Interesting Formats

I want to hear about non-coms with unique, or at least rare, formats:
Lots of NPR news/talk, even more Christian contemporary and gospel, some exclusively classical, traditional jazz (WDNA), a few Pacifica stations (WMNF), of course college and school board stations, and a few light pop stations (KLUX, WKTZ).

We know of a small number of AAA formatted stations (WFUV, KKXT, KCMP), a Christian hip-hop station (WJFP) and the only actual unique non-com station that I know of is this one.

There must be others out there, where are they?

WJFF in Jeffersonville, NY is an interesting station, lots of locally-produced programming.

The rarest format is probably the 24/7 farm report. I believe only a handful of stations still do that. One could argue there's only five Pacifica stations in the entire US, so that sort-of counts...although what the Pacifica stations actually BROADCAST is heard on many stations besides Pacifica outlets.

WJFD in New Bedford, MA is (was?) the only station I know of that had an all-Portuguese format, though. But I'd wager there's a least a few others that do the same. I'm inclined to think there's probably stations in Alaska or Hawaii that air something pretty unique to their unique landscapes. ???

The trick is that a station has to do it all the time. There's lots of stations that'll do a particularly rare format for a few hours a day or once a week; that doesn't count in my book.

Of course, ask any college radio station and they'll angrily insist that no other station in the country plays what they play. :

The promise of LPFM is that they will deliver more diverse programming (KYGT?) but I am only including @ least class A equivalents.

Well LPFM promises a lot of things that it'll never deliver. But to be fair, LPFM supporters were promised a lot of things they never got, either.

ai4i said:

the only actual unique non-com station that I know of is this one.

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ai4i, I'll have to agree with you that Appleton's WOVM ("Avenue 91.1") is unique, but just plugging into an otherwise commercial 24/7 satellite music format and stating in your EEO filing that "WOVM has fewer than 5 employees... (and) programming is managed by Timeless Cool, Inc." borders on abuse of the entire public-and/or-community radio concept, doesn't it? When you can have a staff meeting in a booth at McDonalds and your "station" is little more than an FM repeater spitting out pop standards... and the "work" involved is making sure the switch is in "up"... it's really a stretch. No people. No real service.

I'll cast a vote for each of the individual Pacifica stations. Yeah, they each use a little content produced elsewhere, but the bulk of what each station does is locally-produced and locally-focused. The programming you hear on DC's WPFW you certainly won't hear in Omaha or Pensacola or Seattle or Buffalo...

"Interesting" and "unique or rare" are two different things.

I'd say the most "interesting" public radio format is news and information. I find it interesting. In the markets in which it is available, it seems to get more interest (more listeners, more pledge dollars) than alternative public radio formats. Maybe that's why station managers also find it interesting.

There's not a lot of unique or rare formats. Classical or news-classical. Jazz or jazz-classical. AAA or acoustic/folk. Hodge-podge of different music genres played by volunteer DJs (although most stations of this type are non-commercial but not true public radio stations). And then there's Pacifica. If there's anything out there that doesn't fit into any of the above, I'd say it's unique.

You might be confusing interesting with popular. Fords and Chevies have always been popular, but it would be difficult to argue that the Citroen DS series with its fully hydropneumatic systems was not more interesting.

Wait...what about WOVM is "unique"? It's jazz and blues...there's dozens of stations like that across the country. Well, maybe not "dozens" anymore, but there's still a few!

ai4i said:

You might be confusing interesting with popular. Fords and Chevies have always been popular, but it would be difficult to argue that the Citroen DS series with its fully hydropneumatic systems was not more interesting.

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Depends on what you mean by "interesting." You might be confusing "different" with "interesting."
Interesting: adj. Engaging or exciting and holding the attention.

The major basis of defining "interesting" in radio is TSL. People lose interest and they stop listening. Radio enthusiasts like to talk about off-the-wall formats (unique, different) but the basis for that interest is not the same as real world listeners. Somebody sticks their neck out and tries to do something different: Good for them. Radio, especially today, needs more of that. Sometimes it works; most of the time it doesn't. Citroen is not part of most people's consideration set, not even engineers and car enthusiasts. Hybrids and electrics are now and people are buying them (or starting to); that's interesting.

MP3 players and Smartphones are interesting (i.e., have buzz); HD radio is not (nobody outside the biz talks about it or cares about it).

Your use of interesting is more like apealing, while mine is eclectic, diffierent, makes one scratch their head and go "hmm, that's interesting (or curious)". Not an argument, just an observation.