the boy's Pinewood Derby car.  I have great memories of my Dad turning on old school country (rarely, he's not much of an excess sound guy) while we worked on stuff in his barn, so I turned the old jambox to 98.9 and it was freaking perfect.  Such a nice moment, warm sunlight streaming through the windows as I sat there with the boy making sawdust and singing along.
And also, of course, nothing is perfect and there are times that I can't listen to this station. Eklektikos is usually too far afield for me.  Some of the foreign/world music is outside of my comfort zone.  But this is still the best radio has ever been for me.

Sun Radio 100.1
Sample Five:  John Cougar Mellencamp, Kacey Musgraves, Alabama Shakes, Alejandro Escovedo, and someone named Amy Cook I had to Shazam.
Comment:  This station hews a little closer to the country/Americana sound than KUTX, but it still has that fantastic adventurous spirit of playing the tastefully mainstream along with the obscure. Maybe you could say this one sounds little more like Texas while KUTX sticks a little more to Austin.  But they are both pretty close to the same wheelhouse of authentic local music experiences. I have a good memory of listening to it one day while driving out to work with our puppy at his training school, getting a grand dose of Neil Young, Willie, the Decemberists, and Talking Heads, and changing out the presets on my radio right then and there to delete whatever had become of KOKE.  Also, like KUTX, no commercials except for those station announcements of who supports them.  Big thumbs up.

101X 101.5
Sample Five: Black Keys, Beastie Boys, Vance Joy, Oasis, Miike Snow
Comment:  They used to do a better job of sticking with the alternative/grunge type rock that I wanted to hear, but they still stick pretty close to that formula.  Being that they are owned by the same folks as KGSR, I'm sure the corporate overlords tell them that Vance Joy, Capital Cities (death to you, "Safe and Sound"), and Bastille are going to put more ears onto the dial for longer, but I wish they could just base their sound on Nirvana and the Chili Peppers and then branch out slightly from there.  So, as it is, I have more issues with this station than I used to, but it still does a pretty good job of playing alternative rock.  I also find great humor in their morning show.  

KLBJ 93.7
Sample Five: The Guess Who, Def Leppard, Supertramp, AC/DC, and Steely Dan.
Comment:  This station has been the same since my childhood, I honestly think that they play AC/DC every five songs, so it made me laugh to get one of their tracks in the sample five I did. They'll throw in a few more 90's alternative acts (Nirvana, STP) than they did when I was a kid, but I've got nothing wrong with any of that.  Sometimes it is fun to just rock out with AC/DC or Hendrix or the Stones.  Also owned by the Emmis Communications folks.

Mix 94.7
Sample Five:  Taylor Swift, Twenty One Pilots, Justin Timberlake, Ellie Goulding, Maroon 5
Comment:  I'm actually surprised that Taylor Swift isn't every other song on this station. This is, without any doubt, the favorite station of my children, which is brutal for me.  There are some times when I can enjoy it just fine, but I swear to God they use a playlist with a total of 20 songs on it so that they can DRILL those tunes into my kids' brains without mercy.  My five year old likely couldn't actually tell me the words, but she can make a passable facsimile of the tones and tunes so that it sounds like she is telling me that she and TayTay think that guy is "handsome as hell."  Ugh.

My other pre-set is KUT, but I'll admit that I used to frequently tune 101.5 up to 102.3 to see if any good rap was playing.  The resounding and constant answer?  HELL NO.

102.3 The Beat
Sample Five:  Jeremih, Justin Bieber, The Chainsmokers, Travis $cott, The Weeknd.
Comment:  This station calls itself "Austin's Hip Hop" station, but as far as I am concerned, nothing could be farther from the truth.  Chainsmokers is EDM, Justin Bieber is sure as hell not hip hop or rap, and The Weeknd is weird/alt R&B.  Jeremih is maybe some garbage rap - mainly singing over a DJ Mustard beat.  When I did my first sample of tracks on this station last fall, I had to Shazam four of the five songs because they were all generic young R&B singer soft core ballads that I'd never heard of.  This one is a Clear Channel/I Heart Radio station, so you know that the corporate robot has decreed that straight rap won't sell in Austin.  Dammit.

And even more rarely, I'll twist down 93.7 to 93.3 (KGSR) to see if things have gotten any better.  In general, the answer is not much.

KGSR 93.3
Sample Five: X Ambassadors, The Killers, Ed Sheeran, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, Bob Marley.
Comment:  Props to them for the Nathaniel Rateliff, and I still dig some old school Bob Marley as a good Austin-ish changeup, but otherwise they are so far afield from their old sound.  The X Ambassadors song is kind of dark electro with piano, the Killers song was great twenty years ago but tires me out now, and I can't stand Ed Sheeran's ode to being old and in love.  I just went and looked up their broadcast history, and they've played Matchbox 20 and Maroon 5 in the last hour.  This is not the sound of Austin.

And with some level of incredulity, I present to you the most recent official Neilsen ratings for Austin, presented as of July 2015.

1. Bob-FM 103.5.  One of those "we play anything" stations found all over the country. Nice because no talk.  Pretty bland.
2. KASE 100.7.  Good to bad country.
3. KHFI 96.7.  Pop and lite rap.
4. KVET 98.1.  More good to bad country.
5. KUT 90.5.  NPR's talk only station.
6. 102.3 The Beat.  As discussed above, freaking terrible.
7. Magic 95.5.  Soft rock and classics.  I would have guessed higher on this list for all of the doctor and dentist office play it likely gets.
8. Mix 94.7.  All Taylor Swift all the time.  Current pop hits.
9. KLBJ 93.7.  Classic/album rock.
10. 105.9 KFMK.  Apparently a Christian station called Spirit 105.9.  Never heard of that in my life.

The moral of that story is that people suck and have bad taste.  I need to get one of those Neilsen rating machines to carry around.  I can be the hope and change radio needs.  I found another ratings website, which shows that when Christmas rolls around, Magic 95 CRUSHES the competition.  If you look back to October, since I assume they start playing Christmas crazy (and annoyingly) early, it looks like the Oct. ratings general track those above.  Bob, KVET, KASE, KUT, Magic, and the Beat all 5.0 and above.

So, while I am loving the ability to just Spotify whatever I want whenever I want while in the car, it is encouraging to know that some good options are still out there when you just want to veg out and let someone else curate your soundtrack.