Worst local radio station.

[Idaho45guy]

I've lived all over the US, and even worked for a few months as a DJ for a Midwest radio station.

I have never heard a more embarrassing, incompetent, and annoying radio station than the only AM station for the two major towns around here.

1150 KQQQ

When I worked for a station, dead air was the mortal enemy and causing it was cause for termination. Anything longer than a few seconds was highly frowned upon.

KQQQ has it every single day, and usually multiple times every day. Yesterday, they kept forgetting to switch the satellite feed for the network news broadcast, so at the top of the hour, every hour, there was several minutes of dead air.

The two morning hosts are good guys, but completely incompetent. One is well into his 80's and often forgets to turn on his mic, or to use the cough button, etc. They have technical issues every day with sound bites not getting played, or mixed up, or more dead air, etc.

I've even sent them an email regarding an offensive promo line they use. They played it once before the Ben Shapiro show would start, and after I complained, they now play it several times throughout the show. It has a recording of a male voice saying, "He's young and he's smart, so how can he be a Conservative? You're listening to the Ben Shapiro Show". Really? Don't they realize that the vast majority of their audience is conservative, which is why they are listening to conservative talk radio? And they choose to call their listeners stupid?

But, they play the conservative talk shows I want to hear in the first part of the day, and the two hosts often have good insight into local news. So I try and tolerate them until the AM station out of Spokane starts Dennis Prager.

Of the other two stations, one is out of Lewiston, 50 miles away, and Spokane, 70 miles away. So, weather forecasts are useless, local news and alerts are useless, ads are for businesses I will likely never use.

So, I bite my lip and suffer along to the local idiots.

Anyone else have a local radio station that is nearly useless and incompetent?

[RugerFan]

Coincidently, I was just listening to Ben Shapiro, but not on the radio. If you have a smart phone, go to the App store and download the "Talk Right" app. They have all of the national conservative radio talk shows you can listen to when they are live and its free.

[Outpost75]

Here in the West Virginia Radio Quiet Zone we get wonderful late night AM radio reception without local QRM. I enjoy George Noory on Coast to Coast AM interviewing the whackos, wierdos, time travelers and space cadets abducted by space aliens. More entertaining than the mainstream media.

[cwtebay]

Unfortunately Idaho, those same stations are dealing with the same issues as the rest of our once great nation - failure to find employees that may care. They likely don't have enough employees to even start an hour!!


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[Kosh75287]

I enjoy George Noory on Coast to Coast AM interviewing the whackos, wierdos, time travelers and space cadets abducted by space aliens. More entertaining than the mainstream media.

Less fictitious than the mainstream media, too!

[elmacgyver0]

Local radio station here sometimes goes dead for 20 minutes at a time.
Signal is lousy, even in site of the towers.
Too embarrassed to give the call sign.
All I will say is a very famous person started his radio career there.

[alfadan]

commercials must be dirt cheap on some of our stations. Same ones 3 or 4 times in the same break.

[rockrat]

And add the DJ's have diarrhea of the mouth along with saying the identifier of the station and frequency anywhere from 6-8 times each commercial break. One hour I made a list of songs vs junk on the station. I think in that hour they played 6 songs. I finally filled my CD player (6 disk) in the truck and just listen to CD's or a cassette (yes, my truck is old enough to have one!!!) and quit listening to radio. At home its XM radio and the 60's (70's and 80's), but just like the 60's , the DJ has the same mouth affliction.

[Idaho45guy]

I remember this rule from my time as a DJ that most folks probably don't realize...

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/73.1201§ 73.1201 Station identification.

(a) When regularly required. Broadcast station identification announcements shall be made:

(1) At the beginning and ending of each time of operation, and

(2) Hourly, as close to the hour as feasible, at a natural break in program offerings. Television and Class A television broadcast stations may make these announcements visually or aurally.

(b) Content.

(1) Official station identification shall consist of the station's call letters immediately followed by the community or communities specified in its license as the station's location

[granville_it]

I've gone the take on former, am&fm, radio.

Tv in another I won't want go with.

I have a good library.

Respectfully Mark

[Buzz Krumhunger]

I’ve come to a point where I prefer the hum of my tires on the highway to the almost constant blather of DJs.

[Land Owner]

The political leaning of the local stations do not matter, Conservative or Liberal. As Cleavon Little says in the Mel Brooks movie Blazing Saddles, "Hold Your Ears Folks - It's Showtime!" when broadcasting the Political Opinion and Dum-o-crap Coverups. I cannot begin to call it "News" as there is nothing "journalistic", fair, or balanced in any of it.

Dead air is annoying, but not quite so annoying as Conservative Radio hiring an announcer that after each opinion segment broadcast sarcastically says, "Fox News - fair and balanced." with vocal inflections on "fair and balanced" that is obvious to even the most casual of observers, slanted to the LEFT, and insulting on that channel as to beg these Conservative ears to bleed.

[rondog]

I haven't listened to radio, other than Sirius/XM satellite music, in years. I can't stand listening to ANYONE babble on about their opinions, or opinions they're paid to spew, or their stinking commercials.

My truck has two USB ports, I have two 128gb thumb drives in them, with 22,000 songs set on Shuffle. THAT'S entertainment in my world!

[William Yanda]

Broadcast quality everywhere is deteriorating. Locally there is a clear channel 50 thousand watter, WHAM which has some local hosts, morning and 9pm to 10 pm. Afternoons are Rush's replacements and Hannity, Levin after the 5-6 News hour.
One of their new promos uses theirselves rather than themselves.
Engineering started showing deficiencies even before the effects of Covid, with dead air due to un-flipped switches.
Occasionally we would get the music they were listening to rather than the programming scheduled.
Recently we were getting ads for a Scranton, PA dealer. Investigation disclosed that was because I was listening through Alexa and that stream draws the ads from a different pool.
Bill

[Idaho45guy]

Broadcast quality everywhere is deteriorating. Locally there is a clear channel 50 thousand watter, WHAM which has some local hosts, morning and 9pm to 10 pm. Afternoons are Rush's replacements and Hannity, Levin after the 5-6 News hour.
One of their new promos uses theirselves rather than themselves.
Engineering started showing deficiencies even before the effects of Covid, with dead air due to un-flipped switches.
Occasionally we would get the music they were listening to rather than the programming scheduled.
Recently we were getting ads for a Scranton, PA dealer. Investigation disclosed that was because I was listening through Alexa and that stream draws the ads from a different pool.
Bill

Seems America is slowly slipping into 3rd world status as the leftists gain more control of every aspect of American society.

It truly is like a cancer that is spreading and can't be stopped.

[farmerjim]

I mostly work outside in the field. I carried a radio with me so that I never missed Rush. Now I listen to books or music on a micro SD player. I sometimes confuse the book I am reading with the one that I am listening to.

[Jsm180]

Rush was the main reason for listening to am radio, now it's just a lightning detector.

[MT Gianni]

We have a wonderful local station. Our county has 7 emergency small range bands that play country music from the 50's to the 80's without any dj's. They break every half hour for a public announcement of something going on in the county. No ads, no political agendas or anything else. Local sports get broadcast spots for those who cannot make it to the games. It is the only way I can have a radio on in election years.

[waksupi]

Rush was the main reason for listening to am radio, now it's just a lightning detector.

Exactly.

[Thumbcocker]

I used to drive a lot with work. Listened to the radio. A few years back I realized that journalism was dead. All news was slanted for an agenda left or right. You can get decent world news from the BBC or AFP but American journalism has died.

Now I listen to a music Playlist on my phone or audio books.