This is the second feature “Charlottesville Deathmatch” where we put two or more similar businesses, places, restaurants or things into a sealed cage of pain, suffering and death. Ultimately only one contestant lives and it’s up to you to figure out who that is.
This week we put all the contestants into an electrified cage of exploding nails and booby traps. In one corner, we have the 40-headed hydra, Saga Communications, which pretty much has the exclusive on commercial radio stations in Charlottesville. In the other corner, we have a pack of baby velociraptors with claws so sharp, your eyeballs fall out just by looking at them. Let’s get ready to RUUUUUMBLE…………….
What is your favorite Charlottesville radio station?
Why can’t I add an answer? Stupid browser/internet/whatever it is that is preventing me. I can type my response, but I can’t seem to click the radio button to get it to vote. Missing something?
haha, Tom? isn’t that like a robot station?
WNRN, usually, though I can no longer listen to Late For Work. As soon as something remotely twangy comes on, I switch to WTJU and hope for polkas. If WTJU is playing something I dislike (rare) or an announcer is speaking somnolently, I tune in to 106.1 and listen until it switches to a DJ or commercial. I then try WNRN again and hope to god the song selection is less sucktastic.
And when I’m really miffed, I just push the ancient Depeche Mode tape into the cassette deck and relax. We listen to NPR at home–I only listen to it in the car if there’s a live Met show being broadcast.
@2 a robot, like they don’t have stupid talking people?
/wants to smack john tesh.
terrestrial radio is the worst shit ever. i can’t believe people still listen to it. if i’m in a rental car or something without sirius and have no CDs or iPod i just won’t listen. silence is better than terrestrial radio.
@5: But it’s free which is why satellite radio will have a hard time getting customers.
At home, iTunes streaming radio + wireless headphones = win.
In car: either NPR, premixed cd’s, podcast discs (24 hours of this american life or radiolab can fit on 1 cd) or hilarious right wing hate radio on AM.
/mega dittos from tumblecorky flats, rush!
@6: i know…it really sucks it has to cost, but the equipment and talent is really expensive. i’m telling you tho…it’s the best $12/mo or whatever I’ve ever spent. I went ahead and paid for 2 years up front and don’t even think about it now. the time you save in not listening to the worst commercials in the world 100x and the same songs over and over HAS to be worth $12/mo to you…right?
ps…i DON’T work for XM or Sirius in any fashion!
@ 6 iTunes streaming radio is free, commercial free, and there are literally a bajillion options.
@9 - absolutely is a great option…i don’t listen to satellite at home, but at work and in the car…
talk radio is really where it’s at on satellite…especially sirius…howard stern rocks…and the sports stuff…although i know sports isn’t big around here…NFL radio is great…I mostly listen to talk on Sirius. it’s just a totally different/better experience than talk on terrestrial.
@8: I listen to my iPod, so radio isn’t that important to me.
“the same songs over and over”
but i LOOOOVE chris daughtry.
I tried listening to 106.1 when they first started and they play 1 good song and then 4 banal overplayed songs. So I haven’t listened to that station since. WNRN is good depending on the DJ. It’s too bad though, my friend has a weekly slot and he has great taste in music but has to play the aggro white trash rock that the “demographic” i.e. local country boys with pickup trucks and tattoos wanna hear.
At the office I listen to my Ipod, or XM. In my truck driving around old Grateful Dead bootlegs from the 70’s and early 80’s as well as sports talk radio. Also All things Considered on public radio because I am in love with Linda Wertheimer… Although she ain’t on that program anymore…
All the local stations suck compared to stations in bigger cities. I grew up near NoVa and got to listen to DC101 and WHFS and 106.5 the Buzz. I haven’t heard any stations of those levels since I moved down to this area.
“All the stations suck compated to stations in bigger cities” Couldn’t the same be true of our local restaurants and bar staff?
No.
@16 i disagree with shen’s statement. she hasn’t been to miami. your 2nd statement is so insanely wrong.
compared not compated
please, the guy who wins bartender of the year, couldn’t get a barback job in Chicago or NYC.
@15 you have got to be kidding me. this area BLOWS AWAY dc radio. WHFS is long gone and had jumped the shark anyway. DC 101 was never good, and now has even less incentive to be so.
/grass is always greener
@20: Depends on what thigs they’re looking for
@21: I’ve been to the Bahamas twice with some DC101 people and it was fantastic. Those stations actually get more involved with the community with cool events than the radio stations here do.
@22 I’m not bashing the people, just the music they play. I guess if you can’t get enough Nickelback and Coldplay, it’s right up your alley.
@23: Haha that’s why I hate 106.1 the Corner, cuz they play that crap. When I listened to DC101 they played Rise Against and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and cool local (to D.C.) bands like the Speaks and Everyone but Pete.
@20 i believe the bartender of the year is a chick…
@23 i love nickelback. seriously.
Posit: All nickleback songs are the same. Evidence:
http://www.thewebshite.net/nickelback.htm
You love Nickelback? You just lost all cred. Damn.
@24 they (106.1) plays some stuff I don’t care for (I won’t lose any sleep if I don’t hear “How To Save a Life” ever again), but they play enough older/alternative stuff I like (Talking Heads, Guster, Cracker, Tom Petty) that I consider it good. Between them, WNRN, and another 3-4 stations in town I can’t recall the call letters/numbers for, there’s almost always *something* I like on the radio — I can’t say that for DC radio at all. Usually I just end up listening to the news/traffic reports because the music options up there are so awful.
I’m pretty much past the point of listening to new bands and artists. I have enough artists to keep up with already, and enjoy listening to, so stations that play consistently new/local/unheard of stuff (WNRN) are generally not for me.
I met a girl who once slept with the drummer from Talking Heads.
@15, Yeah, last I heard, HFS was a Spanish radio station. But I loved the Irish DJ that they had, playing up some Social D and STP. Oh, the memories.
As a former LoCo NoVa person, I always thought 97.4 Classic Rock was one of the better run stations, once all was said and done. (DC101 just kept slipping, and slipping…)
@29, as I recall, the drummer from Talking Heads was married to the bassist. That must have been an interesting sneak-around.
@30. Now that I think of it, 94.7 was the correct dial. But not that it really matters.
I listen to WWWV down here, when pressed to it. There is at least one good song every six or so.
I’m pretty much past the point of listening to new bands and artists
Translation= I am old and boring now. I’m gonna go listen to Tom Petty in my basement.
@33 pretty much. turning 30 does that to you. not enough time to keep up with the new music scene, and judging from what i’ve heard, i’m not missing much anyway.
/get off my lawn
@28 i love “how to save a life” too. seriously. because they played it on the grey’s anatomy recap. not that it isn’t exactly the same song as “cable car.” @26 do you have a website for that?
I listen to one weekend show in WNRN, a few on TJU, and other than that, I have NPR on in the car. I started listening to “Generations” (new name, old station) because they do a pretty good job of playing classics. I don’t have my tuner “locked” on any station, which was the case when I lived in two larger markets.
It’s no secret that I think NRN’s on air “talent” is pretty weak, but radio here is good for a small market. There are other mall markets that have better options (Raleigh and Asheville come to mind and I think they might be the same size). Obviously, we’ll never have the stations of a major market (I love radio in San Francisco, Denver, and Boston).
Alright I have been avoiding the interweb for a little too long apparently.
@20: The bartender of the year is Joya @ Zocalo. You’re thinking of Ted @ Maya, last year’s best bartender.
@25: You remember when I said you’d end up doing something and we wouldn’t be friends anymore. Liking Nickelback is one of those things.
@Chad Day: There’s plenty of good music out there. You just have to go look for it.
turning 30 does that to you
Au contrare. I have turned waaay past thirty, and pretty much only listen to new stuff. The internet is a fertile pasture of new music. One pretty much doesn’t have to listen to any album twice if one doesn’t want. Why anyone would even listen to commercial radio ever is beyond me.
http://www.aurgasm.us <——good place to start. I should write a tutorial on how to listen to ten new albums a day for the rest of your life for free.
/is about more than just the thump thump thump.
@38 part of your job is music. i would say you have far more time, drive, and financial benefit to listen to music than anyone else on this site.
@37 not saying there isn’t — i just have enough to where i am satisfied, and don’t need any more.
@37: Your @25 comment? Hilarious.
@40 he has his priorities.
@41: It’s just one of a myriad of things. You’ve been treading on thin ice lately.
i know, i’m useless now that i’m not hot anymore.
@38: Thanks for the iTunes streaming radio recc. You just made my week.
@43: I never said that. Don’t put words in my mouth.
@45 which part of it?
That you weren’t hot. I’ve stated your uselessness many times.
I think we should ahve a deathmatch between echo and orchid next week.
She’d win hands down.
@47 oh, that’s ok then.
@49 damn straight. echo has neither claws nor fangs.
If the deathmatch title is called “battle of the local radio stations”, why is satelitte radio, or internet even listed as an option? If we are not staying true to the “local” aspect of this deathmatch, then my vote is for WKTL, Poughkeepsie’s home for Doo-Op.
Thanks,
Darryl Maxwell
Program Director
WKTL
Poughkeepsie’s Home For Doo-Op
Who needs radio. I get my music from iPod commercials.
Is music your boyfriend?
@51 i get mine from target commercials with christina aguilera on abc.com while watching grey’s anatomy.
/wants a dead boyfriend to make out with, as long as he looks like denny.
@52: Music is my hot hot sex.
@53: Careful orchid. There are 1 or 2 guys out there that may actually die for you. I don’t want to attend any funerals.
@55 none of them look like denny though. *sigh*
@56
How do you know?
@55
So true,so true.
@58: I know everything.
I’ll just leave this here.
@60 oh man that’s so funny . i’m sick of looking at these ads.. can someone just pay me in golden dubs for my chariot and be done with them?
use your admin powers to place image inline… your advertisers will lover it!!!
The Grateful Dead show on WNRN is the best show in town!! The hosts are funny, and the music is great!!! they are the Sugar magnolia to WTJUs sunshine daydream. Saturdays in this area leave me with nothing left to do but SMILE SMILE SMILE!!!!!
bleh, bleh, bleh. Listen to new music like civil twilight - ma boys from australia nee south carolina, who i heard at satellite ballroom opening for six chasing seven (coran’s new crush, totally NOT gonna make it). Guys are so good. Hit their website and listen away…
“wide right”… hate those two words even more right now…
I miss The Buzz out of Richmond. That station was she shiznatch, and before cars got all self-conscious about their antennas I could totally pick it up in Charlottesville.
On WNRN last night they played a new song, “Oh No You Didn’t” by the Wojahn Bros. Anyone else catch it? I thought I would hate it, but I don’t. Now it’s been in my head for hours.
Here’s the song in case you missed it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhgFSWKQmPk
What song is stuck in YOUR head?
No option for AM stations? We have two competing sports-talk stations with local programs. Jerry Miller was courted away from 1400 to start a show on 840. He’s funny and does what he does very well.
We have two competing commercial news stations both with a ton of local programming, and you’ve only listed one of them. WINA 1070 AM has about 9 hours of local talk every week day, and I’m not sure what WCHV has. CHV is on FM now, too at 94.1, I think. I don’t listen.
I think you should also delineate the NPR stations. Again, we have three. WVTF and Radio IQ are the same organization, and WMRA competes with both of them. WVTF hired a full-time reporter and is building a new studio here to cover Charlottesville because half of their listeners come from this market. “Various” needs to be fleshed out, or possibly the subject of a future deathmatch.
@15….WHFS was turned into a hispanic station a while back (and I agree with the poster that said they jumped the shark,) but the folks who founded HFS (the Einstein family) back in its heyday started WRNR in Annapolis (103.1 and also streaming) and has that same attitude towards the music that HFS had back in the day. It’s since been sold, but a lot of former HFS DJ’s work there still and it is as diverse as ever.
@36…don’t forget that some (not all) of us at WNRN are volunteers. We try.
@63…I will make sure that Marc & Edmund see this.
I actually travelled up to NY this week. I heard SO MUCH wonderful radio. It was pretty cool to go from WNRN to WAMU (it was time for the news) to WRNR to WXPN (88.5 out of Philadelphia, but they have a couple of repeaters including one in Baltimore) to WBJB (Brookdale Public Radio ‘the Night’ at 90.5 on the Jersey shore) to WFUV (90.7 out on Long Island.)
@69 good call. when I drove through last, WRNR was the only station worth listening to. and it was very good.
I just won a copy of the new Killers CD from WNRN! SWEET! I think they are giving it away all this weekend.
@71.. listening to that album now.. not too impressed.. and the single is kinda lAAAME
@69 - While you are having this public radio love-fest, you should check out Towson/Baltimore’s 89.7 WTMD. Very good noncommercial music station. And while WRNR is a very good commercial station, its playlist is actually tighter and shorter than The Corner is here.
New Killers CD, ish Santa - I think they jumped the shark.
I have really been enjoying WCNR lately. This afternoon I heard a Bob Dylan song I hadn’t heard since about 1990. They seem to mix it up locally and sponsor many shows I find out about. They are my #1 choice right now. The other stations seem to be repetitive hourly or play grinding garbage that makes my cat’s hair stand up at attention and demand some catnip.
@73…..I will check WTMD out next time I head north. Thanks for the tip.
I just picked up the CD. I like it! I do agree with you about the single. I didn’t really need them to ask me if I was a human or a dancer.
@76 - what?
I know I’m a geek about this, but I just love that FM105.3 airs the MHS game every week. Go, ’stangs! Regional champs again. Another playoff game this coming week in Fredericksburg, and then states! Loved watching them win at Liberty Stadium last year. Hoping for a repeat….
Does 106.1 WCNR play anything other than The Verve’s “Freshmen”??? Seems like it’s on whenever I flip over. Including right now.
Errrr… The Verve Pipe, rather. My b.