What radio stations did you listen to growing up?

Also, do you still bother with terrestrial radio? Just curious considering all the options out there today. I still listen to NPR when I'm doing dishes, but without a car, I tune in far less than in years past. (The subway is my ride, so it's mainly the iPod to and from work.)

My formative years were spent in the boonies of Tennessee, so there was the rock station (KDF out of Nashville) and Top 40 (ZYP in Huntsville.) There was a place on the outskirts of our town - waay out in the sticks - called KDF Hill. Apparently, it was the spot where you could get the best reception and teenagers went there to drink, hang out, fight, screw, whatever. I'd venture to say radio isn't nearly as important to today's teenagers as it was to us back in the late 80s, early 90s. I could be wrong, just too much else out there to entertain us nowadays.

I'm getting all nostalgic now as I listen to iTunes on my computer. In high school, KDF had one syndicated 'alternative' show that played in the wee hours of the morning. I remember falling asleep to REM performing live from their new album Out of Time. That was kinda nice.

 

I didn't realize how fortunate I was to grow up in the Bay Area when I did. KSFO, KFRC, KGO - they all owned the market for a time and were among the most successful stations in the country. Local hosts, live programming - what a concept.

 

I listened to WKTI in Milwaukee in the 80s. Looking back, they did some unbelievable shit.

When I was eighth grade and a freshman in high school, Lips LaBelle's Lips Line show, which featured Push 'Em Down The Stairs was must-listening material at 9 p.m.

Essentially, the show gave kids a forum to emasculate their classmates by telling a humiliating story about them on-air, or, to just engage in good old-fashioned teasing and bullying.

At that point, the host would decide whether they were worthy of being "pushed down the stairs". If so, he'd play some dumb ass pre-recorded song and gag of the kid being pushed down the stairs.

I shit you not, this was a real show.

One time, one of the kids in my neighborhood was "pushed down the stairs" after he had just started at a new middle school. I thought it was really funny, but looking back, it was unbelievably cruel.

I cannot believe they'd legally be able to air something like that. But to an eighth-grader, it was hilarious.

I also remember listening when DJ Tony "Wild Child" Hamilton quit on air after a dispute with a producer.

Mind you, this drama was all mixed in with fare like Stay The Night by Chicago and Sussudio by Phil Collins.

 

100.7. WMMS. Cleveland. (I wish I could convey those words in that voice. People from the Cleveland area must know what I'm talking about.) It's sad to listen to that station now and think of what it used to be. That was the station I listened to as I got into rock and roll. Later, in college, I listened to a lot of WMMR in Philadelphia, which I also liked quite a bit.

I still like radio, but I only listen to it in the car now, and I don't have to do a lot of driving. On the rare occasions I have to drive long distances, I only listen to the radio. I like the randomness of it, and the sense of discovery when I hear something new. And it's somehow more exciting to hear a song I like on the radio as opposed to my iPod, where I know it's coming (or at least know that it could be coming). But finding a good station is difficult. I like WXRT in Chicago, although I haven't listened to it for very long.

 

I may have a sick sense of humor, but good lord that cracked me up.

 

I recently bought a new clock radio that has five pre-sets for AM stations and another five for FM. There aren't five stations on either band that I want to listen to.

 

Pretty much grew up listening to the Indians, Cavaliers and Browns, but first and foremost, the great Pete Franklin. That translated into thousands of hours plugged into WWWE (now WTAM).

On the FM side, WMMS and WGCL in Cleveland.

 

'Course, that act blew up in about twenty minutes, in New York.

And I've done considerable time in Cleveland, and was very familiar with Pete's schtick.

 

Braves and Dawgs were on WSB 750. Music was 96 Rock, which has now morphed into something called Project 96.1.

I only listen to the radio in the car and it rarely stays on one station for more than a few minutes.

 

I have a free app on my Droid called TuneIn Radio on my app that allows me to listen to almost all of these stations live.

The Droid is the shit.

 

I'm a commuter so it's all iPod, all the time for me.

Radio in Toronto these days is a wasteland and I never listen to it at home unless the wife has it on in the kitchen or if I am not in front of the TV and I am listening to the Blue Jays on FAN 590. At work I will have the webstream of Toronto's JAZZ-FM 91 on, it's great background music.

But back in the day it was great. In the late 70s I began listening to the local rock behemoth, CHUM-FM (which is still going strong but has morphed into one of those adult contemporary stations), which was great, playing loads of album tracks and promoting all the concerts I wanted to see. (I wore a CHUM-FM t-shirt to shows for years hoping to win something from one of their spotters.)

Around that time I also discovered CFNY, which broadcast out of a house in my hometown. I thought it was the greatest station in the world. It had no format, no play list and played all the new wave, punk and underground stuff you'd never hear anywhere else. You never knew what you'd hear on there.

Used to try and tune in WGRQ FM from Buffalo once a week for the King Biscuit Flower Hour and whenever we were on vacation in south Florida I loved to tune in to WSHE (She's Only Rock and Roll!).

 

WLIR 92.7. All new wave. The Cure, Depeche Mode, New Order, plus early stuff by the Police and U2.

Plus sports. Art Rust Jr. had an evening program on 770 WABC. The Yankees were on (and are now back on) WCBS-AM 880.

In high school, we used to listen to Howard Stern in the afternoons on 660 WNBC.