Thoughts on Austin Radio

Greetings. My moving summary is coming, but first, I wanted to give some thoughts on Austin radio.

First off, those who know me well, or even remotely, know that I'm a sports fan. In Dallas, there was a super sports station called Sports Radio 1310 The Ticket. Though the Ticket is not for everyone, they do a great job of blending "guy talk" with sports. A popular phrase seems to fit well here: "They are often immitated but never duplicated." I've listened to other sports stations around the country, and they don't seem to hit that perfect blend of sports and nonsports stuff like the Ticket does. Anyway, after only a day or two in Austin, I can already tell that it does not have a "Ticket like" station. Of the sports stations I've found, there are two ESPN Radio related ones (no clue why they have two), and the big local station, The Zone, which broadcasts Fox when local programming is not on. Granted, I haven't listened much to them, but I've already been able to tell that they dont' measure up to The Ticket. So far, the only broadcaster that I've heard that I can listen to for any length of time is Craig Way, who does a show from 2-4 on weekdays. I remember Craig from when he was at KRLD, News radio 1080 in Dallas. Back in the day, Craig did a high school football game of the week, and a post game wrap up show on the area games. There were others involved too, but you could tell that Craig was the driving force behind it all. Now, Craig is the voice of University of Texas football and basketball games.

Anyway, I love his voice. He's one of those people that has a voice for radio, and you can tell he's got his own style. I'm sure the other people on The Zone as well as those on the ESPN stations are good as well, but Craig's the only one that's jumped out at me so far.

Another station that I'm finding myself listening more often than not is the local public radio affiliate, KUT 90.5. I love listneing to their national public radio programs, especially All Things Considered. Regardless of their political affiliations, NPR does some of the best reporting that I've heard. There are some places that a radio reporter can go with a tape or digital recorder that you can't get to with a camera. I like some of their other programming too, such as "A Prairie Home Companion," heard on weekends. I'm not going to attempt to spell the host's name, but he has a deep voice and you'd know him if you heard it.

The last station that I'm really liking is 590am, KLBJ. I have a link to them on the Media Page of my website. Anyway, I listened this morning to their morning drive program and it's really good. They do a great job of blending topics of the day with news, traffic reports, sports, and regular announcements of the current time. The time announcements are what I'm looking for in a morning show, since I often am too busy getting ready for work to bother with checking a clock or watch nearby. I think there's something to the weekday morning show as well, since you want to hear people that really like each other, instead of having some sort of forced chemistry on air. The people on the KLBJ morning show seem to be these kind of people, or the ones who really get along and work well with one another.

That's about all for now. All these points seem to work well together in their posts, instead of being mixed into the over all summary. And, at least for now, the KLBJ morning show gets my vote for the station that I'll have on my clock radio in the morning.