5.08.2006

KUER vs. KCPW

A while ago I posted on City Weekly's Best of Utah edition. An anonymous comment let me know the beauty of local NPR station KCPW. I have been a regular listener of KUER, which is more due to the fact that I could get it in my little hometown on the edge of the Basin.
Well, I've been listening in to KCPW, Anonymous, and I hear you. I love that I can tune into news at 10:30 at night, rather than jazz. I have nothing against jazz...but sometimes you just want more news. And BBC news at that...which is much less ethnocentric than American news.
There are a few things that bother me. KCPW seems to have a lot more "commercials" or "endorsements" than KUER...but I do like that the owners of the individual little businesses do these themselves. It's interesting to hear the voices that support local radio.
That's the other thing...KCPW just feels so much more local. You know they're just in a little studio down the street...where KUER is in this big building up on a hill that you have to have a security badge to get into. I've never tried to get into KCPW, but it seems to me that it would be a lot easier and homier. They've got MUCH better local news coverage, to boot. KUER just throws some things in the breaks between All Things Considered and other news programs.
Anyway, I wanted to give a shout out to Anonymous for tipping me in to such a great local resource!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're welcome.

Welcome to our little world.

BTW - you CAN just go into KCPW for a tour anytime.

Heidi said...

Anonymous, oh Anonymous! You are back! I'm so glad you read again and found what a difference you have made! Now if I only knew your name!

Anonymous said...

(I have a little bit of a pro-KUER bias as a former KUER employee)

I used to like KUER a lot better before they gave up a lot of their unique programming to try to compete with KCPW's news-centered progamming, but I'm not a news junky.

KUER is the only station in Salt Lake that plays jazz music and I hope they won't give that up to add more news.

Heidi said...

I guess I am a news junky. But I like Jazz too, and Prairie Home Companion...so I won't take KUER off my pre-sets just yet. I agree that it's best to have a variety of options...not a bunch of clones.