New York FM Radio Stations + Close Proximity [Note: the comments that follow are from various people who sent me email responding to my inquery of a few years ago about NYC radio. They generally are not my opinion, and should be taken as any other opinion. Tune in the frequency for yourself and form your own opinion! My opinions are marked with MH. ALSO, please, if you have any comments, corrections, additions or suggestions, please email them to me at hauben@columbia.edu. I would like to this be as correct as possible.] Call Freq Location Sponsor/Owner Format/Notes WBGO 88.3 Newark. All jazz all the time. No commercials; terrific collection and selection. Listener-supported. WNYU 89.1 Manhattan, NYC New York University Excellent disco show (Studio 89?) on Saturday nights. I often had trouble finding this one for some reason. WNYU 89.1 (NYU at night, Fairliegh Dickenson Univ. in daytime. I mostly listen at night.) New "alternative" music. Superchunk, Chia Pet, Mudhoney, Stumpy Joe, Nova Mob, Monster Magnet, Blur, Lush, Pigface, White Zombie, etc. Also, excellent specialty shows, like "Best Seat in the House" (show tunes), "Hell Hole" (hardcore/metal). Also, excellent giveaways, I've won: Pigface, Scatterbrain, Joffrey Ballet at Lincoln Center, lots of movies, etc. WFDU 89.1 Teaneck, NJ (GW Bridge) Fairleigh-Dickson University A cross between "alternative" and "variety" formats. Their alternative and late-night shows are good, as is the Irish show early Sunday evening (or is that on FMU). Any time other than when sports are on is good. Reception is fine south and west of White Plains. WSOU 89.5 South Orange County, NJ Seton Hall University Hard-driving heavy metal, primarily, but oddly very listenable, comes in very good everywhere, and doesn't have as much sports as FMU and FDU. WPKN 89.5 Bridgeport, CT University of Bridgeport Probably the best of the "variety" format. Their power pop (mid Saturday evening), Micki's Room (hiphop,late Sat.) and "Radio Nothing" ambient/punk :) show (unsure when its on) are all worth a drive. Also the Antique Blues, Oldies Rocknroll, and Bluegrass shows are all top notch. Rasta reggae show was very good too. Ultra-politically correct. Actually, I haven't heard Micki's Room in a while. Not sure what it's status is. Comes in good once you are in Connecticut or outer Long I. WKCR 89.9 Manhattan, NY Columbia University. It varies, but sometimes you get things like 24-hour African popular music marathons. Or 24 hours of G & S. Sometimes "alternate" rock. Frequent classical; much jazz. Very diverse. No commercials. Great Funk/Soul/etc shows. WFUV 90.7 Fordham University A great mixture of new music including rock, folk, blues, bluegrass, celtic. Here is what they have been playing lately: Buddy Guy, John Gorka, Luka Bloom, Elvis Costello, Austin Lounge Lizards, Bela Fleck, Tony Trischka, Nanci Griffith, Richard Shindell, Patrick Street, Dadanaan, Maura O`Connell, Susie Katz, Megan McDonough, Neil Young, and so on. Also carries the excellent syndicated "World Cafe" and "Mountain Stage." And great give-aways!! I have won: Smithereens, Bob Weir, Patty Larkin, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Room Full of Blues, Tom Waits' "Bone Machine", Dennis Miller/Dana Carvey at Lincoln Center, and more. It's actually pretty easy to get through and win stuff. WFMU 91.1 East Orange, NJ Independent of Upsalla College Probably one of the most definitive "college radio" stations. Very free-form, DJ-driven, but still cohesive in style. It doesn't come in good in some parts of the city. WSHU 91.1 Fairfield, CT Sacred Heart University Classical music station in Southern Connecticut (2 transmitters) and Long Island (3 transmitters). They broadcast the many Nat'l Public Radio and Public Radio Int'l shows and provide the classics. WXCI 91.7 Danbury, CT Western Connecticut State University Great "alternative" station. Only switches to the "variety" format on Sundays, with reggae, hiphop, jazz and metal shows and one or two hour slots on Tue and/or Thu nights. Not really a NYC station (comes in only along the I-84 corridor), but it's my local one so indulge me just this one. :-) WXRK 92.3 Manhattan, NY Infinity Broadcasting Guess what - K-ROCK isn't - what's the current format now? it switched formats and is now alternative rock You can listen during the day (after toilet-mouth Howard Stern goes off, before Grease-Man starts at 6PM), overnight, and on weekends - Sunday MORNING is excellent as well WDRE 92.7 Manhattan, NY Boston Phoenix / Village Voice The commercial alternative radio station in NYC. Now UN/Underground Network? Good dance-party live from some club on Friday nights. WNYC 93.9 NPR (NY City municipal radio). Both listener- and City-supported. Great for uninterrupted and sometimes adventurous classical. Sometimes there's talk, though, and they do NPR. No commercials. superb New Age program, called _New Sounds_ ...every night from 11pm to mid-night. Its hosted by John Schaffer [MH: Great program of lots of new music - always something different. Great way to expand your taste in music!] Another amazing show is Hearts of Space - amazing ambient and and otherwise relaxing other-worldly music. Friday Nights midnight - 1am. Both of these programs are good "New Age", not the normally boring elevator music.-MH WPLJ 95.5 (Best hits of 80s and 90s, not too soft, no rap or hard rock) 95.9 maybe a Conn. station WQXR 96.3 NY Times radio. Commercials. Live Metropolitan Opera during the season on Saturday afternoons. Fresh NY Times news.Usually presents whole works, without silly shticks. Unadventurous. I've heard TOO MANY "NYT summaries" on this. MH 96.8?? Another Classical Radio Station WQHT 97.1 (Dance/rap/r&b) Hot 97 WBAI 99.5 IF you can sift through all the talk, preaching to the choir, moral high grounding, and general blathering; for an eclectic blend of well chosen music try WBAI, the Pacifica Foundation. Their news at 6p and rebroadcast at 11 is unsurpassed. A great analysis of Congress from 9-10 am. Excellent music from 10-12 noon. Arts programs from 3-4p and plays/stories read from 4-4:30p. 101.5 New Jersey - Good general-purpose station, some of almost everything. WCBS 101.7 Manhattan, NY - commercial - The oldies station of NYC. Cousin Brucie's show has its moments and stands out; Saturday nights. (Not the same as the syndicated one.) WQCD 101.9 (jazz) WQCD-FM CD 101.9 Popular Jazz, Jazz/Rock Fusion, the sounds of Pat Metheny, Sade, David Sanborn, and others. Good on-air personalities and a limit on talk between song blocks provides a steady stream of music. 102.3 WBAB used to be great(IMO) but not as good anymore. WNEW 102.7 Long Island City, LI - commercial - Standard progressive rock station. Varies widely in how good or bad it gets. Jim Monaham's *Mixed Bag* show on Sunday mornings from 7 to 10am, on WNEW-FM, 102.7, and NEW in general, for Moved from K-Rock to here Check out Vin Scelsa's show on Sunday night only!! 6-hour-marathon folk/acoustic/rock show (Vin Scelsa's "Idiot's Delight" radio show), with oodles of live acts and stuff. Generally acoustic or folk-rock but it can vary. Vin also does book readings sometimes, and plays two songs at once, and same song several times in a row, and all sorts of stuff, but not guarenteed. WKTU 103.5 - new format - NYC's dance station! finally MH (was country) "The Beat of NY" call 1-800-245-1035 for request 103.9 White Plains - General purpose soft-rock station Q104.3 - commercial - Some hard rock / heavy metal mixture In a sense, one of the better "alterna-rock" stations, as the songs played aren't so generic to be boring. Add to this a dash of classic metal, which you might not really hear anyplace else. [MH] Used to be WNCN classical. WMXV 105.1 (Mix/variety pop 70s-80s-90s) WDHA 105.5 from Dover, NJ is a pretty good station (plays too much Bon Jovi, though. IMHO, any Bon Jovi is too much). It may be difficult to get in NYC, but I do know people who live in the city who can get it. WLTW 106.7 Similar to 105.1, but with some harder rock mixed in. WBLS 107.5 Bronx, NYC - commercial - The rap/hiphop station. Very cool, very nice, but not what I was into at the time so I can't give you the freq. It's near very right end of the dial. "The Vibe" MH: Thursdays are live mixing by DJs! Called the Thunder Storm - interesting stuff. Sometimes even mixing in stuff like Kraftwerk, etc! MISC Comments: -- AM: WCBS 880 (news plus incredible sports and weather coverage) -- Well, in spite of the conflict of interest, I'll recommend WFMU (based in East Orange, NJ, and broadcasting at 91.1). Nothing like it in the world, IMHO. You can pick it up in most of NYC, but it can be a little difficult if you're way uptown (like, say, Columbia). BTW, my show airs on Saturdays from noon-3. Cheers. --Dave. dmandl@shearson.com (David Mandl) -- WNEW-FM 102.7 The place where rock lives, home of Scott Muni and the worlds largest and most complete record library. If it was released, they have it. The station has undergone lots of changes over the last two or three years, a series of owners and the loss of popular on-air personalities to a rival station has forced the redirection of the station. More new music, longer blocks of music, and more back to basic classic music is found, as well as concert broadcasts. -- Other excellent stations which I can't receive very well: WSOU (Seton Hall) All heavy-metal college station. WFMU (Upsala) Like WNYU, but better. WFDU (Fairliegh Dickenson) Varies, good weekend alternative and folk programs. -- WABC-AM 770 Talk radio has no better home then at WABC, where else can you have conservatives like Bob Grantand Rush Limbaugh and liberals such as Joy Behar, Lisa and Curtis from the Guardian Angels, and Lynn Samuels all share space and views each day. Add in Mike Kaye with sports, and you have a well-rounded station. Point of interest, check out the James and Joel Show on Sunday evenings from 10:00 till midnight. These two men work for the station, have an open, free forum format, and have strong opinions about the issues of the day. WOR-AM 710 The original NY talk and sports radio station, the mornings have featured the Gambling Family for more years than I can remember. "Rambling with Gambling" is a WOR institution in the mornings, as is Joe Franklin on Saturday nights. Each evening from 10:00 till 1:00 AM, Barry Gray, another fixture of the NY talk radio scene, hold open forum and phones each night. Barry is very fair, and no topic escapes his observation and review. His show is still in the lead during its timeslot, and has kept issues from the NYC scene such as the Crown Heights Murders and the situation at The NY Post alive and open for discussion. And of course, if you like news, there is WCBS-AM 880, and all-news, nothing but news, WINS-AM, 1010. -- Jay Diamond is no longer a conservative, rather, he espouses rather liberal and compassionate views, late afternoons, early evenings (4-7 PM) on WEVD, 1050 AM -- Date: Fri, 26 Mar 93 22:04:56 -0800 From: dx@netcom.com (dx) Subject: Re: Quality New York City Radio Stations? > What radio stations in New York City would people > recommend? I'm looking for suggestions for stations that > people would suggest as quality radio. I'm interested in > all genre of music, and would like to know which radio > stations are worthwhile to listen to. Living in NYC affords you the opportunity of hearing one of FM radio's legendary Gods: Vin Scelsa. He is on Sunday nights, I believe from 8pm until 2am. He's on WXRK (I think it's 92.3). It usually a classic rock station, and has Howard Stern on in the mornings. For for those 6 hours on Sunday nights, it is a radio oasis. Scelsa plays all kinds of music, but even better, he is an amazing story teller. Other than that, fish around below 92 MHz for college stations. If you can get it, WFMU (91.1) out of East Orange, NJ is excellent. -dx -- -- "Some corrective historical lenses should dispel your current sense of apocalyptic vertigo." -Gregory A. Taylor Article 8195 of nyc.general: From: rmrose@phantom.com (Richard M. Rose) Newsgroups: nyc.general Subject: re: alternative radio station Date: 11 Jan 1995 04:39:19 GMT Organization: [MindVox] / Phantom Access Technologies / (+1 [212] 989-2418) Depends on what you mean by alternative. If you mean popular alternative such as the college alternative, I can not help you. If you mean diverse, cutting edge, unpredictable, with a terrific mixture of European, World Music, hilarious, hardcore, Space age Bachelor pad, as well as college radio, pop, with industrial, dance, funk, rap, jazz (even country and classical), etc., etc., etc.... In a word (or two), Truly Free-Form....Try WFMU at 91.1. They broadcast from New Jersey, and sometimes they are tough to pull in, but I can get them in Williamsburgh, Brooklyn. I also pull them in without a hitch in lower Manhattan. Seriously, they are the most diverse, alternative station I have ever listened to. If you do not like what you hear...stay tuned it is bound to change to something you will love (and maybe even learn about).... Richard M. Rose rmrose@phantom.com