Ironnically, towns known for their country music leave their radio dial to progressive rock, rather than more depth in country and western. Music oriented towns seem to get more radio channels than normal cities, and this opens up more radio formats.

Some Background...
The F.C.C. allocates the radio channels eachtown and city in America can use. It is based on population and the mandate to spred radio stations far and wide. Too many channels in one area will start to interfere with each other. At the same time, channels allocated in the past are never elimated. So, as the population flows from the Northeast to the Southwest the big industrial cities of the past end up with more stations per capita than a growing city out west.

To relieve these problems, the F.C.C. has divided the Northeast fourth of the U.S.A. from the Great Lakes to New England into a restricted zone for new channel allocation. Meanwhile, the rest of the nation can more freely add new channels as they see fit. So, once you are west of the Mississippi River you run into more radio freedom as the towns are farther apart and growing enough to always be adding channels.

For instance, Joplin, Missouri has an alternative rock station you'd only find in a city of half a million in the Northeast. The state of Missouri itself is saturated with National Public Radio stations. In like manner, the main freeways of Kansas have a constant variety of stations along them, even without a sizable city in sight.

Rap Radio...
You can draw a line along the Pacific Time Zone at the Nevada/Arizona border that divides rap music stations from no rap radio stations. Another such line can run along the eastern edge of the Appalachian Mountains. The center of the country avoids any full-time rap music stations, except in the largest cities. But the coasts are swimming in them. On Saturday Nights the DJ's are in full-force mixing and cutting.

Boston and New York City have a variety of rap and techno Saturday night jams going. Boston's are mostly college radio and seem to ignore FCC rules of profanity. New York is strictly professional and have the actual rap artists in the studios.

Radio might be the best thing about Los Angeles. The number and diversity of stations abound. One station can't very well cover the whole metropolitan area. So, suburban stations can be more innovative than their central city types. Oxnard, CA has about the best hip hop music station anywhere, in terms of the DJ's producing an almost original production out of the playing of the songs. It just seems a shame that where the cost of living is highest and where you have to hustle to afford to live, you have the most radio to sit back and listen to.

California's Central Valley is more economical and the radio will be more pop (though influenced by the coastal playlist).

Surprisingly, the West Coast hasn't heard of techno, jungle, and other dance music as something for DJ mixing on the air. There's always the rap influence, except in college radio where the DJ's are less active. Techno mixes are truly a Great Lakes states' phenomenom. Infact, Detroit betrays its own unique style in DJ mixes. The Motor City DJ's try to recreate a machine that is revved-up and runs all day and night, with barely a hint of where one track starts and another ends. This style is not found on either coasts, at least not on the radio.

In the middle of the Nation there is this unique radio format you find no where else. Every city has their "MIX-FM". While this is a common name for a contemporary hits stations everywhere, in the Great Plains it refers to a station that mixes hip hop, rock, with country rock. It is truly a melting-pot format. This is probably due to sparce population and the need to double-up on musical formats.

the BBC
One of the most intersting new trends in American Radio is how it handles the BBC. For the past five years or so many public radio stations have been broadcasting the BBC World Service during the overnight period. This was originally midnight to six A.M. Then with the increase of NPR shows and the end of Christain Science Monitor Radio at 5 A.M. this has been whittled down to 1 A.M. to 5 A.M. in most places. NPR's Morning Edition felt the need to fill-in the 5 A.M. time slot.

You can hear the BBC Overnight on both coasts and heavily in the Great Lakes, but not on all NPR stations. As the BBC only shuffles its schedule every six months, the four hour time slot can often lack for variety many nights. The Eastern Time Zone is basically doing the 6 A.M. to 10 A.M. London slot, but the West Coast plays the more robust 9 A.M. to 1 P.M. London time slot.

In New England, where they love their BBC, a whole different concept has been developed by WGBH in Boston. They use the SAP (special audio program) track of WGBH TV-2 to broadcast the BBC 24 hours a day. The SAP track is broadcasted by many TV stations to offer extra narration for blind people, or to play a Spanish translation. It has not been used much despite most modern VCR's and TV's including the feature. So, except when PBS actually runs a show with a SAP track, you can listen to BBC radio on your TV out of Boston.

This concept has spread to other New England PBS stations where they broadcast their own NPR station over the SAP. It's a concept that should spread across the nation someday.

BBC 1999
For some reason, the BBC has really shuffled-up its schedule for the bgeinning of 1999. Instead of the standard changes every half hour and quarter hour, shows have turned into many 5, 10, and even 20 minute periods. Their variety shows can extend even further. Listeners are truly behind this as less popular shows are cut down and others are extended. But it is still the same shows. The first of April and first of November is when the new programming seasons really begin.

NEW PUBLIC RADIO SHOWS
Two great new radio talk shows are being added to some NPR stations in 1999. TECH NATION: Americans & Technology and BEYOND COMPUTERS are two Silicone Valley sponsored shows coming out of KQED in San Francsico. Both cover similar topics and feature authors of the many great non-fiction books coming out these days.
BEYOND COMPUTERS covers science and technology of the near future but with some current events on PC's. It provides a view of what's on the horizon that will change our lives someday. "Perspective" is a keyword. If you were Bill Gates, you'd listen to this show to consider your next move in developing new projects, even if there was no direct correlation... Infact, Microsoft sponsors BEYOND COMPUTERS. The most disturbing thing is their use of music between articles. The music is too loud and pushy at times, an rarely related to the issues being discussed.

TECH NATION is more here and now. It tries to provide the latest understanding on our technological world. Two segments fill the hour with one on one interviews. A recent show featured the Macintosh Guru and his new Kickbutt.com.
As both shows are new they'll be covering fresh topics for quite a while before they start to repeat themselves. Usually found on Saturday and Sunday, check your local NPR listings. WOSU- 820AM features Beyond Computers on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Tech Nation at 3 p.m. Sunday.