For quite a few years KFJC was my favorite radio station of all time. I loved it so much that, for my birthday, my wife donated at the $150 level so I could have an hour on the air with my favorite KFJC DJ. She didn't realize my favorite DJ was Uncle Al, so she picked Cy Thoth instead (A DJ who I still enjoyed very much). Cy Thoth gave me a personal call, which I have to say honestly was quite a treat considering how gregarious and unique he was (RIP, Cy Thoth). I thanked him and told him that I was going to select Uncle Al instead.
I received an email from the KFJC manager at the time, don't remember his name, confirming my wife's donation and discussing the details of getting on the air. I replied and told him I'd like to go on with Uncle Al. Never heard from him again even after multiple emails. I Googled Uncle Al, found his email address, and sent him an email asking if I could go on the air with him. A little creepy, sure, but I didn't have much choice after the KFJC manager stopped responding and I didn't have any way to get in touch with him otherwise. Uncle Al responded in the affirmative, stating "We can probably do that." I wrote him back and thanked him, then promptly never heard from him again even after emailing a few more times asking about setting the date.
That was the last of that, and frankly I feel like I got ripped off. They did not uphold their end of the bargain. But it wasn't so bad, KFJC was still a great radio station, so I continued to listen. Then Cy Thoth died. From that point forward the programming of the station changed dramatically for the worse over time. KFJC used to be a station where you never knew what you were going to get, and it was a mix of awesome and horrible music. But even the horrible music was so horrible it was like an auditory car accident and you couldn't stop listening. The good stuff was amazing and the bad stuff was so bad it was interesting.
But that's changed now. I get in the car in the morning and it's a 20-minute extended track off of the "Sounds of Air Conditioners Through Distortion Pedals" compilation. On the commute home it's a track off of "High School Bedroom Casio Drones". I keep trying to like it but the good stuff that used to offset the bad stuff is not on anymore, and the bad stuff isn't interesting now.
Between that and the bad customer service, the station is pretty much dead to me. Except Uncle Al's show, which I still love. Although every time he comes on and starts talking between tracks, in my head I'm like "Thanks for nothing". Now I have much better luck listening to KZSU and Telepathic Juan's awesome show. I keep KFJC on my car radio presets just in case it eventually morphs back to what it once was.
EDIT: After this review was posted, the KFJC manager called me to apologize and make things right. Thank you, KFJC, my faith in humanity is restored. I changed the rating from two to four stars. Now if only they'd play a little less of the air conditioner sounds... read more