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If there is one station that is really doing good things in Atlanta it’s WRAS, AKA album 88.  Georgia State’s station is the vanguard of college radio and for good reason.  For several years it’s been playing music you don’t hear on other stations but the ability to be better than average despite graduations speaks well of it.

In particular, it has be most diverse line up of shows dedicated to different genres of music.  This is especially true on the weekends.  On Saturdays, if Morning Edition is just too heavy or if you’re just sick of car talk, It’s the only reasonable alternative.  They have a kids music show, followed by the local equivelent to Dr. Demento, and then soundtracks!  Great stuff!  They have fans all over Atlanta, but especially in the offices of a certain music store!

Sundays are good too!  ‘On With the Show‘ a show dedicated to musicals!  WABE has ‘On the Town’ and it’s okay, but it’s only an hour and the host is trying to sell you tours.  Here, you’ve locals working on the programming.  They also have the only Japanese music show in town.

All this raises some questions…  Who is really the voice of the Arts?  1690 AM doesn’t have programming that can touch this!  WCLK is an essential station to cover the Jazz scene, and then there is WABE.  They have a very narrow scope.  First, they are trying to keep classical music programming on the air.  They are also the primary NPR affiliate.  They do a great job, but they don’t have the diversity that WRAS has.

Best of all, WRAS does not conduct pledge breaks that will make you want to kill any nubmer of radio hosts or start admiring the better qualities of the evil ‘Steve and Vicky’

What would I like to see them add?  As long as their going to do a local show on musicals, it would be great for them to invite guests from local theatres to talk about their productions and let people have some professional insites into what it takes to really put on a show!   Feature one or two shows a week and it will both add to the show and help strengthen the theater community!

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 21st, 2007 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Looking Toward the Future. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.