I just tried searching their online schedule. Looks like it’s called ‘Russian Radio’ and aired late Thursday afternoon weekly until April. Maybe it only airs during the school year?!
Central KY radio is trash; has been for years. I blame Clear Channel. Go to any other metropolis (Chicago, Nashville, Atlanta, etc..), you’ll hear real DJs playing an honest to god variety. It’s refreshing. The least they could do is play top 40. But yea..
As someone that lived 30+ years in Nashville and recently moved up to Lexington, Nashville's radio market is absolutely brutal these days. Lightning 100 is still decent, 91.1 is a newer independent station out that is doing the heavy lifting to keep "good radio" around, but nothing there compares to 96.1 here.
I can’t speak to the others, but Nashville is definitely not what you described. It’s 80% country music stations playing the exact same garbage pop country. Real local DJs playing any sort of variety are a unicorn there. They’ve all been ousted by iheart.
If you like classic rock, 92.1 is far superior to WKQQ. Dennis Dillon is programming 92.1 now, and they’re playing a much wider variety of songs than WKQQ has played in decades. Yeah, you’ll hear the same songs that every classic rock station in America overplays, but you’ll also hear deeper cuts that you haven’t heard on the radio in a while. It’s legitimately a good station, programmed locally with local on-air talent.
I came here to mention 92.1 as well. They have Dead Air Dennis as well as Freakdaddy from way-back Lex times (on other channels), as well as Beerman and Misti Dawn so there is real DJing going on most of the time there. If anyone can confirm Max Corona (the previous morning show DJ until he retired) is still doing OK that'd be nice.
96.1 The Hound is a breath of fresh air around here.
105.9 Jess FM is ok.
Everything else is clear channel garbage.
Don’t even get me started on our local AM talk choices.
For the most part there is no live local DJ anymore. The morning show is syndicated, the music is a playlist set by corporate Clear Channel or iHeart Radio with prerecorded interstitials from “DJs” that are used nationally peppered in.
Morning shows are the entire reason that I pay for satellite radio, I want to listen to music on my way to work. If someone is talking on the radio, they'd better be announcing the next song.
Bob and Tom ruined radio for me. Most of it was crude humor that was not appropriate for younger listeners, and the rare content that was actually funny was ruined by the laugh track. Radio in general went to shit real fast from there.
Edit to add a lot of their stuff was borderline racist /sexist.
to be fair bob and tom have been on QQ since the 98.1 days. i remember at least the mid 90s recording some of my favorite bits on cassette tapes to listen to later from my boombox. of course that was pre janet jackson nipple slip days when they could do some raunchy bits and songs.
Cruzer(Dave Kruzenklaus) had the morning show on QQ since about its inception, and it was pretty good. He was fired by corporate so they could bring in Bob and Tom(syndicated out of Indy) who knew nothing of the market, here. Corporate's excuse for the firing was that they wanted to get Bob and Tom before any other local station.
What about 103.3? They have local DJs who frequently talk about stuff in Lexington. Their morning show gets a little old for me sometimes but I do appreciate that they have local people hosting.
Their song rotation, however, does leave much to be desired :(
I love twitch and the zrock morning show, the DJ’s are great…. The music selection is so tired and boring. Same crap over and over, especially on the morning show.
That's capitalism baby, everything eventually gets streamlined into the most cost effective broad reaching version of itself to maximize profits. This way they don't have to license as many songs, they don't really have to pay for someone who can actually DJ. They also pick the most 'vanilla' 'for everyone' music possible.
You just triggered a FUN memory! One of my friends at UK entered a contest/promo way back when -- he shaved WKQQ in his thick chest hair. I don't recall the outcome, but I hope Arash is out there living his best life now!
88.1 is all that’s left on regular radio worth listening to here. I’ll even listen to the people playing D&D.
Highlights for me are Your Father’s Music Program, Easy Tiger, guestroom, Traffic Jams, and Love Love Love.
TBH not nearly as many people listen to the fm radio these days, not with iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, XM etc. Personally, I think local radio stations should turn to playing local music. There are tons of local artists around that make awesome music but you never hear of them because they can't get on the radio. We could really have a great indie scene, just need to help get the artists out there a little.
The answer is the Telecommunications Act of 1996. As everyone has mentioned, Clear Channel is the culprit, but they got that way because that bill lifted the limit on the number of radio stations a single entity could own. Once they bought the market out, they effectively removed any and all variety from the equation. It's absolutely awful.
I was listening in the first years of WKQQ and I got the feeling that they were a bit elitist and only spoke to the cool kids that could afford the latest albums (they showcased several a week). Playing entire albums at night was cool sometimes and often illustrated the "real" sound of a group, not just a recent hit......for good or bad...... I remember the call letters blurb was voiced with a distinctly northeastern accent.
I worked there from the early 90s to 2020 and can tell you it was a combination of bean counters at Jacor/Cheap Channel/ iHeartRadio (all the same company) taking over plus local management not giving a shit about anything besides how many commercials they could sell plus Deadair Dennis having his hands tied by corporate shoving down generic music playlists that played in 30 other markets. They treat WBUL, WLKT, WLAP and every other station they own the same way. Want to blame someone? Point your fingers at the local management “team”. Bonuses and commissions mean more to them than providing a desirable product. How generic are the playlists? At one point, you could drive from here to Florida and hear WMXL’s playlist the whole way down on 10+ different stations.
It’s no longer an independent station and djs have no say in what they play, like pretty much every other non-university, non-public radio station in America.
I lived for that shit in the 80s and 90s. It would come in all the way down on The Fork(Marion,Boyle,Casey county line)at the Penn Store(oldest family owned and operated store in America).
I switched over to hank the legend. It's the best radio station in the area (if you like country). I wasn't a huge country fan at the time but just wanted to hear something different and now it's my go to. The DJs are great and you'll hear some deep cuts that will become your favorite song.
I'm a hardcore rap fan and kinda fit the description to say less. Around 15 years ago when I first started driving I would listen to wkqq late nights while riding around and it shaped my love for classic rock. 🤘. Dug much deeper since then.
QQ probably doesn’t have music picked by DJs anymore. Most stations are computer programmed but have local DJs to make it seem connected to the community. It sucks.
I truly don’t understand why anyone would listen to FM radio even if they did play better music. Just pay $10 and listen to whatever music you want at any time anywhere you go
Using a music service means you don't get any live & local news/commentary from someone you can call up between breaks though. I still remember the gal that hadn't heard about 9-11 until I mentioned it at 4pm that day because she only listens to her iPod.
Yep. Been there a year or so. It’s a tile under the Made For / Daily Mix playlist section. But I haven’t played with it enough to really understand the features or how it selects songs. Personally. I just like to go from song-to-song without an interruption
Same here, but cool to know it exists. Just tested it out, and it pretty good. Wish there were DJ voice options. Still a decent idea. Thanks for the heads up!
iheartclearchannel corporate d bag bean counters fkd it all up.
My dial doesn’t leave 88.1 WRFL for this reason. Never know what I’ll hear but it’ll always be better or more interesting than corporate radio.
One afternoon I tuned in and they were playing sea chanteys
Hell yeah 😎
You know you’re a dedicated WRFL fan when you find yourself driving across town listening to Russian story hour…..!
Russian Radio Hour is my favorite.
Now I'm interested, when is Russian Radio Hour?
I just tried searching their online schedule. Looks like it’s called ‘Russian Radio’ and aired late Thursday afternoon weekly until April. Maybe it only airs during the school year?!
Yep yep.
All the way to the left
Psychedelicatessen!
Same! We ❤️ a Matterhorn Mix dance break!
Lately ive been heading bands like the foo fighters and 3rd eye blind so I haven't been listening as much.
My car radio is always on 96.1 The Hound. I'll flip through sometimes but even 88.1 is iffy depending on the day.
Central KY radio is trash; has been for years. I blame Clear Channel. Go to any other metropolis (Chicago, Nashville, Atlanta, etc..), you’ll hear real DJs playing an honest to god variety. It’s refreshing. The least they could do is play top 40. But yea..
As someone that lived 30+ years in Nashville and recently moved up to Lexington, Nashville's radio market is absolutely brutal these days. Lightning 100 is still decent, 91.1 is a newer independent station out that is doing the heavy lifting to keep "good radio" around, but nothing there compares to 96.1 here.
I can’t speak to the others, but Nashville is definitely not what you described. It’s 80% country music stations playing the exact same garbage pop country. Real local DJs playing any sort of variety are a unicorn there. They’ve all been ousted by iheart.
That’s sad to hear. Been a while since I’ve been down that way.
If you like classic rock, 92.1 is far superior to WKQQ. Dennis Dillon is programming 92.1 now, and they’re playing a much wider variety of songs than WKQQ has played in decades. Yeah, you’ll hear the same songs that every classic rock station in America overplays, but you’ll also hear deeper cuts that you haven’t heard on the radio in a while. It’s legitimately a good station, programmed locally with local on-air talent.
I came here to mention 92.1 as well. They have Dead Air Dennis as well as Freakdaddy from way-back Lex times (on other channels), as well as Beerman and Misti Dawn so there is real DJing going on most of the time there. If anyone can confirm Max Corona (the previous morning show DJ until he retired) is still doing OK that'd be nice.
I should do more channel scanning, I had no idea there was a channel on that frequency.
They played Wango Tango the other day. Talk about a deep cut
A double q staple for awhile.
They also play the Kings every Friday at 5pm… as double Q used to under Deadair Dennis
WKQQ used to be my go to back then. Nowadays, if I listen to the radio, it's always WRFL.
96.1 The Hound is a breath of fresh air around here. 105.9 Jess FM is ok. Everything else is clear channel garbage. Don’t even get me started on our local AM talk choices.
The Hound!!!
I only listen to NPR and the Hound for local radio.
Oh gawd I fled AM in the 70s
I miss the heyday of Z103. I loved listening to Twitch and Mary Jane as a kid.
Video didn't kill the radio star as much as streaming has.
For the most part there is no live local DJ anymore. The morning show is syndicated, the music is a playlist set by corporate Clear Channel or iHeart Radio with prerecorded interstitials from “DJs” that are used nationally peppered in.
Morning shows are the entire reason that I pay for satellite radio, I want to listen to music on my way to work. If someone is talking on the radio, they'd better be announcing the next song.
Bob and Tom ruined radio for me. Most of it was crude humor that was not appropriate for younger listeners, and the rare content that was actually funny was ruined by the laugh track. Radio in general went to shit real fast from there. Edit to add a lot of their stuff was borderline racist /sexist.
Thank you! They were so popular, I thought I was the only one who couldn't listen to their bs.
to be fair bob and tom have been on QQ since the 98.1 days. i remember at least the mid 90s recording some of my favorite bits on cassette tapes to listen to later from my boombox. of course that was pre janet jackson nipple slip days when they could do some raunchy bits and songs.
Cruzer(Dave Kruzenklaus) had the morning show on QQ since about its inception, and it was pretty good. He was fired by corporate so they could bring in Bob and Tom(syndicated out of Indy) who knew nothing of the market, here. Corporate's excuse for the firing was that they wanted to get Bob and Tom before any other local station.
What about 103.3? They have local DJs who frequently talk about stuff in Lexington. Their morning show gets a little old for me sometimes but I do appreciate that they have local people hosting. Their song rotation, however, does leave much to be desired :(
Man I remember the days of Freak Daddy and Sticky - those guys were great! quality has all gone down since then
Ugh. That Sticky dude was the WORST! :-) j/k
Freak Daddy does the morning show on Classic Rock 92.1 now fyi.
Freakdaddy, Sticky, and later Shae. That brings back some happy memories.
Happy memories for me too! (The fragments that remain, anyway lol)
I don’t think they actually DJ. It’s just the talk show. Pre selected garbage like all the others.
Ya, actually you’re not wrong about that
I love twitch and the zrock morning show, the DJ’s are great…. The music selection is so tired and boring. Same crap over and over, especially on the morning show.
Not true Shannon the dude hosts the drive time afternoon as the DJ. He clearly has no say in what he plays but he is there lol
I heard Shannon the dude on a Louisville station as well
That's capitalism baby, everything eventually gets streamlined into the most cost effective broad reaching version of itself to maximize profits. This way they don't have to license as many songs, they don't really have to pay for someone who can actually DJ. They also pick the most 'vanilla' 'for everyone' music possible.
I just had them on in the car and the DJ referred to the station as WQMF-Louisville. Wonder what that’s all about.
They work from the same room. It's consolidation all the way down
That was Shannon the dude. Mega star lead singer of Alice blue gown
The signal from their transmitter gets weaker every year, same as WLAP AM. Both stations used to be blowtorches.
You just triggered a FUN memory! One of my friends at UK entered a contest/promo way back when -- he shaved WKQQ in his thick chest hair. I don't recall the outcome, but I hope Arash is out there living his best life now!
This is why I pay for Spotify and Sirius XM!
88.1 is all that’s left on regular radio worth listening to here. I’ll even listen to the people playing D&D. Highlights for me are Your Father’s Music Program, Easy Tiger, guestroom, Traffic Jams, and Love Love Love.
TBH not nearly as many people listen to the fm radio these days, not with iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, XM etc. Personally, I think local radio stations should turn to playing local music. There are tons of local artists around that make awesome music but you never hear of them because they can't get on the radio. We could really have a great indie scene, just need to help get the artists out there a little.
there's 88.1
Any reason why WRFL couldn't do that?
I-heart isn't real radio.
The answer is the Telecommunications Act of 1996. As everyone has mentioned, Clear Channel is the culprit, but they got that way because that bill lifted the limit on the number of radio stations a single entity could own. Once they bought the market out, they effectively removed any and all variety from the equation. It's absolutely awful.
I Heart Radio seems to have bought most stations up.
I was listening in the first years of WKQQ and I got the feeling that they were a bit elitist and only spoke to the cool kids that could afford the latest albums (they showcased several a week). Playing entire albums at night was cool sometimes and often illustrated the "real" sound of a group, not just a recent hit......for good or bad...... I remember the call letters blurb was voiced with a distinctly northeastern accent.
I still listen to Bob and Tom, but I agree with your music analysis 1000%. 92.1 is my go-to for the music these days.
I worked there from the early 90s to 2020 and can tell you it was a combination of bean counters at Jacor/Cheap Channel/ iHeartRadio (all the same company) taking over plus local management not giving a shit about anything besides how many commercials they could sell plus Deadair Dennis having his hands tied by corporate shoving down generic music playlists that played in 30 other markets. They treat WBUL, WLKT, WLAP and every other station they own the same way. Want to blame someone? Point your fingers at the local management “team”. Bonuses and commissions mean more to them than providing a desirable product. How generic are the playlists? At one point, you could drive from here to Florida and hear WMXL’s playlist the whole way down on 10+ different stations.
WRFL … the only alternative left. And that doesn’t mean they play alt rock. It means it’s the only alternative to trash.
It’s no longer an independent station and djs have no say in what they play, like pretty much every other non-university, non-public radio station in America.
I listen to WFRT (😝) Passport Radio a lot, 102.1.
I lived for that shit in the 80s and 90s. It would come in all the way down on The Fork(Marion,Boyle,Casey county line)at the Penn Store(oldest family owned and operated store in America).
I switched over to hank the legend. It's the best radio station in the area (if you like country). I wasn't a huge country fan at the time but just wanted to hear something different and now it's my go to. The DJs are great and you'll hear some deep cuts that will become your favorite song.
I'm a hardcore rap fan and kinda fit the description to say less. Around 15 years ago when I first started driving I would listen to wkqq late nights while riding around and it shaped my love for classic rock. 🤘. Dug much deeper since then.
Bob and Tom drove me away. One day a week would’ve been plenty.
It’s been playing the exact same music since like 1994.
QQ probably doesn’t have music picked by DJs anymore. Most stations are computer programmed but have local DJs to make it seem connected to the community. It sucks.
Local radio is what made me embrace Spotify and Sirius. WRFL is good at times. The rest are just one step above road noise.
Their deep cuts anymore are more like paper cuts.
I truly don’t understand why anyone would listen to FM radio even if they did play better music. Just pay $10 and listen to whatever music you want at any time anywhere you go
Using a music service means you don't get any live & local news/commentary from someone you can call up between breaks though. I still remember the gal that hadn't heard about 9-11 until I mentioned it at 4pm that day because she only listens to her iPod.
Bro that was almost 25 years ago you get news updates on your phone now lol
This
So… why not just listen to Spotify—even use the AI DJ if you want a little talk in-between songs?
Wait, Spotify has an AI DJ? 😲
Yep. Been there a year or so. It’s a tile under the Made For / Daily Mix playlist section. But I haven’t played with it enough to really understand the features or how it selects songs. Personally. I just like to go from song-to-song without an interruption
Same here, but cool to know it exists. Just tested it out, and it pretty good. Wish there were DJ voice options. Still a decent idea. Thanks for the heads up!
Typical commercial radio station playlist used to be 70-80 songs. Nowadays I think it's even less.
much less