I love radio. I always have...

Now granted, I'm an old fart and still remember when radio was fun! Now a-days (for the most part) radio had been cloned and spread around the country (I am a dirty Amurikan, y'all and can't comment on radio 'round the world - though I bet the next statement would apply to wherever you find your bad self). I remember being struck - after moving to Tennessee from So Cal that the radio here sounds eggzackly the same as on the west coast, i.e. BORING and uninspired!

So... what were some of y'all's favorite radio shows whilst growing up?
Are there shows on now where you live that live up to the glory that radio once was, and could be if good radio was allowed... even encouraged?

Speak (or, type)!

KRLA was the best "oldies" station in LA hands down. They played real 50s and 60s rock n roll/R&B/instros/etc. as their regular playlist. KRTH was OK, more generic (from what I remember). I hardly listened to it. Today KRTH is just laughable. It's such a pile of shit that it should not even exist anymore. Who listens to that shit? As Mike said, KROQ in the 70s and early 80s was really good. I agree with that. It WAS really good. My older brother was a mod/rude boy back in the late 70s/early 80s and he would listen to KROQ and they played lots of different stuff. Hell I even remember the "Freeze Disease" play Johnnny Chingas "Se Me Paro" for chrissakes!! KCBS (93.1FM) was an oldies station for about 1 year and they played pretty good stuff too... THE SURF (1260AM) was an oldies station that started in the early 2000s for about 2 years and THAT was an AMAZING station. They played oldies ala KRLA and didn't venture past 1966 or so. They had specialized shows on the weekends such as "Finger Poppin and Snappin" which was pure R&B and "dance" records. It was soooo great. Then one day it was gone. It's back again as RETRO, but they play more "swing" and "lounge" stuff now. However at nights and on weekends they play just 50s/60s oldies so that's a good time to tune in. Art Laboe is still on the air on 92.3 every night, but his show is so different than how it used to be. Every so often he plays a gem, but it's getting rare. Rockin Rod Strychnine said:

Well, I've been in the Seattle area for close to 25 years. Moved here in 1984 (which was a great year to do so). But every so often, I'd look at the websites of some of the stations from Los Angeles and they don't seem to different from anywhere else in the States. Yeah, KRTH (K-Earth 101) did generify. I remember when I lived there that they had a Number 1 records weekend (KRTH had the best weekends) and heard Jose Jimenez' Astronaut skit. Never heard that anywhere else.

As for Real Don Steele, I never heard of him until I heard that Don and the Goodtimes song "I'm Real". But I don't think he was on any oldies station until after I moved away.

Mike said:

I forgot about KRTH, they were good too, the Real Don Steel was on there for a long time wasn't he? Or was that KRLA? But at some later point in time I think they dumbed down their playlist to just the standard generic national charting oldies. Are they still around? Even KLOS and KMET were miles above what is out there now. You had real DJ's still. Jim Ladd is still on KLOS late at night. I'll hear him once in a while at work, and he'll actually suprise me with something good once in a while in between his griping about the state of radio today.

This guy has a lot of KROQ recordings, and even some KMET stuff from the 70's and mostly 80's for download.

http://fromthegarage.blogspot.com/

Well, I've been in the Seattle area for close to 25 years. Moved here in 1984 (which was a great year to do so). But every so often, I'd look at the websites of some of the stations from Los Angeles and they don't seem to different from anywhere else in the States. Yeah, KRTH (K-Earth 101) did generify. I remember when I lived there that they had a Number 1 records weekend (KRTH had the best weekends) and heard Jose Jimenez' Astronaut skit. Never heard that anywhere else. As for Real Don Steele, I never heard of him until I heard that Don and the Goodtimes song "I'm Real". But I don't think he was on any oldies station until after I moved away. Mike said:

I forgot about KRTH, they were good too, the Real Don Steel was on there for a long time wasn't he? Or was that KRLA? But at some later point in time I think they dumbed down their playlist to just the standard generic national charting oldies. Are they still around? Even KLOS and KMET were miles above what is out there now. You had real DJ's still. Jim Ladd is still on KLOS late at night. I'll hear him once in a while at work, and he'll actually suprise me with something good once in a while in between his griping about the state of radio today.

This guy has a lot of KROQ recordings, and even some KMET stuff from the 70's and mostly 80's for download.

http://fromthegarage.blogspot.com/

I forgot about KRTH, they were good too, the Real Don Steel was on there for a long time wasn't he? Or was that KRLA? But at some later point in time I think they dumbed down their playlist to just the standard generic national charting oldies. Are they still around? Even KLOS and KMET were miles above what is out there now. You had real DJ's still. Jim Ladd is still on KLOS late at night. I'll hear him once in a while at work, and he'll actually suprise me with something good once in a while in between his griping about the state of radio today. This guy has a lot of KROQ recordings, and even some KMET stuff from the 70's and mostly 80's for download. http://fromthegarage.blogspot.com/

I really feel sick that I didn't appreciate KROQ like I should have. I did listen to KRLA (my favorite was Humble Harve. He'd finish his night with Blues Theme and that was back in 1980) but I also listened to KRTH. Between 1979 and 1984, I thought they were pretty great. In fact they used local LA charts from the sixties rather than Billboard charts in determining what they'd play. So you got the Standells, Seeds, Love, and THEM. In LA, the Shadows of Knight did NOT exist. I remember KPFK for blues stuff. But fool that I am, I also listened to KLOS and KMET. The only upside to that was getting to hear all the early Stones and Who albums in their entirety. And KMET had the Dr. Demento show. Mike said:

In Los Angeles we had KRLA as Sectmaniac pointed out. It was an oldies station but nothing like what you'd consider oldies radio now days, at least in the 70's & 80's. All of the DJs had knowledge of the music and were there when these bands were playing and putting out records and they seemed to have a say in what they played, especially in the evenings when they'd take requests and dedications. Art Laboe used to do a lunch time thing in the early 80's where he'd take one act and go through the history of the artist and play tracks etc. Does the mainstream "oldies stations' even play songs like '60 Minute Man' 'Pledging My love' 'Hully Gully' 'Big Boy Pete' 'Corrido Rock' or 'Slow Down' anymore.
But growing up I think Rodney Bingenheimer on KROQ had the biggest influence on my musical tastes. When I was 14 his show was on for 4 hours each Saturday and Sunday night 8-12. Cutting his teeth in the 60's, Rodney would play stuff like Love, the Leaves, Standells, Seeds, Chocolate Watch Band, etc etc, but he'd also play the latest Black Flag demo, then the Crawdaddys, followed by the Exploited and then maybe a Crowd song right after. He'd have the Ventures or Surfaries in studio and then Frankie & Anette, then the next week X, or Blondie, or Stiv Bators. His show is just a shadow of its former self hidden away on Monday morning from 12-1am or something. Back then, even outside of Rodney's show, you'd never know what they would play next during the day. You may hear some Missing Persons song follwed by a Fear track.
Another good station here in the late 70's early 80's was KNAC before they went metal (although they did set the standard for 80's metal radio), lot's of Punk and "new music" as they called it. They'd interview bands from the Cheifs, to Rhino 39, to the Adolescents etc etc.
Then there was listener supported KPFK that had Bo Clifford on late Saturday nights playing lots of underground stuff followed by 12 O'Clock Rock with Andrea Enthal. She even had Chris D. of the Flesheaters sit in for her sometimes. He would play an amazing selection of music too.

Now today's LA Radio is pretty much irrelevant in my opinion. The only salvation is college radio . KXLU has various decent programs, but I mainly listen to Stella's show "Stray Pop" which she has been doing for damn near 30 years I think and the Reverend Dan's "Music For Nimrods" show. that follows Stray Pop, but they are on Midnight to 6 am Sunday morning, so who really get's to listen? KCSN also has a decent oldies show where you'll hear some obscure early R&B. the only thing I listen to on KPFK anymore is Rhapsody In Black where you'll here some good blues and pre-RnR Rhythm & Blues.

With all that said, it's internet radio and the podcasts here that is where it's all at for me now, though I do find myself listening to WFMU a lot now via their iPhone application.

I stopped listening to the radio when John Peel died. I also used to listen to Andy Kershaw back in the day, before he went all freakaziod, lost his mind and started stalking his ex-wife [something like that, anyway]. I can't remember them ever playing much garage stuff but i really used to dig their constant curve-balling of Cumbian music, alternative hip-hop, industrial noise, weird shit and dub reggae. Although i'm sure it was John Peel who got me into Man... Or Astro-Man?

Joe's Garage said:

Growing up in Miami Florida in the '60s we had two great AM stations: WQAM / Tiger Radio and WFUN. They had a bunch of jocks like Rick Shaw and a slew of others I can't recall at the moment.

Roby Yonge Dan Chandler Jim Dunlap Lee Sherwood Mike Harvey

Cousin Brucie was pretty iconic on WCBS-FM in the 80's. We're about 5 years apart, so he might not have been so prominent when you were growing up. By the late 90's, I think U2 was considered "oldies" and the station wasn't so hot anymore. By the time I hit my mid teens I had found WFMU and being situated upstate in Orange County also listened to Vasser College's WVKR. Two local radio stations were the craptastic WRRV, the Rock Revolution, out of Middletown, and Poughkeepsie's WPDH, The home of Rock n Roll, an equally craptastic station geared towards the parents of the kids who listened to WRRV (or vice versa). I guess Woodstock's WDST has the most integrity for being a "mainstream" station that plays some folky, indie, hispter stuff, but nothing that would be considered garage punk. And it was outta range so I never really listened to it growing up. I think I'm really glad I grew up with WCBS-FM. Along with all the vintage 50's classics, they played a lot of garage staples like Hang on Sloopy and Louie Louie mixed in with the British invasion and more obscure Nuggets stuff. Definitely instilled an appreciation for the sounds of real rock n roll. Ed Post-Mortem said:

I remember listening to WCBS-FM in New York, but by that time the station was just like any other mediocre Oldies station, and no one ever really stood out to me on air.
WFMU's "Music to Spazz By" and "Teenage Wasteland" are both great shows, "Three Chord Monty" is good too. I didn't really hear about that station till I was packing shit up and moving to Colorado 5 years ago, but it's the oldest freeform station in the country and 100% listener supported.
There's a show out here that broadcasts on the University of Colorado station (1190 AM Boulder) "The Lunch Hour With Jonny Trash". The show features mainly classic punk rock stuff, and most of it people are very familiar with, but it's still really cool to turn the radio on and hear the Buzzcocks or Television...
"Route 78 West" is a great show that specializes in rare country/honky tonk. One of the hosts has a large collection of rare 78s and records alot of good shows that come through town. "Honky Tonk Heroes" on KGNU (88.5 FM & 1390 AM Boulder/Denver) is another good show that plays alot of obscure and popular country/honky tonk/hillbilly music.

I think it's gotta be an independent station nowadays.

In Los Angeles we had KRLA as Sectmaniac pointed out. It was an oldies station but nothing like what you'd consider oldies radio now days, at least in the 70's & 80's. All of the DJs had knowledge of the music and were there when these bands were playing and putting out records and they seemed to have a say in what they played, especially in the evenings when they'd take requests and dedications. Art Laboe used to do a lunch time thing in the early 80's where he'd take one act and go through the history of the artist and play tracks etc. Does the mainstream "oldies stations' even play songs like '60 Minute Man' 'Pledging My love' 'Hully Gully' 'Big Boy Pete' 'Corrido Rock' or 'Slow Down' anymore.
But growing up I think Rodney Bingenheimer on KROQ had the biggest influence on my musical tastes. When I was 14 his show was on for 4 hours each Saturday and Sunday night 8-12. Cutting his teeth in the 60's, Rodney would play stuff like Love, the Leaves, Standells, Seeds, Chocolate Watch Band, etc etc, but he'd also play the latest Black Flag demo, then the Crawdaddys, followed by the Exploited and then maybe a Crowd song right after. He'd have the Ventures or Surfaries in studio and then Frankie & Anette, then the next week X, or Blondie, or Stiv Bators. His show is just a shadow of its former self hidden away on Monday morning from 12-1am or something. Back then, even outside of Rodney's show, you'd never know what they would play next during the day. You may hear some Missing Persons song follwed by a Fear track.
Another good station here in the late 70's early 80's was KNAC before they went metal (although they did set the standard for 80's metal radio), lot's of Punk and "new music" as they called it. They'd interview bands from the Cheifs, to Rhino 39, to the Adolescents etc etc.
Then there was listener supported KPFK that had Bo Clifford on late Saturday nights playing lots of underground stuff followed by 12 O'Clock Rock with Andrea Enthal. She even had Chris D. of the Flesheaters sit in for her sometimes. He would play an amazing selection of music too.

Now today's LA Radio is pretty much irrelevant in my opinion. The only salvation is college radio . KXLU has various decent programs, but I mainly listen to Stella's show "Stray Pop" which she has been doing for damn near 30 years I think and the Reverend Dan's "Music For Nimrods" show. that follows Stray Pop, but they are on Midnight to 6 am Sunday morning, so who really get's to listen? KCSN also has a decent oldies show where you'll hear some obscure early R&B. the only thing I listen to on KPFK anymore is Rhapsody In Black where you'll here some good blues and pre-RnR Rhythm & Blues.

With all that said, it's internet radio and the podcasts here that is where it's all at for me now, though I do find myself listening to WFMU a lot now via their iPhone application.

John Peel.

I used to sit there with a pen and make notes of what records to buy the next day.

Growing up in Miami Florida in the '60s we had two great AM stations: WQAM / Tiger Radio and WFUN. They had a bunch of jocks like Rick Shaw and a slew of others I can't recall at the moment. Played all the big nationwide hits and mixed in a lot of great local bands (Wayne Cochran, Birdwatchers, Steve Alaimo, Sam & Dave). Besides that, they would throw in Frank Sinatra right after a Rolling Stones tune, it was great! There was also a R&B station WAME "WAME in Miamee!!", which was all Soul and R&B. Listen to Florida Rocks again for a taste of what it was like..

Yup, I remember Philippe Manoeuvre, he turned me on to a lot of great bands and I also loved his TV show, "Sex Machine" (if I remember right) with Jean-Pierre Dionnet.

I also had my very own 'radio libre' show, on girl groups ... Ah the good old days ! Now you open the radio, it's only rap/hiphop shit :(

Recently I found a link to an old WFMU show hosted by the Hound. I've been listening to these a lot. The focus is mainly on underground rockabilly/hillbilly and R&B sleaze. A little over 20 years later most of the stuff is pretty familiar, but it's still great programing. Tim Warren, Billy Miller and the "Haze" himself all make appearances. http://thehound.net/

I love radio as well and growing up I used to love to listen to the Huggy Boy Show on KRLA. This is where I discovered a lot of the Chicano rock n roll of the 60s (aside from my family parties). This is where I first heard "Huggies Bunnies."

RIP Huggy Boy!

I have just realised you have to PAY now to listen to these shows! First time I discovered this site, everything was free. Anyone knows where to listen to more of Mad Daddy for free?

Thanks to the internet I've finally been able to hear some of Mad Daddy's radio shows (which I knew about from the Cramps). Juste in case you don't know it, here's the link : http://www.reelradio.com/bt/index.html. Fantastic, especially the 1958 show in which he played Andre Williams and Link Wray! I wish there could be more of them online.

I haven't heard those, but would love to!!

That certainly would be swell!

Did you ever listen to the National Lampoon Radio Hour? Those ran for only a year (around '73 or so) but were rerun on one local station throughout the '70s. I wish I could find archives of those old shows! I'm sure they have to exist somewhere, but I haven't been able to dig any up at all. Anyone?

I love radio, too. Obviously 98% of it sucks ass today, but I still love the medium. Hell, I majored in broadcasting, so that should tell you something. When we first started podcasting, we called the podcast "GaragePunk.com Pirate Radio," which a couple of people took exception to considering the careful nature of what we decided we could and could not play. Anyway, back then I always thought it would be cool if someone could take our podcasts and actually broadcast them over the airwaves somehow, in the spirit of Radio Caroline, Radio Sutch, Swinging Radio England and other '60s offshore pirates. Anyone own a yacht? Haha...

Hur hur hur...cool...of course I used to also love listening to ye olde Radio Luxembourg back in the mid to late 70s, in my dad's car in the drive cos the wireless in the house couldn't get a decent reception, used to be great listening for all these new records by all the groups of the day, like Sweet, Slade and erm things like Hello, cos I vividly remember hearing their 'Another School Day' and it just summed up what I felt too Oh No, Another Day, Another School Day-ay-ay Oh No......that was also the first time I ever heard the 'Stones' Goat's Head Soup thumper 'Star Star' aired on radio, best song on an otherwise fairly boring LP...certainly not a patch on their earlier stuff. Yeah UTM Ed Gnu-Sonic, doncha just love it eh ha ha...cheers for now - Lenny

Was Eastwood playin' em? ... Wait "GNU-Sonic" I get it.

I really, really (etc.) LOVED Dr. Demento back in the late 70's to early 80's!!

Man! Laying in bed with the covers over my noggin' - listening and waiting for the weekly "Top 10"... it was magical!!

"Stuck inna Pagoda with Trisha Toyota"
"I'm looking over my dead dog Rover"

All the Spike Jones stuff...

I love Radio!

"KGNU"!!!

The Wildebeests would LOVE that!!!

I remember listening to WCBS-FM in New York, but by that time the station was just like any other mediocre Oldies station, and no one ever really stood out to me on air.
WFMU's "Music to Spazz By" and "Teenage Wasteland" are both great shows, "Three Chord Monty" is good too. I didn't really hear about that station till I was packing shit up and moving to Colorado 5 years ago, but it's the oldest freeform station in the country and 100% listener supported.
There's a show out here that broadcasts on the University of Colorado station (1190 AM Boulder) "The Lunch Hour With Jonny Trash". The show features mainly classic punk rock stuff, and most of it people are very familiar with, but it's still really cool to turn the radio on and hear the Buzzcocks or Television...
"Route 78 West" is a great show that specializes in rare country/honky tonk. One of the hosts has a large collection of rare 78s and records alot of good shows that come through town. "Honky Tonk Heroes" on KGNU (88.5 FM & 1390 AM Boulder/Denver) is another good show that plays alot of obscure and popular country/honky tonk/hillbilly music.

I think it's gotta be an independent station nowadays.