Best Radio Host: Lauren Gilger, KJZZ
Best Radio Station: KWSS-LP
Best Radio Station: KWSS-LP
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New Times Best of Phoenix
- Thread starter indieradioguy
- Start date
Who?
Yeah. The New Times for decades has managed to select media "honorees" who are the least listened to on the least known stations in the Valley of the Sun.
I am waiting for the Media Hut to give a full and perceptionated* analysis.
Perceptionated. Adj. Seen from an obtuse and nefarious angle with no required visibility of reality.
Wait, I thought KJZZ had an audience. They have more in depth news coverage than KTAR, given what it's worth.
KWSS is a New Times favorite not because it's a great radio station (I don't think you can hear it the ASU campus without streaming it, and it the sound quality is still like a low-bitrate MP3 after all these years), but they love that it has no corporate control. It fits with the New Times' counterculture brand.
Yeah, I don't know what the New Times Best Of list generally looks like in Phoenix, but here they get some things right for sure, but other picks are questionable if not laughable, some of the "categories" are written so specifically that only 1 business in the entire market could be a fit for it, and there's always chatter of businesses possibly paying to get their name on the Best Of list so they can get the plaque, use the win in their advertising collateral to try and attract more patrons, etc.
Dunno...we're too preoccupied with the coming of All Ho-Ho-Ho Music on 99~Nine. Just don't understand why the NewTimes continuously overlooks Steve Goddard on KAZG - he's on the air seven days a week!
That in a word sums up the essence of what it is Nurse Jeff and I do at the Buckeye Media Hut... (but let's keep it a secret)
I don't think KWSS is going to shut down/change their format any time soon unless they run out of money. It's a very shoestring operation.
Nice work!
You can say that about some of the bigger stations in the market, too!
True. Mostly on the AM dial though.
Well, that even beats Limbaugh, who was on 5 days a week even after he left for the very clear channel in the sky.
If this is voted by the readers, not surprised the honorees are not the most-listened-to stations/hosts. They probably didn't vote McDonald's best restaurant either.
I've been streaming KWSS for a bit and quite like the music mix. Pretty rare to see a commercial eclectic music station these days.
I've been streaming KWSS for a bit and quite like the music mix. Pretty rare to see a commercial eclectic music station these days.
If it's like the New Times in at least some other cities, they post a 'reader's poll" on their website for a few weeks prior to the publication of the 'Best Of" issue, where they'll list up to 3 businesses within each listed category and subcategory for readers to click on to vote, or you can type in your own if you don't see your favorite listed. You can "vote 1 time per day for all your favorites in multiple categories".
That said, it's difficult to know how many actually go to the website and vote, if most voters just click on one of the 3 choices listed or if they take the time to write in a favorite, how the publication deals with misspellings or alternate spellings for a given business, or if the publication even takes the reader's poll into partial or full consideration when making their final selections. It's far from a scientific poll for sure.
Also, as someone eluded to above, the New Times is generally not considered "mainstream media". In one city where I've lived, most anyone could contact them and submit articles, they didn't seem to be very selective and at that time, authors weren't paid for postings that only made it on their website, but did get some cash if their articles made it into the print version. In one case I recall chatting with a group of friends, one of whom sometimes wrote for the New Times. She asked us where we all went now that XYZ bar, which was very popular and always busy, had closed. We all threw out our suggestions and voila! Unbeknown to us at the time, she'd gathered all our comments and suggestions and turned them into an article which the New Times printed and paid her for a few weeks later. Again, not terribly high journalistic standard at times.
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Speaking of secrets, why is a town in the desert named after Ohio's state tree?
And then, of course, why is a town named Goodyear when the only rubber in the area is sold at drug stores?
A hundred years ago, the company bought a LOT of land in the area.
According to her KJZZ bio, Lauren Kilger previously worked for the New Times. Whether it is the staff or the readers who are the main source of influence on these awards, they apparently liked her work in the paper.
Oh, I'm aware of that. It still seems as odd as does Truth or Consequences, NM.
And when I moved to the PHX area 50 years ago, people in my family in Ohio asked whether I had TB.
The land was used to grow cotton. Strands of woven cotton were used in the production of Goodyear tires. So how come the Goodyear blimp doesn't show up in its namesake town? The only blimps Nurse Jeff and I've seen are at the all you can eat restaurants!
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