I am thankful that South Dakota Public Radio provides its great mix of news and music programming to counter the mindless commercial drivel and conformity coming out of most radio stations in South Dakota.
But with their in-house music staff cut and weekend programming turning to more talk and witty banter, I long for a second all-music channel... like The Current on Minnesota Public Radio. Like SDPB's late-night broadcast of The World Café, The Current broadcasts more interesting music in two hours than you'll hear on South Dakota commercial radio all week. The Current streams live all day.
The Current still plays some familiar chart-toppers, but even there, MPR's draws big names to its studio for live performances that play the hits from different angles. Right now, I'm listening to the Rolling Stones' cover of Hank Williams's "You Win Again." Another case in point: this April studio set by Foster the People. Enjoy!
I used to listen to SDPB overnights when they still had classical music during the overnight hours. Then they had to replace it with BBC World News and move the classical music to a separate channel that requires an HD Radio receiver.
In the Winner area, radio choices are limited. There is the local stations, KWYR AM and FM. The AM plays country music/ag and farm news while the FM plays mostly hard rock that I could care less for.
Other radio choices come from surrounding areas. There is KPLO-FM transmitting from Reliance, which is an FM country station, and from Gregory is KVCX, run by a conservative Christian group out of Wisconsin. If you are lucky, you can pull in two additional stations from the Rosebud reservation. There KINI, a commercial station run by a Catholic church group which plays a wide variety of typical Top-40 music from many different decades, country, and Native American music. And now, there is KOYA, which signed on in February 2011. KOYA is run by the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, and it's non-commercial, relying on listener donations. Their programming is very similar to KINI, just without the commercials and religious content.
I don't mind commercial radio personally. In fact, I actually miss the radio selection that I had in Madison. I'm an Oldies and Classic Top 40 fan, and KOOL 107.9 out of Sioux Falls was perhaps the only station I listened to....except during Christmas when KELO went all 24/7 Christmas music. The commercials can be obnoxious and annoying at times, but some of those ads are for local businesses. With KWYR, most advertising is for local business or for ones in nearby towns. KWYR also tends to run community announcements that wouldn't be run on a statewide network like SDPB. It's basic stuff that can be found in the local newspaper or pinned up at the grocery store cork board, but since it's on radio, more people have a chance to know about the Independence Day fireworks in nearby Witten. I may not like the "music variety" on KWYR, but I feel they are a true local radio service. Despite that, I doubt they hold a candle to SDPB's programming. When was the last time I heard a high school band concert on KWYR?
I think I need to spend one night and tune into SDPB Radio and sample their evening programming. It's not my typical classic Top-40 stuff, but it should be better than endless country and hard rock. It's been ages since I listened to SDPB on a regular basis.
Oh, one more thing. I think SDPB Radio doesn't do well with severe weather coverage. You may get a standard EAS alert, but other than that, I always tend to hear regular programming when a severe storm rolls through Winner. (I could be wrong here since I don't regularly listen to SDPB. Correct me if I am wrong)
KWYR however, keeps breaking in between songs and keeps the listeners updated on the storm. Unfortunately, the regular updates only happen if a DJ is in the studio. If the storm happens overnight, it's just the EAS alerts and the automated music keeps going. KPLO does have WeatherEye, so severe weather alerts keep coming even during overnight hours.
I know this post is long, but I wanted to share my personal feelings on the radio selection down here in Winner.
SDPB's weekday evening programming is great, except they could stand to drop The World news program and start music at 7 p.m. Central. After supper, I've had my fill of information and am ready to do my thing with music in the background. I don't stay up late much anymore, but when I am up past midnight, I'd rather hear music.
You're right, Wade: the weather service in general could be improved. A five-minute weather program in the morning and evening news broadcasts would be great. And I would prefer live updates on storms to the automated bulletins... but there's only so much one small radio station can do, I guess! We may need to send more pledges!