93.3 La Raza

Not the first Spanish-language station we've reviewed, but so far the best. It even had clear reception! All the way to school we squealed in delight listening to "Los Hijos de la Bahia" (lit.: the sons of the bay), La Raza's slightly crude, sometimes-intelligible morning show. The fast-talking hijos and their ecstatic callers are fun to listen to even if you don't understand Spanish. It's worth a listen just to hear the cacoughany of censor-bleeps and bad laugh tracks. Besides, listening to Los Hijos will prepare you for anything your Spanish teacher could throw at you in an oral exam!

As if that wasn't enough, La Raza plays some bumpin' tunes. Heartfelt love songs and ranchera music galore. I know if I hadn't been driving I surely would have gotten up and danced. I think it's time for me to download some ranchera music.
"I like this song," said Christie about one such track. We do too, Christie. We do too.

Verdict: Come for the accordions; stay for the laugh tracks. This is a good one if you just wanna get your mind off things.

Rating: B+

92.7 Energy

Ok so now we get one of our first stations that people actually listen to. 92.7 is the dance music station and has a pretty good proportion of talk and music. As far as the content goes, it could range from a fun and energy building morning soundtrack to a non-stop headache starter depending on your tastes, your morning, and your amount of homophobia.

For starters the talk show is blatantly gay. Not like "gay" as in an offensive and politically incorrect term for bad, but gay as in most (if not all) of the talk show hosts are homo- or bisexual and don't let you forget it.... They have a popular and entertaining game called "homo vs. hetero" where they pit gay game show contestants against straight contestants. It didn't take much time into their discussion of this news story for one of the hosts to start talk about getting shot during sex, pink eye, and goggles (wow I'm glad this doesn't go to the school people anymore!) Overall the show is very entertaining and funny although it might go a bit over the line for those more conservative.

The music that they play is basically your big dance hits and dance remixes of popular songs. They played Katy Perry's "Hot and Cold" which is actually pretty catchy. they do seem to have a narrow definition of dance because when they started talking about the Grammy's they complained that hot chip's song got nominated. Paraphrased actual conversation: "I've never even heard of hot chip... who is he?!?" "they're electro pop" "when was the last time you heard an electro pop radio station?" "never. cuz its not good" GRR!

Verdict: Aside from an egregious under-appreciation for hot chip (I have to say that to make me sound like an intellectual music critic), the Review heartily recommends this station who are in the mood for a little sugar rush in the morning.

Grade: A- (likely grade from our next-door neighbor carpool: A+! YAY! Pink! DANCE MUSIC! SPARKLES!)

Love you all

92.5 KKDV – Just in time for the holidays!

"Diablo Valley's Hometown Station"
Jumping back on the dial to 92.1, we found yet another fuzzy station from across the bay. This time, it wasn't some preachy Christian rock station, but a bona-fide Adult-contemporary-gone-Christmas station. You may say, "But we have one of those right here in San Francisco, the venerable 96.5 KOIT Light Rock Less Talk. What more could one want in life?" In fact, there is much more to life than a single Christmas station around the holidays. There are TWO of them. Having reached a certain age and maturity, you have no doubt realized that the number of possible Christmas songs in existence that could be played on a single station can be modeled by a simple exponential regression, rising to infinity as we reach the centennial of radio broadcast history. Thus, it is inevitable that, at some juncture, you may wish to hear a song other than the one currently playing on a certain radio frequency. Are those sighs of relief I hear? Yes, indeed, now knowing of this secondary destination to which you may set your dial, an alternate cheerful, merry holiday melody awaits you on 92.1

Never mind the static. It is a small price to pay for this underdog'd fight 'gainst monopoly and the spontaneous joy you may find as thou rocketh around thine Christmas Tree. Neither their commercials nor their commentators are really worth hearing anyway.

Yea Competition in the Christmas station free market economy
Nay Static

I give it a B

92.3 KSJO La Preciosa

The good news: we discovered yet another Spanish-language station. Fun music (reminded me of something you'd hear in a greasy, delicious cantina) and confusing dialogue (also something you might hear in a Mexican restaurant).

The bad news: Middling reception on good 'ol 101. Lots of talking (bad news for non-native speakers). Not for the faint of radio antennae (if you drive an '02 Saab like me you can fuggeddaboudit).

N.B.: Don't ask Christie for their phone number – she doesn't have it although she might have tried. Don't ask 411 for the number for "La Preciosa radio station in San Francisco, California." And whatever you do don't call the number 411 gives you to request that they play the song "Te Amo." Said number connects you to a restaurant, one that is sadly incapable of playing you your favorite song in Spanish.

Verdict: B- (would up this to a B if it had better reception)

92.1 Classic Hits/Static

Hey sorry we haven't been around. We took a thanksgiving break, but we are back and running. Monday's was 92.1 FM which is a classic hits station north of about Marinwood. It seemed good. there was a bearable amount of commercials and their songs were good. They played some James Brown and got major Review Points for playing Please, Please Me, possibly my favorite Beatles song (I know it's not as innovative as what they did post-Rubber Soul but seriously listen to the song -- It simply kicks butt *censored just in case Jenny Rosenberg is in the computer lab while you read this*) unfortunately the station turned into a wall of static about 15 minutes into our drive with just enough snippets of music to keep us from changing it. Kind of a bummer.

Verdict: If you get good reception for it, definitely worth checking out. If you're at one of the in-between points, only for those who wonder what greatest hits albums would sound like if all the songs were ambient tracks. Or fuzzed out indie music from the 90's, or today i guess (see No Age<http://www.myspace.com/nonoage> )

Grade: D mainly all the static P.S. actually I'm listening to No Age now, and it's actually really good. A lot more melodic than static. And a little bit less fuzzy.

91.1 Jazz station

Hey guys! So apparently I am reviewing this station today. After fidgiting (think i spelt that wrong, sorry) with the dial for sometime, we found 91.1 playing Prince's song Kiss, except it was covered by a jazz woman. The station was followed by various jazz songs. My dad needed to drive us today, and he wasn't too fond of the station, but we thought it was worthwhile. It was not exactly soothing, but you don't want to fall asleep on a school morning anyway. They played some Sammy Davis Jr. as well. It may not be the absolute most exciting station, however its a good place for the mind to wander... i guess... hope everyone's weekend is awesome. ~Christie

Overall grade: B+ easy for the head.

90.7 Bezerkeley's College Radio Station

This station would definitely be a fave of mine, if the static wasn't so bad in our commute. They playedBeirut,Nortec Collective, the Shins, Bloc Party (I figure you know those last 2) and actually a pretty wide variety of indie music. Their DJ did a good job of picking out songs, but talked WAY too much. he listed off a calendar of concerts and movies going on in the near future, and spent what felt like forever describing mundane details about how many albums a band had come out with. I can't get too mad though, cuz I tend to ramble about music (see this newsletter.) 

Verdict: Good music when you're not listening to the static or the blabby DJ.

Grade: B

89.9 The Candle

Dearest Wildcats,

This begins the first of our “normal” messages, if you can call them that. If you’re reading this, it means you signed up to receive our daily radio reports. Thanks so much for your support! Mickey and I are thrilled that you’re interested in our silly little project. We hope that by the time we get to the end of the dial we’ll all be experts on those invisible waves that doth bring forth music to our ears.

On that biblical note, we begin our review of 89.9 The Candle.
Tagline: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."
This was another Christian Rock station. Thankfully, it wasn’t quite so schizophrenic.
Through some distracting, but relatively benign static, we heard one station and one station only. It was, if you’ll indulge us, music to our ears. Not to Christie’s, though. All morning she complained that it didn’t play her favorite Christian Rock song.

Verdict: Despite the lack of any “Gimme your eyes so I can see” action, we rolled up to school on time and ready for the day. I can’t say any of us was born again, but on a clear day if you’re getting good reception, this might just be the station to brighten your day.

Grade: B-
Good in a theological pinch. Not going on our presets.

Sincerely,

Your punctual pundits

89.5 SHUFFLE

So yesterday was a battleground station, but if that was like a clear two-sided war between Persia and Sparta, today was like a messed up pillow fight between Persia, Sparta, the Nazis, the Union soldiers, Storm troopers and MA's golf team (go Wildcats!) There was a sermon about Peter on trial with some judge who the preacher made sure to emphasize was a good speaker but not a good person (he didn't say Barack Obama, but I was sure he implied it.) The sermon was statically interrupted by CHRISTIAN MUSIC playing on ANOTHER STATION!!! You'd think Jesus would work out the airwaves for his children's radio stations! Jeez! This combo was frequently interrupted by yet another station that was discussing economics and the bail-out. Once we were off the San Rafael exit, the station started making really strange bell sounds for 30 seconds or so and then switched to a speech about russian and united states missiles that I think came from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., followed by Jazz. WTF!?!?

Verdict: This station is not for daily listening, it has way too much static and mediocre programming for regular enjoyment. That said, this station twisted and turned so much in our drive that there is a good chance that it is controlled by something divine. If you are looking for answers in life, 89.5 would not be a bad place to start.

Grade: (in general) D

If you want some truth and answers about an essentially random meaningless world, A+

88.9 Christian Rock vs. Classical Music

This station was a staticy battle between orchestras producing beautiful music and uplifting, power chord filled pleas to Jesus. The classical station seems to be soothing and soulful, the Christian rock songs were intense (sample lyric: give me your love... for humanity)

Verdict: If this station could make up it's mind on what to be, it would have a lot of promise. The classical music could center you on those mornings you feel more than a little frazzled and the christian rock could inspire you for that math test through an avenue left mostly inderused in Marin--Jesus. However, in it's current schyzophrenic state this station is only good for crazy days when you want to muse at the random culture thrown your way by the airwaves.
Grade: C (Christie says, "it works because it stands for Christian AND classical")

88.5 NPR

Interesting, concise and deep news  reports about justice guy who had to call bush corrupt justice department on all their shit, banks shifting around, veterans going home, auto manufacturing troubles+ short and direct traffic appropriately sponsored by advil, nice little music in between reports, no commercials...

Verdict: No better way to get informed for those thoughtful discussions with your history teacher

Grade: A

Welcome to the Review

I decided that maybe everyone doesn't want to be assaulted daily by a newsletter, so I'm making a blog, Teddy Wing style... and maybe sending a recap every 2 weeks or so to the emails. Anyway, here's the original introductory email.

Dear school,
So for shits and giggles, Christie, Ben and I have decided to start a carpool project... We are going to review the entire radio! Every morning, starting at the beginning of the dial and ending at the end, we will listen to and subsequently review a new radio station. Today, we start with the first station on the dial, the teacher favorite, NPR. I am sending this to the school because, otherwise, there's no real point. Hopefully, you will all enjoy this daily update, and it won't become annoying junk mail. Maybe, well even find some Cool new stations!
Love,
Mickey