South Bay HD Radio Woahs

Well it seems like the Kfog 10 at 10 HD2 station is now dead.  I have heard nothing for several days from the station and sent and email with no response.  That is sort of sad as I liked the station, even if it had a too shallow rotation of programs.  They played full programs of the 10 at 10 radio program.  These are about a half hour to forty five minutes in duration.  They included various sound bites and whatnot.  The 70's and 80's ten at ten programs were my favorite but they were all good.

On a positive note the KOIT HD 2 station has switched over into its holiday mode.  That is pretty fun if you need getting into the mood.  They should be playing more of the fun right now and get more serious as the season wears on.  They will switch back sometime around the 16th when their standard station takes on the Christmas tunes.  Krampus would be happy with the music.  My one quibble here is they have a huge Christmas library and you often here some odd ball versions of songs.  At least for now I would prefer the definitive versions of each song.  Peggy Lee is always going to be my preference over Amy Grant. for Rocking around the Christmas Tree.

More Metal than You

I am not sure but I may be done with The Bone 107.7, and the reason is Madden.  I can't really believe I am saying this but he is worse than Lamont and Tonelli.  While the morning show staff are hackneyed Madden offends me on a visceral level. The term constantly springing to mind is Poseur. Paul Baloff would cream this creep.

The bone has been in a slide for years, really since Billy Steel left the air.  Under Larry Sharps, cooperate schil, deft hands the station slowly threw out the format that made them special in favor of a more generic AOR format.  Really they have returned to the format KSJO held prior to their format change.  This slide has continued under Derek Madden's guidance, only more so.  Listening today I found something truly generic, bland and soulless.

The problem with Madden is he seems a neophyte to the classic rock genre.  As an on air personality he comes off clueless, with utterly boring and wrote comments on who he considers paragons of the rock genre.  This certainly isn't metal!  One should know what has come before and understand where it all came from.  Thin Lizzy, UFO, Beckett and Deep Purple should be well known bands by any Iron Maiden fan.  Madden seems a product of the modern rock genre.

I have stated this before but I could easily see a station coming up and using The Bones old format, do put them out of business.  Just use the KOME call letters and you have a built in fan base.  Play something that hasn't been drilled into my head for twenty five years and you have another.

Signal to Noise ( My trouble with HD Radio) part 2

I guess I should follow up my post on HD radio with a little bit on Kfog, in the interest of being fair. Kfog just as a conventional radio station broadcasts on two frequencies in my area; 104.5 and 97.7. The 97.7 channel has its broadcast towers here in the south bay.

For the HD 2 station the signal is good and I don't have those annoying buffering moments I do with other stations out of SF. The content is there 10 and 10 rebroadcast. I guess that can be interesting if you get a year you like. If not then you have ten songs to wait through.

In general I don't really thing this HD thing is going to catch on. Its nice to feel that you are in a secret club that gets to hear something few others do, but that isn't going to go very commercial.

Also to be honest I have trouble finding regular stations that play music I like. If the music isn't succeeding on normal radio why are they going to keep playing the music on another radio station.No listeners and already struggling for content really doesn't give me hope.

Signal to Noise ( My trouble with HD Radio)

HD radio is a bit of a broken promise. My thoughts after a couple months of driving and listening in South Silicon Valley.

I am not sure if the HD stations are in fact clearer. They seemed clear before on conventional radio. I really do not hear a marked improvemnt, though I have very bad ears and am not the best person to ask about audio.

Is the song information nice? Yes well really sort of. If you are like me you can identify most songs after just a few notes. At least on the radio stations you commonly listen too. If you listen to college radio they do not often provide this information.

Those hidden radio stations they talk about have mostly been a fail for me. If you do not have a solid signal the radio does not play anything, it just goes to buffering. This can be very annoying, but is worse than you thing. These sub stations have super weak signal strength and are constantly buffering. San Francisco stations are ok when driving in Mountain View but basically non existent in south san jose.

As for stations I really like the live 105 classic station. It's pretty much what I expected and is nice to hear the old live 105 back on the radio. The Bone HD 2 is the other station I listen to or try to listen to. They should call it Wolfmother radio as that is the only group I know. It seems to be quasi screamo crap 24/7. I could probably program a better station and one of the many internet radio stations certainly do.

My wish would be KFOX to give Greg Stone the HD2 station and have an all progressive rock station, but some people would call that hell im sure.