The very best oldies station in the state of Wisconsin is WOLX out of Madison. Their transmitter is in Baraboo and covers a great deal of the state.
When I used to commute between Milwaukee and Chippewa Falls, on the way home, I could pick up the signal just south of Eau Claire, somewhere around Black River Falls, and I had the signal until about a mile from home, sometimes all the way into my driveway. During a heavy ice storm one year, the tower in Baraboo fell over and they were forced to rent time on another, shorter tower, cutting their range. After the tower was restored, the signal seemed to get stronger and, in fact, I can actually pick up WOLX in the house, and in the car, sometimes on the west edge of Milwaukee County, down as far south as the zoo. That’s quite a journey for an FM signal!
On Saturdays, the offerings on the Milwaukee radio dial are abysmal. Wisconsin Public Radio goes from good to claptrap, back to good to claptrap again, so once Calling All Pets, Dr. Zorba, Car Talk and Whadya Know? are over, WPR reverts to awful, so I can’t stand to leave that on. (Incidentally, Dr. Zorba’s announcer is a bonehead, so I only listen to the good doctor.) Except for sports broadcasts, AM offerings are wonderful if you happen to be a gardener, have an investment portfolio bigger than a breadbox, if you’re a PC bit chaser or you’re planning on remodeling or building a house. For the rest of us? YAWN.
I was so pleased to find that the new radio that I put into the kitchen could pick up WLOX, so that became the standard Saturday radio station, when they usually pick a year and play everything that made the charts that year. It’s grand!
Until today - WOLX has shifted to all Christmas music, all the time.
C’mon, Guys, it ain’t even Thanksgiving yet.
PS - Wisconsin Public Radio has two networks, one for classical music and one for yak. We have at least three public radio stations in the market that carry the yak network, but none of them carry the classical music network. After WFMR went away, you would think the management of one of those stations would see a nitch that needed to be filled, but no, they insist on competing with the other public stations with the very same yak network. It’s a perfect example of how government has no concept of running a successful business. One of the public stations offers the classical network on their digital broadcast, like anyone actually owns a high definition digital radio.