102.1 KPRI

Elite '08

50

52

Francis P.

San Diego, CA

Four stars and solidly so, but only for the times that I listen to them. I am certainly no club member or anything, I just like to hear the Beatles followed by Counting Crows followed by AC/DC followed by PIL. Often, that set would end with The Sex Pistols. RANDOM!

If you know me, then you know Random is For The Win.

Where the hell could I hear that in San Diego other than at this little funky station? Sure, they have a lot of commercials running. But how does one pay the bills without those? Regardless, I listen in because it is a local, people-owned station. Powa' to the Peeps!

One thing I like on KPRI which is NOT independent is The House of Blues Radio Hour on Sunday night, mostly because Elwood (Dan akroyd) is the man and runs a good show, including excellent Blues selections.

Never too repetitive and often innovative and folksy, KPRI is a fun channel to hit when you are getting commercial-bombed on your mainstay. Check them out!

Oh, I do admit their commercial/ad bits can go on too long at times, so I switch channels (especially when a single advertisement repeats). For this reason, they are not a 5.

Bookmark   Send to a Friend Link to This Review

 

5

10

Stephanie C.

San Diego, CA

KPRI is the most listenable rock station in San Diego.  They play a variety of music from rock classics to singer  / songwriter stuff.   They lean towards adult rock and away from Heavy Metal or headbanging.  If you want music in the morning instead of the usual drive-time jabbering, this is your station.

Sunday mornings unplugged are cool for a relaxing mellow mood.  Nice music that does not put you to sleep.

This station does what it can to support local music and sponsors many "Homegrown" concerts as well as private listener concerts with up and coming name national touring artists.

Tune in and give it a listen!  Now streaming on the Internet again!  Yah!

Bookmark   Send to a Friend Link to This Review

 

46

14

Rob K.

Encinitas, CA

Well I reviewed FM 94.9 so I guess I should at least say a few words here about 102.1.  Just to be a dick and drive home the point about how much 94.9 infuriates me I'm giving KPRI one more star than them.  In truth I listent to KPRI less and would probably only give them 3 stars, too.  

I remember when this station debuted as "Sets 102" in the late '90s.  It was kind of a novelty thing - they usually played two songs in a row from each artist.  But with so few other choices on the dial I listened to them the most.  My favorite thing back then was that they played several artists that otherwise get zero airplay.  Ones that stand out in my mind were Son Volt (Jay Farrar's band) and Van Morrison.  

The station has gone through some changes in the last decade.  They haven't done the "sets" thing for ages now.  And around 5 years ago they re-christened themselves KPRI.  I guess that was the name of an old San Diego rock station and they like to make it sound like they just revived it.  I don't quite see how that could be, but whatever.  The call sign is a throwback at least.

In some ways this station represents most of what I hate about radio - tons of commercials, silly games and private clubs they insist you join, fake-ass sounding DJs who are trying so, so hard to sound like they AREN'T trying.  But the result is the same: they talk in "radio voice" which is so gross to listen to.   One in particular - I won't mention her name - but she embodies that "smile when you talk!" bullshit that they teach them at DJ school.  Yuck.  The guys aren't much better.

The thing they have in common with the jags at 94/9 is that they are "independent", probably moreso than 94/9 in reality.  I think KPRI might even be owned by a handful of actual people, one of whom is a DJ - but don't quote me on that.  So that slightly non-corporate element sneaks in here and there.  And I have to give them credit on one point: they  do play a very wide variety of music.  I would be willing to bet that if you added up the total number of artists played by every SD station KPRI would score the highest.   It seems much less repitive as a result.

Another cool thing is their Sunday Morning Unplugged program, which is exactly what it sounds like.  I don't always listen to this but usually catch a little of it.  It's a smart bit of programming since, despite the changes in work habits over the years, most people still do the Lazy Sunday Morning thing.   It's a nice way to wake up.  At 94/9 they do basically the same thing except it's all reggae.  I hate reggae.

I have to deduct at least one star for another program that they used to do, but stopped: Kenny Weissberg's "Music Without Boundaries".   Kenny is the guy who puts on the summer concert series for Humphrey's (or at least he used to, I'm not an authority on the guy) and he is a true music aficionado.  For years he had a weekly show and just played whatever the hell he wanted.  He even had a better delievery style than the professional DJs.  It may have been the best 2 hours of radio in the country - no exaggeration.  But for whatever reason they stopped airing it which was a great loss to for SD radio listeners.   He took the show to 91X for awhile but that stopped, too.  If you Google the MWB name you can find archives of every show.  

So I digressed a bit there but bottom line, KPRI is okay.  Compared to most FM radio anyway.  And they still play Van Morrison so I could never hate them.

Bookmark   Send to a Friend Link to This Review

Elite '08

309

257

Denise L.

San Diego, CA

AKA 102.1
"We know new music... blah blah blah...'
Oh yeah?  well if you know new music, then why does most the new music you play suck?  Acoustic Cheryl Crow does not equal new music.  And I know just as much about most of the artists they play as their know-it-all all male DJs.  I hate to say this but I have gotten the impression that the DJs on this station are snide and condescending.
I changed the station preset because I just can't take that guy in the morning.  I have enough people pissing me off on the road that I don't need the additional annoyance of yet another Jack Johnson song.(or is it Joe Jackson?) regardless  its is the same song with different words.  And no you're not a new music expert, thanks anyway DJ Smarty Pants.

p.s. all of their DJs sound the same
p.s.s. extra star for not being part of clear channel

Bookmark   Send to a Friend Link to This Review

Elite '08

7

96

David A.

San Francisco, CA

Ehh... this station is inconsistent.  It's never been great, but it wanders off into the bland territory before it becomes too bad.  Right now, it's just average.

I first became familiar with them in '01 when they were a pretty typical AAA station.  Nothing highly experimental, but you could count on them to play the new stuff from artists like Bruce Hornsby, John Hiatt, Patti Smith, REM, John Mellencamp, etc... commonplace artists, but they were the only station that played their new songs.  They also had somewhat of a local flair by adding SoCal skater-type music (i.e. Jack Johnson, before he became mainstream.)

Enter JACK-FM.  Right after that KPRI restructured themselves to become a poor-man's version of JACK.  I understand trying to get a better audience, but what the hell were they thinking when they added stuff like "Let's Get It Started," "Hey Ya," "Figured You Out," "Complicated," and horror of horrors, "Sk8er Boi"?  And then mixed those with classic rock tracks and nixed the few experimental tracks they -did- play.

Even worse, right after that, they started capitalizing on how you might hear something 'different' on their station, that none of the other stations play. [:rolls eyes:]

Lately they've been taking the hint and started throwing a few experimental tracks back in the mix, although most of those are during the overnight hours.  Still, they're getting back on the right track.  And thankfully I haven't heard "Complicated" for awhile.

Bookmark   Send to a Friend Link to This Review