Home Music Lane

It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes.

San Francisco classical FM stations

In addition to KDFC, the other commercial classical station in the Bay Area for many years was KKHI. KKHI had both AM and FM broadcasts. It carried programming by their DJs and a number of syndicated programs including weekly concerts of several orchestras (I remember Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia) and the Met Opera. At the time I think they also carried SFSO concerts (sometimes live).

The other stations that carried classical were public broadcasting or college stations. My favorite station on the radio was KQED-FM. Except for the morning and afternoon commute hours when they carried NPR programming, KQED-FM played classical throughout the day and evening. It had interesting and knowledgeable announcers playing an eclectic classical program. KQED-FM dropped classical and went to an all news and talk format.

KCSM (College of San Mateo) is now all jazz but years ago its regular broadcast schedule used to include classical. KUSF (University of San Francisco) has on occasion carried classical, but I guess it depends on whether a volunteer DJ wants to host such a program.

The best classical FM now available here is KXPR, a public station broadcasting classical 24 hours/day. It is based in Sacramento but its signal can be picked up in many parts of the Bay Area. I have been able to receive it as far south as San Jose while driving in my car. It plays a much more interesting mix of classical than KDFC and reminds me bit of what KQED-FM used to be like.

As for KDFC, it is a completely different animal since its last change of ownership. Although KDFC still plays all classical, its orientation is now towards easy listening and background music rather than for serious classical listening. KDFC's current owner (Bonneville International) also owns KOIT here, a quintessential bland "lite rock" station. At least KDFC carries SFSO concerts, which sometimes includes challenging and interesting works. I guess I should be grateful that KDFC is still here to broadcast classical at all.

Thank goodness that I can now listen to classical on internet radio from all over the world.



This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Sonic Craft  


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups


You can not post to an archived thread.