So there is a new radio station in town (Columbus) that many Columbus area TV viewers or drivers may have seen advertisements for. Its located at 106.7 and is also on the web. It is my new favorite FM station. One of the reasons it is so great is because of its music selection. The station provides a great mix of good established alternative rock from the 90s (Third Eye Blind, Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, Blink 182, Counting Crows, Beastie Boys) combined with current new rock. I grew up listening to KROQ in LA, which is one of the most well known FM stations. They had this same type of mix and I was never able to find it again after moving to Ohio. Until now. And that could very much be because Clear Channel owns KROQ as well as this new station  106.7 and KROQ are both owned by evil overlording companies (thanks commenter).

A second reason 106.7 is great, is because they mix up the commercial layout. Instead of getting 45-50 minutes of “non stop hits” followed by an extended commercial break, they’ll play about 3-5 songs, followed by 1-3 30 second commercials. So far, I totally love this new method. To go along with that, they have very few DJ interruptions except for maybe a traffic or weather update, or a quick “This is 106.7″. So you’ll never go more than 2 minutes without hearing a song, which is awesome. I’m somewhat curious if over the course of an hour I’ll hear the same amount of commercials, just spread out differently, or if they can charge a higher premium to their advertisers, since the listener is a lot more likely to stick around to a radio station that only has a 30 to 90 second interruption, instead of a 10 minute break. It’d be a very interesting marketing study to read.

Usually when I’m in the car I’m listening to 1 of 3 things. My ipod/Cd player, 1460 or other talk radio, or music on some FM station. Over the past week or so, 106.7 has dominated that third option, and I don’t see it changing very soon.