In case you haven’t heard the news, KDFC is moving from a commercial station to listener supported. It has been purchased by USC. I was initially quite excited, as I’ve heard KUSC and it’s an excellent station. But now I’m reading that the hosts that are currently on KDFC are sticking around, so I don’t know that it will be improved from what it is now. And what it is now isn’t all that great. Ah well. Maybe there will be slow changes.
You can read about it here, or go to the KDFC page that explains it.
It appears that we in the South Bay will have to listen via the web for a while. The only time I listen to the station is while driving, so that’s not an option for me. Ah well! I’m guessing, in any case, it’ll still be the same old same old for a while. If they DO become more like KUSC I will be thrilled and want it on my car radio.
I didn’t realize there was such dislike for the current hosts – I’ve always liked them a lot. I do wish their playlist was more varied, and that they played vocal music outside of Sunday mornings and the Christmas season, but I don’t know how much control the hosts have over that (I suspect very little).
They said on the radio this morning that they’re already working on boosting the signal so it’ll be clear in the South Bay… but it’ll be a few months.
KDFC is the only radio station I listen to. If it’s not available to me… it’s almost enough to push me to satellite radio.
Yep, most of my colleagues really don’t care for the hosts or the format of KDFC, Mike. Ah well, we’ll see what happens as time passes!
I have no problem with the hosts themselves, Dianne in particular is a friend of the Klein Competition and a very intelligent and gracious lady. But I HATE the happy-talk format, the one-movement-at-a-time iPod Shuffle policy, much of the music that the station plays, most of their advertising campaigns (especially the one that essentially touted classical music as anesthesia — you know, the one where they said have our station on in the background all day at work ’cause we play music that you don’t have to pay attention to).
KUSC, on the other hand, is a classical station for people who actually like classical music.
Film at 11 on this one.
Yep, I think that’s how many feel, patti with an i. And of course I especially hate some of the music they play, but I guess I’m a wee bit too picky … if I start getting images of tutus in my head I’m usually not a happy camper. Go figure.
I’ll be listening to it online while it’s not available down here and I’m really hoping to be pleasantly surprised … maybe we’ll get full works, eh? It could happen ….
I guess the lack of complete works never really bothered me so much because I listen in my car and most days I’m not in my car for more than 20 minutes at a time (talk to me again when I’m commuting to SF for a show). I will absolutely agree with the sentiment about their campaign advocating classical music as something that you can have in the background without paying attention to. And as I mentioned before, the lack of vocal music has always been a HUGE annoyance to me.
But I’d be willing to bet a large amount of money that all of those decisions came from the corporate owners – i.e., the people who don’t own the station anymore.
Now if we can just speed the process of getting the signal to the South Bay…
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One of the few good reasons to go to LA is the pleasure of turning the car radio to KUSC. I have never enjoyed KDFC – too many short snippets, too much effort by the announcers to convince to care about their chirpy personalities. The only time substantial works are heard is when they broadcast SF Symphony concerts.