WKNC 88.1 FM The Revolution is a remarkably professional college radio station. It's like a satellite radio station tailored to alternative and hip tunes in a variety of genres, except sometimes during the day there's even a real person putting together the music for you! I'm a bit turned off by the commercial-radio-sounding tags between songs, and the block programming can be frustrating (if you hear a song you don't like, don't even bother coming back for an hour because it will all sound like that), especially because some of their blocks are of over-represented or overly similar-sounding genres (post-rock block anybody? anybody?) that do not need such extended airplay and, if anything, come off as lazy and redundant.
But WKNC 88.1 FM The Revolution does have a fantastically extended broadcasting range, and sometimes when I lose the signal for both 102.1 and 89.3, it's a safe bet for a variety of music that I will not hear on commercial radio stations that is reliably current and sometimes interesting. More recently, I have been hearing more hip-hop on this station, both in blocks and not, and it is refreshing to hear hip-hop still on college radio.
Also, Friday nights there is the Convict Rock block, featuring heavy metal (some of which is way too macho-bravado-guitar-smash-ROCK666 for my tastes, but really there is everything from Slayer to Sunn O))) so it's worth giving it a listen if you're looking for a loud weekend radio show) requested by local inmates. Hearing their letters read on air definitely freaks me out some of the time, but it's also a really interesting, unique show unrivaled by anything else in the Triangle.
In general, I'm not weirded out by the 'obscure' aspect of other college radio stations, but if you are the kind of listener who wants familiar sounds from unfamiliar artists as you're driving, with a much reduced risk of both commercials AND chainsaws coming through your airwaves (which makes a lot of sense, now that I'm looking at this), then I would definitely recommend putting this station on your pre-set. -JJ read more
