Can Lubbock Really Support All This?

Some small cities have nothing at all when it comes to radio, and others have an array of choices. Depending on where you are, you may be in a market that has several stations on auto-pilot and computers are now doing breaks, commercials, inserting weather updates, and playing songs. That's right; there are several radio stations out there in radioland without the use of one single deejay.

Hard to believe, but that's the trend in radio now. In Lubbock, Texas, however, you have the best of a lot of different worlds. This market, despite the metro area's size, has a surprising number of radio stations with a number of different formats. In recent months, some new stations have surfaced which offer low-power but have formats such as oldies, active rock, hot contemporary, and classic rock. KLZK-FM (97.3) has spurred two new channels on either side of the frequency and each are a digital subchannel of said station. The new stations are Oldies 97.7 (K249DU) and Rock 96.9 (K245BG). I already have become addicted to the '60s format possessed by Oldies 97.7, since it's my favorite musical decade and also since KKCL-FM (98.1) decided it needed to focus more on the '70s and '80s after previously playing '60s music for as long as it's been on. I'm surprised that 96.9 was actually available in the Lubbock area, since Amarillo already has that frequency going with a pretty popular station of its own just to the north.

Outrageously, Lubbock is just a crowded radio market with no fewer than three classic rock stations, four different oldies channels, five country, and four talk stations (not counting three sports-talkers). Many of the music stations have local deejay talent, but the aforementioned KLZK substations do not. Lubbock has no shortage of information on the airwaves (compared to Midland, Abilene, or even El Paso), though not quite what the big markets have. Their local news sources are quite good during the week, but market leader KFYO-AM (790) could liven up their current news format; the newscasts are too slow and sleepy. The closest thing Lubbock has to an R&B station (which they've actually never had, and, for the life of me, I don't know why) is 104.9 KBTE, The Beat (which is mostly rap and hip-hop but has some rhythm & blues). Even Texas Tech has two stations within its own entity.

One has to wonder whether a place like Lubbock can support some fifty radio stations. Apparently, it can. Needless to say, in Lubbock, there really is no shortage of radio choices if you happen to be in your car. Keep your dial settings handy. Why? Well, because you might need them someday.