WHHS rises from the grave

The self-proclaimed oldest high school station in the country, WHHS Havertown, PA is back on the air at its new home of 99.9. earlier this year the move-in of WSNJ (now WRNB) forced them off the air. [*note the WRDV repeater on 107.9 was also nixed] Radio One engineer, Steve Hemphill helped them win special temporary authority from the FCC to get back on the air at 99.9 immediately. They are currently waiting for license approval at that frequency to be granted.

This is not the first time they've changed frequencies. In 1992 they moved from 89.3 to 107.9, probably to decrease interference with WRDV in Levitttown. WHHS only has a class D license and can be forced off their frequency at any time. Their current frequency of 99.9 is also occupied by WODE in Allentown, PA. *Radio One is kindly accepting some 2nd adjacent interference to WPHI-FMon 100.1

WHHS is a fairly typical highschool radio station in many respects. Excepting that it produces a large number of radio professionals. Their current yield includes DJs at WMGK, WYSP, WXPN, and many other stations.

Remember to do Your Homework!

Three college stations this week lost their licenses because they didn't remember to file their license renewals. The irony to me is that many of these are managed by university faculty; the same faculty that harass students about doing their assignments on time.

KCUI-FM PELLA IA CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
License cancelled and callsign deleted 6/24/2005

KDIC-FM GRINNELL IA GRINNELL COLLEGE TRUSTEES OF IOWA
License cancelled and callsign deleted 6/24/2005
http://kdic.grinnell.edu/

KDPS-FM DES MOINES IA DES MOINES INDEP. COM.SCHOOL DIST
License cancelled and callsign deleted 6/24/2005
http://www.kdpsradio.com/

Earlier this year WUOG in Athens, GA lost their license and went dark for 2 months. Last year WHCE in Richmond lost theirs as well; but did not have the courtesy to go black. The moral of this story? DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

The First Radio Sound Effect

Now that is arcane trivia. It is so arcane in fact, that I am not sure. I do know that the first recorded sound effect was of Big Ben striking 10:30, 10:45, and 11:00. It was recorded on a brown wax cylinder by technicians at Edison House in London. It was recorded July 16, 1890. This is also one of the very few recordings currently in the public domain.

In my mind DJs have always been the same sort of people, and probably jumped on that Sound Effect as soon as the wax cooled. But really, most early sound effects were from Foley work. The wide-spread use of recorded sound effects in radio (live or otherwise) was decades away. Say thanks to Vincent Voice Library at Michigan State University. More here.

Skip Pop Scratch

Great goddamn show with a brilliant show name, it just encapsulates everything archival and intellectual about roots music. Primarily a Triple A, Americana and Roots program; they bravely venture into blues, zydeco, folk, bluegrass and the archival beginings of almost everything else. They are equally likely to play Robert Johnson as the 32-30 Jug Band as Ella Fitzgerald or even Taj Mahal. Site here: http://www.skippopscratch.com/

They are a gleaming, shining three hour slot on KVCU 1190 AM. KVCU is located in Boulder, but manages some secondary coverage of Ft. Collins. Via DX? who knows. You might get lucky.
http://www.radio1190.org/

Years ago they were kind enough to send me an aircheck. You however, now can listen to them on the KVCU-AM web cast: http://www.radio1190.org/1190veryhigh.m3u

The Radio Brand Name Game Part I

Radio Stations have brand names like any other product. At the Top of the hour the DJ never says "You are listening to WJRD 1150AM" Ok, Public Radio uses a full legal ID. And bless them for that, I always know who I'm listening to as I travel.

Regardless above 91.9 on the FM dial the DJ gives a Brand name: "Power 92, B103, 95Rock, Star 102, Mix96 etc. This is different from a slogan. Jack is a brand name. "We play anything" is a branding statement also called a slogan. It's not that different from other product slogans Coke and Pepsi for example: Gotta have it... The Joy of Cola... Can't Beat the Real Thing
More Slogans for brown fizzy water here: http://www.geocities.com/colacentury/

The most over-used Radio Brand names are as follows:
Hot: Anything Hot. Hot Jams, Hot beats, Hot 93, Hot flava, Hot Country. Everything is hot apparently.
Hits; Hits 96, Best hits, Greatest hits... they're selling the best of collection.
Kiss: Kiss FM, Kissing, Kissin', Kiss Country, Kissing Country, Kiss rock... they are very affectionate.
Lite: Lite rock, Lite FM, Lite Miami, Lite Mix, Lite Radio, Lite 100. All low calorie
Magic: Magic 101, Magic FM, Majic, Majik, Magik AC, Soft ac a couple Smooth Jazz
Mix: The Mix, The Mixx, Go Mix, Mix 93, Lite Mix, Favorite Mix, My Mix...
Oldies: Your Oldies, Jammin' Oldies, Oldies stations refer to themselves almost exclusively as Oldies + frequency; Oldies93, Oldies 93.3, Oldies94... there's one for every slot on the dial.
Power: Power 101, Power Jamz, Power 98... always Rap or R&B. Rock stations never have power for some reason.
Rock: Rock 92, Rock 101, 93 Rock, Z-rock no variation here at all, just rock.
Star: Star 100, Star FM there must be 3,000 of these.
Sunny: There is one of these in Philly. To me they seem endangered with the growth of the Jack format. These are universally AC and Soft AC.
The Beat: The beat Jams, 100.3 The Beat... dance CHR, Urban in some markets.
The Buzz: always The Buzz. bad speakers buzz.
The Eagle: Rock and country. They probably boycotted the dixie chicks 6 years ago.
The Edge: just like the buzz except edgier...
The Fox: The Fox Rocks, I cant watch Fox TV. It's like getting your news directly from Dick Cheny. It's just not a reliable resource.
Wild: They're always wild. Rotation is stale but they feel wild. That's whats important.

There is a glut of lesser but still probably licensed brands: The point, The Peak, The Mountain, The Bull, The Hawk, The Zone, The Rooster, The Rocket, The Source, The Score, the Ticket, The River, The Planet, The Lake, The candle, The Club, The Choice, The Core, The Frog, The Coast, The Cat, The Bone, The Bear, The Bay , The Arrow, Praise, Live, Kool, Bob-Tom-Dave-Frank-Jack-Simon-Joe-Mike-Sam-Ben... the whole glut of Jack-like stations.

Then there is a slew of single letter brand names: 99X, La M, J105, B101,K-rock, Z95, Q 92, V103... not terribly imaginative there's a whole set of K's for some reason K-Bull, K-Frog, K-rock, K-Day, K-Dove, K-Hits, K-Earth, K-Happy, K-Jazz, K-Lite, K-Love....

There are a few very orignal brands out there:
KHIP: The Hippo-http://www.thehippo.com/
KFNK: Funky Monkey http://www.funkymonkey1049.fm/
WMJC: The Island, http://www.island943.com/
KEDA-AM: Jalepeno Radio, http://www.keda1540.8k.com/
WMOJ: Mojo 94.9 http://www.mojo949.com/
KMEZ: Old School102, http://www.oldschool1029.com/
WYUU: Outlaw 925, http://www.925country.com/
WQBW: the Brew. http://www.973thebrew.com/main.html
KSOP: The Cowboy, http://www.ksopcountry.com/
KYOT: The Coyote, http://www.kyot.com/

Time to Clean the Elephants Cages

Radio is everywhere. There are radio stations in every nation, on every continent and every island. There even many operating legally (and illegally) from ships at sea. [note, must post about pirate radio at sea] Here is one in particular that amuses me. It is a radio station in a theme park. They run a tape loop of last years Hot AC, with regular inturruptions for public safty, and to route the crowds away from the monkey cages while they hose them out. Great stuff. They even webstream.

Because everyone brings their radio to the amusment park.

92.1 FM WDDQ Adel, GA.
Wild Adventures Information Radio
http://wildadventures.net/welcome.asp
regular admisison $38.95

What market am I in?

Other non-radio types of people dont easily grasp the notion of a market. Its not just a city, its a collection of cities, towns, townships, mudflats and urban sprawl around a major metropolitain area.

Some portions of America are more inportant to a radio man than others. and some do not even exist at all. (in the tree falls in the woods sense) These are called "un-rated market areas." Wyoming contains a whole lot of un-rated market area. Thsi is beacuse its population density hovers around 2 per square mile. or about 400,000 people. i.e. less than the City of Providence Rhode island.

This handy-dandy map color codes everything a radio-man should care about:
http://www.arbitron.com/downloads/Arb_US_Metro_Map_02.pdf#search=

The kind People at Arbitron study this so that I dont have to.

The list is a tad out of date. but you can get a hard biannually updated list here:
http://www.arbitron.com/downloads/bluebook_sp05.pdf

Polka-Classic-Country

Because Polka and Country Oldies go together like Bacon and Eggs.

WTKM 104.9 FM -Hartford, WI about 30 miles North West of Milwaukee. 45 Miles north West of Ripon the birth place of the Republican party. Where they burn a young independant thinker at the stake every year on independance day; to celebrate the proud ignorace that is their birthright. anyway...

Nestled among the picturesque, traditional dairy farms and accordion manufacturers of that region is WTKM. Independantly owned by the Kettle-Moraine Broadcasting Co. they program what they like, and what they want. Apparently this includes the beer barrel polka and a lot of Hank Williams. Actually they do mix in a little big band as well. request polka here: polkas@nconnect.net

Broadcasting on 104.9 and 1540 AM they cover some very valulable real estate stretching between Madison and Milwaukee. Not only is this rich farm land. This is also, expensive radio real estate. Muchy like the case of the WSNJ move-in, this FM could easily get a first service approval for either city. I am certain WTKM has been resisting the traditional industry offerings of cash, stock, hooch, staff positions, and sacrificial viergins. they continue to do radio they way they want. That is respectable. That is enviable. they stream online:
http://www.warpradio.com/player/player.asp?page=Tuner&id=11069&wmpVer=10&br=IE&os=win&country

1-Watt Radio Stations

What is it like to broadcast at one watt? Pirate radio stations operate all over America at low wattage. This is often to prevent or reduce interference and evade discovery. The FCC has been sending in armed ATF agents to shut down pirate radio stations since 2002. That kind of militant overkill is can have the opposit of the intended effect.

Excluding the plethora of historical radio stations which operated at one was (WUMM, WESU etc.) there are also legitimate radio stations operating at 1 watt. First I'm looking only at Class A licenses and old Class D licenses. This excludes the LP class. Here I showcase two that I consider the only perfect examples of the one watt radio station.




WPEB http://www.radiovolta.org/
This station is an infamous  project by that rowdy group of radio activists RADIO VOLTA. Born out of necessity as webcasting station WR2K, they railed against the Republican National Convention that was held in Philadelphia in 2000. They went on to found WPEB because Bush won and they (like many others) were quite disappointing; and wanted a forum for their voices. It has grown since then and has become a genuine West Philadelphia community radio station. Their studios are located in the basement of Calvary Church on Baltimore Ave.

WMSC http://www.montclair.edu/orgs/wmsc/
They were founded in the 1960's under the calls WVMS as a carrier current station on 590 AM. WVMS made the big move to FM on 90.3 getting the WMSC calls in 1973. But interference with WJSV, WFUV and WKCR they were forced to move to 101.5 FM. This was doomed to fail because WKXW in Trenton already had the frequency. Why the FCC approved this no one knows. So they moved back to 90.3 in 1994 and dropped the juice to 1 measly watt. It's still better than cable FM. Montclair State University continues to invest in equipment and support for the station in an era when other institutions are selling off their licenses. The station remains student run. Long live the king.

Jump Blues

I have only once heard this program live. It was in September 2002.

I was in Nashville Tennessee for the Americana Music Association (AMA) Conference. It was the one that Johnny Cash played. It was a strange weekend. Billy Joe Shaver made jokes about losing his fingers tover gambling debts. Bobby Bare Jr. rocked so hard with the innocent criminals that you forgot that Bare Jr. sucked. I bought his new record after years of swearing him off. ...and WRVU 91.1 FM was amazing for two hours.

Nashville Jumps is a program focused exclusivly on a subgene of early rock n' roll called jump blues. Well, at least he calls it jump blues. It runs 8:00am to 10:00am Friday mornings. Host Pete Wilson showers his listeners with selectsions from his seeming unlimited library of the great unknowns that made rock n' roll come alive. It's Artists like: Laverne Ray and Arlene Talley, Peppermint Harris, Jimmy Liggins, Sugar Boy Crawford, Billy "The Kid" Emerson, James Wayne, Mickey Baker, Annie Ross, Jack McVea, Big John Greer...

Hey, I've never heard of them either. But it's geat stuff and that's the point. Pete isnt just a D.J., he's an enthnomusicologist with a mic.
He had a site here: http://www.nashvillejumps.com/
While it appears to be down at the moment, the show lives on.

Email him here: nashvillejumps@aol.com
or here; njumps@nashvillejumps.com

Frequency Allocations

Energy is a vibration.
Starting at a frequency of 1Hz we begin in the infrasonic sange. This is the sub-audible, "audio" range. Next is the acual audible range of sound, about 10Hz to 10Mhz. Most people and animals hear less than that, but let's give our fellow mammals the benefit of the doubt. Then begins the ultra sonic range. The first vibrations to high for humans to hear. Some of that wil certainly irritate your dog though. That is about 10Mhz to 100 Khz.

Then begins radio. AM radio specificly.
AM runs 535 Khz to 1705Khz, actually sharing the last 100 with radio-location
FM runs 88 Mhz to 108 Mhz.

Read on:
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/allochrt.pdf#search=

FM Super-casters

In the United States, Fm radio stations are limited to a maximum ERP (effective radiated power) of 100,000 watts. But some radio stations have been grandfathered in above that bar. Lots of helpful info here:
http://members.aol.com/jeff1070/fm-max.html

The 5 biggest FM's in America are:
#1 WBCT 93.7 Grand Rapids, MI -320,000 watts
#2 WOOD 105.7 Grand Rapids, MI -265,000 watts
#3 WOMC 104.3 Detroit, MI -190,000 watts
#4 WNCI 97.9 Columbus, OH -175,000 watts
#5 WSLQ 99.1 Roanoke, VA -150,000 watts

The top 5 highest HAAT is as follows:
WHOM 94.9 Mt. Washington, ME -1130 meters
KRUZ 103.3 Santa Barbara, CA -915 meters
KPFK 90.7 Los Angeles, LA -846 meters
WIPR 91.3 San Juan, PR -825 meters
WSLQ 99.1 Roanoke, VA -607 meters

But watts alone do not cover maximum area. HAAT (height above average terrain) and the terrain itself are very signifigant to actual contour. )Population density could also be considered a factor as miles of tundra are undesirable.) The practical combination of the two is the real winner.

Largest largest 1 mv/m contours are:
#1 KRUZ103.3 Santa Barbara, CA
#2 KPFK 90.7 Los Angeles, CA
#3 WIPR 91.3 San Juan, PR
#4 WHOM 94.9 Mt. Washington, NH *largest contour over land

NOTE: the largest covered area for a station actually belongs to:
*KAWZ 89.9 Twin Falls, ID http://www.csnradio.com/

While they run at a mere 100,000 watts in Twin Falls, they also simulcast via satellite on 320 repeaters and translators blanketing the U.S. with politically conservative religious talk. Even if each transmitter only covered 1 mile they would reach an area three times that of any legitimate local broadcaster. The FCC ruled that time-shifted satellite programming constitutes "locally originating programming" thus evading the obligation to actually serve the communities they reside in.

If the Russians attack? CONELRAD!

radio was an early casualty of the atomic age...


CONELRAD was born in 1951 as an acronym for "Control of Electromagnetic Radiation." The general idea was to deny the Soviets the ability to home in on specific broadcast stations.

Under CONELRAD all normal broadcasting would stop when a signal was given by the Civil Defense Department. At that time, all broadcasts would either cease or move to the designated frequencies of 640 and 1240 AM. the idea was the if all these transmitters were broadcasting the same synchronized emergency information, they would be unusable for navigation. Stations not broadcasting this signal each were required to monitor that was. (this included even ham radio) CONELRAD had a simple system for alerting the public and other "downstream" stations that consisted of a sequence of shutting the station off for five seconds, returning to the air for five seconds, again shutting down for five seconds, and then transmitting a tone for 15 seconds.

In 1953, all new radios sold were required by law to carry a Civil Defense triangle at 640 and 1240 AM on the dial. The triangles were referred to as CD marks, for Civil Defense. I cant figure out when they were allowed to drop that.

By the early 1960's the development of Soviet missiles had made the CONELRAD system obsolete. This system was succeeded by the EBS system in the 1963. The Emergency Broadcast System, which was less stupid in that stations did not have to change frequencies, some stations still had to be ready to shut down and flip to monitor mode.

Pics of CONELRAD devices: http://www.oldradio.com/current/bc_conel.htm

In 1997 EBS was dropped in favor of an automated system, the Emergency Announcement System or EAS for short. This modern system had the bonus of eliminating the intermediate station monitoring and the reliance on station personel.

Reading Services for the Blind

Braille was invented in 1816 by Charles Barbier. Several improvements were made to the language by Louis Braille including the addition of Musical notaitons in 1821. Braille allowed the blind to read books, magazines and newspapers. But radio made innovations to serve them as well. but with the growing popularity of books-on-tape how long will this novel public service last?

*Currently the FCC actually requires hat one SCA [Subsidiary Communications Authorization] channel in a community (not necessarily on an NCE station) had to be kept for a radio reading service for the visually impaired. http://reader.ku.edu/oldsite/scatech.htm#sca

The first two on this list offer Radio Reading Services as a primary service. The rest as a secondary sideband service that requires a special radio. Other services as noted.

WYPL 89.3 Memphis, TN
http://www.memphislibrary.org/wypl/index.html
The West Memphis Public Library started this station as a closed circuit service reading for the blind. In the beginning, the Memphis Lions Clubs bought specially made radios for visually impaired individuals. By the mid-1980s, there were about 11,000 listeners and 4,000 on the waiting list for the special radio that only carried the service. These days they reach about 2.4 million homes.

WRBH 88.3 New Orleans, LA
http://www.gnofn.org/~wrbh/
On September 12, 1982, WRBH signed on the air. since then they have been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades including being named the 257th Point of Light by President George Bush in 1990.

WWNO 89.9 New Orleans, LA
http://www.wwno.org/
Began offering a reading service on their side band in the 1970s with help from Robert T. McLean. The same Dr. Mclean went on to found WRBH.

WLRN 91.3 Miami, FL
The only reading service for the blind in South Florida and airs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
http://www.wlrn.org/rrs/

KDPS 88.1 Des Moines, IA
http://www.kdpsradio.com/
Iowa Commission for the Blind established a reading service in the 70s.
The service may now be defunct.

WVIA 100.3 Scranton, PA
The estemed Pell reading service launched in 1981. It is supported by a grant foundation of the same name. http://www.wvia.org/resources/prrs.html

WDET 101.9 Detroit, MI
http://www.wdetfm.org/dris/index.php
The Detroit Radio Information Service, a radio-reading service for people with disabilities. Provided by Wayne State University.

WTEB 89.3 New Bern, NC
This reading service is receivable by either sub-channel radios which are loaned free to qualifying individuals, or by televisions which have second audio capability.
http://www.wteb.org/blind.asp

KNOW 91.1 Minneapolis, MN
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/stations/knowksjn/
This may be well the first one adding the service possibly as early as 1969. Reports indicate it may currently be suffering from interference likely caused by a translator on 90.7. The repeater runs christian K-love branded programming via satillite....

WIGH 88.7 Lexington, Tennessee
(no info)

TV on the Radio?

RADIO BROADCAST SERVICES, TITLE 47
TELECOMMUNICATION CHAPTER I; PART 73
Subpart E--Television Broadcast Stations
Sec. 73.653 Operation of TV aural and visual transmitters.
"The aural and visual transmitters may be operated independently of each other or, if operated simultaneously, may be used with different and unrelated program material."

Brilliant.

I can only say they are brilliant. New York city has a full radio band. Its full to the brim. Nobody is powering up, nobody is raising their HAAT, nobody is moving in. The menu today is pretty much going to be it for lunch and for dinner.

So what did they do to impress me so?
They put a Low powered TV station on Channel 6.
Channel 6 is at the very top of the VHF band tunable on most consumer radios at 87.7 FM. Most television Stations on Channel 6 are clearly audible in this way. WPVI-TV in Philadelphia ian ABC affiliate. While I can hear them on my radio it is not geared for that listenership. These stations are very aware of this scenario, BUT very few of them actually pretend to be radio stations.

WNYZ-LP Ch 6 New York City, NY
They even go as far as to distribute WNYZ-FM bumper stickers!
They run Reggaeton and Tropical music videos all day.

KSFV-LP Ch 6 Los Angeles, CA
Nestled on top of Mt. Harvard, they have actually turned up their aural modulation level to simulate the operation of an FM broadcast station. They also have a 19 kHz pilot tone, which may or may not be legal. They also are running Reggaeton and Tropical music videos most of the day. Their video channel features a slide show of religious messages.

K06NC-TV Ch 6 Kauai, HI
www.coastfmkauai.com
"The Coast" Their video side contains factoids on Kauai's history, they run Hot AC on the audio side. Recent reports that they may be going "brokered ethnic" are false. Their format is very popular with the locals and tourists alike. [Thank you Jeff Chang!]

KZND-LP Ch 6 Anchorage, AK
By all reports they are the originators of this technique. They brilliantly took advantage of a 1989 commission decision de-regulating low power television (LPTV) operation to allow this sort of cleverness. Unfortunately there is both a TV channel 5 (KEYS-TV) and an FM 88.1 (KRUA-FM) in Anchorage. They are extremely short-spaced. Actually, it's a wonder they had a license at all. Recently they shut down their signal to make way for their HDTV allocation.

Day Share Agreements

Suppose there is no room left on the radio dial in your City.

This is a rare scenario possibly limited to top 20 markets. (Even Phily had a move in last year right?) But with the current signal auction arrangement only independant millionares and massive media conglomerates can afford alicense. So what is one to do?

Low Power licenses are available with some foot work and some cash. Exciting, intresting ... but of very limited market penetration. LP radio stations are limited to under 100 watts. While there are some very interesting radio staitons out there running under 100 watts, (must do post on 1 watt staitons) they still are servicing a very small community area. Needless to say there is often some fighting over the scraps that are left.

In very rare scenarios there is a fight for the last license in the non-commercial band.
And even more rare, this fight ends with a very harmonious attempt at sharing the license.
Thats right:
one city.
one freqency.
two stations.

Some examples of this very unusual accord

KOOP & KVRX 91.7 Austin, TX
The community of Austin has half the day, the students of U.T. Austin have the other. they fight it out the rest in the parking lot at the Longhorns football games.
http://www.koop.org/
http://www.kvrx.org/


WXUT & WXTS 88.3 Toledo, OH
I dont totally understand this one it appears to be a share between Toledo City High school and U. of Toledo. I dont know how they divide the pie exactly but it appears that WXUT goes into webcast-only mode from 8:00am to 8pm M-F. I suspect that means thats the WXTS schedule. http://www.wxut.utoledo.edu/


WYBF & WXVU 89.1 Radnor, PA
Cabrini Vs. Villanova
I can hear these kids in my backyard. They split the week with WYBF getting Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and friday. the twist is that WYBF runs at 700 watts and WXVU runs at 75. So if you live more than about 5 miles away it just sounds like they take every other day off and go to the beach. Why Villanova dosn't file to up their license I have no idea.
http://www.wybf.com/
http://wxvu.villanova.edu/


WFDU & WNYU 89.1 New York City, NY
WNYU runs 8 hours of programming a day M-F starting at 4:00pm. the rest is WFDU. For the record WNYU broadcasts 24/7 on closed cable 800 AM to the NYU dorms.
http://www.wfdu.fm/
http://www.wnyu.org/


KPSU & KBPS 1450 AM
KPSU leases time from Portland Public Schools 1450AM from 5pm-2am on the weekdays and noon-2am on the weekends. They broadcast 24/7 with LPFM on campus on 98.3fm and on their webstream at kpsu.org.
http://www.allclassical.org/
http://www.kpsu.org/
*Corrected 6/30/05

Polka is an underground cult

Every European nation claims an ehnicity and in America's melting pot they persist; giving us color and flavor. The Polish people gave us polka, when they came to America they brought it with them. It is a genuine American underground. I beleive to this day that the Polish underground of Chicago delivered the election of Kennedy in 1961. So thank a Polish-American today. Today we go to Chicago, a city that can boast more Polka per inch of radio dial than any other american city.

http://www.polskieradio.com/
Starting with the all polka network: Polskinet who's website boasts an annoying liner and a picture of a middle aged bald man: 1030 WNVR-AM, WKTA 1330, and 1430 WEEF. And the independants:
Chicago's Polish Pride -WPNA 1490 actually owned by the Polish National Alliance Which sounds vaguely like the teamsters when you read their literature
http://www.wpna1490am.com/

WNWI 1080 who runs a program of Midwest polka music called "MIDWEST POLKA SOUND" at 1:00pm Sundays. Technically a brokered ethnic station but their schedule consists of only Polish, Serbian, German and Bosnian programming. So,when their not playing Polka they are talking about Polka. This station is a gem: http://www.wnzk.com/wnwi.html

Viking Music

Unless you live in Ely Minnesota you have near heard of WELY. A town not famous for much other than bass fishing and um. yeah that's probably it.

But Sunday mornings from 7am to 9am you can hear Aamuhetki Finnish-American music i.e. the nordic music program. At that early hour its difficult to inspire even the more aggressive swedes to rape, pillage and burn but it's certainly worth trying....
http://www.wely.com/

The station heard on 94.5 and 1450AM was purchased by the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe Indians. at some point in the future I promise to do a peice in the relitively small number of radio staitnos in the US owned by indian tribes.

FACT: For a period of about 2 years, it was owned by Charles Kuralt of CBS.

Ely is also the home of Dirty Dog manufacturing whose logo never ceases to amuse me.
http://www.dirtydogmfg.com/

If you care to visit Ely and do some pillaging I'd start planning your trip here:
http://www.wely.com/

The Rajun Cajun!

Its a long story so I'll try to make it short. France once owned a large portion of America. We purchased it from them in 1803 under President Jefferson for 15 mil. What your history teacher usually skips over is that it was only 1801 when Spain retroceded the entire tract to France . I.e this was not exclusively a French colony.

This massive tract of land was home to a veritable gumbo of ethnicities: French, German, English, Spanish, Russian, Hungarian, Italian, innumerable variety of Caribbean and African peoples and of course the indigenous American Indian tribes such as the Bayougoulas and the Houmas. More here: Creole heritage Center.

These groups mixed, traded and created their own cultures. Specifically I am referring to the Creole. Creole were actually a persecuted minority. They were rejected by popular society and generally misunderstood by white government. Their self-sufficience led them to develop their own languages, their own foods, and most importantly for this post: their own music.
please visit the Cajun French Music association.


There are only two radio stations in American playing Cajun music 24/7.
drum roll please....

1. The Rajun Cajun, KLRZ 100.3FM (also simulcast on KLEB 1600AM.) On Sundays from 7:00pm to 9:00pm they have a program that focuses on Louisiana music and that often per from live.
Here.

2. KBON 101.1 Lafayette, LA (who actually are moving their transmitter from mamou to Lafayette) You can actually listen to them here.

Other radio stations running Cajun programming:
KANE 1240 AM New Iberia, LA (sister station to KLRZ & KLEB)
WBRH 90.3 FM Baton Rouge, LA
KPFT 90.1 FM Houston, TX (sadly they do not syndicate it to the other Pacifica stations)
KBRH 1240 am Baton Rouge, LA
KOOP 91.7 FM Austin, TX (who does a day share with KRVX; gotta do a post on day shares)
KRVS 90.5 FM Lake Charles, LA
KNON 89.3 Dallas, TX (an amazing community station in its own right)
KKAY 1590 AM Baton Rouge, LA
WYNK 101.5 FM Baton Rouge, LA (OVN; they do not list it on their website sadly)
KEUN 105.5 FM Eunica, LA
KLVI 560 AM Beaumont, TX
KCIL 107.5 FM, New Orleans, LA