KALW 91.7 FM
Category: Radio Stations [Edit]
Neighborhood: Portola500 Mansell St
(at Hamilton St)
San Francisco, CA 94134 (415) 841-4121
18 Reviews for KALW 91.7 FM
I'm so glad San Francisco has two NPR stations. KALW is superior to KQED for a couple reasons. First, KALW is based solely in San Francisco, meaning there's no sharing with Sacramento in terms of programming and political slant. Second, whereas KQED is your typical NPR station that has very little local programming, KALW is dominated by local programming. I especially like Your Call, especially now that Laura Flanders is gone (why did she yell all the time?), and the show with the ask-a-lawyer night. The engineer's also got a nice, soothing voice, and I enjoy hearing the San Francisco School District's cafeteria menus.
There's a little too much BBC News at night, but overall, KALW is a solid choice for public affairs in San Francisco.
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The Good: "Your Call" with Rose Aquilar, one of the most intellegent and skillful interviewers in recent memory. Rose Aquilar For Mayor!
"Up Front" is an award winning news and culture program broadcast from the perspective of the "ethnic majority." It is produced by New American Media, which is part of the Pacific News Service.
"Tangents" is perhaps the best World music program on radio. Dore Stein knows his stuff, and you will hear great music from places in the world that you never even knew existed.
"Thistle & Shamrock," "Folk Music and Beyond," and "A Patchwork Quilt" are also great music shows.
"Counterspin" is always timely and spot on.....
The Bad: Way way way too much NPR type crap.
By "NPR type" I mean old (out of touch with the modern world), dominant culture oriented, affluent, and elitist.
I'm smarter everyday when I listen to KALW. Please give me more This American Life, Car Talk, and the BBC. The Brits are sooo cool! So are the Canadians on As It Happens! My membership is worth every penny.
Two words why I love KALW:
LE SHOW
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I'm not a nerd; I prefer the term 'intellectual!' OOOK, I admit it, I'm kind of a nerd, since I AM reviewing stations that broadcast NPR.
This is one of the Bay Area's sources for public radio & one of my current sources for National Public Radio. I only discovered this station since I've been back in the Bay Area (a little over 1.5 years). So, I alternate between this station & KQED (so I actually give money to both too, which I started during my poor grad student years at my original NPR station). In summary of my Detroit WDET review (which is where it all started for me & my relationship with NPR), NPR is my only exception to music in the car, mostly during my commute to & from work. You can check out my WDET review for more details, if you really want. I especially like Fresh Air with Terry Gross, when I'm able to catch some of that. I also like the fact that they have some music in their format (what can I say, I love music). Sometimes I'll also catch part of a documentary, which is pretty interesting. On occasion in the evening, I'll catch some of the classical music programs with MTT (Michael Tilson Thomas, music director for SF Symphony), I remember reading somewhere that G Love (yes, I'm a fan) was supposed to be playing on one of the programs in the evening earlier this month, but didn't get a chance to catch it.
Small world experience coming up...while listening to this station, I discovered that one of my college (I went to a small school in southern California) classmates works for them! When I first heard his name on the air (which I've now heard multiple times since then), I was thinking, "I don't think that's a really common name, it's got to be the same guy." So, I looked him up in our college alumni directory, & lo & behold, his info matches up, so I'm right, it IS him! I don't think we had any classes together, but I think I know who he is because we used to sometimes hand off music library work shifts to each other. How weird is that!
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I staunchly reprehend the clear channel crap. now I will just refer to it as "CCC". I like listening to Terry Gross' Fresh Air program. Usually there is someone interesting she's interviewing and she asks thoughtful questions.
I also like the fact I learned about the Federalist movement err chilingly calculated plan of our current regime. Thirdly, BBC world news is highly more enlightening than our local newspaper and it feels really cool and connected that someone in Khazakstan possibly is listening to BBC too!
oh, yeah; they play bluegrass as well.... Hell, I'll take the sweet combo of good music and info any day!
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I generally listen to radio when I want to zone out and tap my foot a bit. The last thing I want to hear at these times are people talking at me -- this is why I have the radio on! I found this station in one of those Search moments where you're just cruising for some ear candy. And --lo and behold-- there was bluegrass. The good stuff. I was hooked. I know they were just playing it for a pledge drive (G*d forbid we get anything close to country or bluegrass out here!), but it made my little heart weepy and I listened to a few segments after that that were, despite all the talking, fascinating! It blew my simple country-lovin' mind. Hallelujah.
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Personal Fave:
Fresh Air with Terry Gross
If Terry Gross wanted to interview me I would really never need to do anything else with my life ever again. She's incredibly knowledgeable and insightful - I swear I've never heard any other interviewer be told "No one's ever asked me that before" more than she has. I get the feeling that even the subjects themselves have never really thought about their work in quite the same way before. She's the Jordan, the Kazan, the Prince of talk radio - she simply reinvents the genre. She can make anything riveting. They could announce "tomorrow, Terry interviews a man whose father enjoyed drinking water" and she would rock it.
Personal highlights:
When she asked Willie Nelson about his jazz influences and I had just seen him perform his version of "All of Me" and was blown away by what a great jazz phrasing and interpretation he has.
When she asked Ang Lee about his use of cattle and landscape in "Brokeback Mountain" - for weeks I had been telling anyone who would listen about how moving those sheep actors were. I mean, those sheep had fucking pathos! And then, to my eternal delight and personal validation, old Ang went on about how he wanted the sheep to represent the interior lives of the stoic cowboys.
Interview with Joe Henry where i found out he was the author of Madonna's "Don't Tell Me to Stop" - restored my personal faith in my musical credibility as I really liked this song and was a scooch mortified to rock it. (I know, I'm not a Madonna fan - I'm on probation with the Gay Men's Alliance). Stop judging me.
Also - Philosophy Talk on Tuesdays and Science Fridays give me reason to make it through the week.
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A great alternative to KPFA or KQED. It's called 'information radio' for a reason.
Perfect morning commute listening.
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i probably spend more time with the peeps from KALW than anyone else. i'm pretty much addicted.
why?
fresh air, this american life, CBC, BBC, As it Happens... this list goes on
they just rock, and i used to love listening to what they were serving in the sfusd!
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Enjoy Canadian Broadcast news M-F 5pm...some stories on British puddings such as SpottedDickintheCan....All Things Considered.
Can't stand the voice ofMartyNemkoandattachedatthenostrilBarbaraNemko Bronx/Catskill mountain version of comedy job/life advice and personalovefest hour on Sundays.
PhilosophyTalk sometimes gets didactic.
Friday...DavidAmySedaris...IraGlass...Soundprint..
THIS is the radio station that is not spending the supporter's money on a new HEADquarter on Mariposa street...THE BETTER public radio station is here..hear...hear...
Aside from Michael Krasny's Forum on 88.5, I much prefer 91.7 for their BBC reports in the morning... (Am I the only one who thinks Mary Ambrose is the most obnoxious host ever?? I want Laura Flanders back!)
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This little known alternative to KQED is absolutely terrific.
It's a great counterpart and is where you can hear Tavis Smiley, Faradei Chideya and Terry Gross (twice a day!)
Unlike KQED and NPR it doesn't pretend to be middle of the road, they play bits from Jim Hightower to excite the hardcore liberals.
It's topnotch and they can use your donation today.
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Great variety for the commute! I can start the day hearing what the kids will get for lunch; catch up on sobering news with "BBC World News"; interesting discussions at the lunch hour like "the Philosophy of Hoops" on "Philosophy Talk". At the end of a work day, I get a dose of levity with "As It Happens", such as today's report on Lewis the cat who is under house arrest for terrorizing the neighborhood and Avon ladies.
But the best part? Catch me on my commute home doing my "freeze-dance" routine with the 70's groove-a-licious "As It Happens" interlude!
http://www.darrenbaref...
I learned allot form this shit.
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Vexed by KQED's quarterly pledge drives? Allow me to introduce you to KALW.
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this is the sound that fills my apartment all day.
even when we are at work,
we leave it on,
for the animals.
this way, they can catch us up on what we missed.
im not kidding, either.
p.s. we just found out our girl bird elizabeth is a boy.
he's a father now.
i wish i could channel david sedaris to emphasize how incredibly baffling and wonderful this is.
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