Interested in a weekly audiophile radio show?


I am an audiogon member, an enthusiastic audiophile and also a volunteer DJ at KZSU Stanford 90.1 FM in the bay area- a non-profit community broadcaster. I am considering dedicating an hour or half hour of my weekly show to audiophile topics.

I was thinking of having people from the industry in for interviews. A few of my ideas included having cartridge designers to explain how cartridges work and the differences between MC, MM etc, amplifier specialists to discuss SET, parallel, transformer-less, Class A, Class D etc. I would love to get ideas from this forum to try and make this as interesting as possible for the audio enthusiast.

Do you think there would even be an interest for this sort of thing? I was also thinking of asking audiophile re-issuer’s, like Classic, Speakers Corner etc. in to play their pressings. The station is equipped with an input that facilitates bringing an outboard phono preamp and turntable in. It also has three turntables that we use all the time, but they are definitely more disco type rigs with tough Stanton cartridges. What do you think?
sansdosage
I'll check it out...but was curious about the format approach that one would take. I'm assuming the many of the listeners would possible be college students? So...being that they may be more "budget conscious" than some audiophiles...perhaps focusing more on the "budget" side of audiophilia rather than the much of hardcore stuff that is discussed here on Agon.

For example...I would assume that most students have ipods...you could discuss the merits of 2 channel vs multichannel and introductory high end gear vs. the mass market stuff that they are already aware of. The explanation that some of these brands that most of them have probably never heard of actually are good would be a good topic to start with as most people have been conditioned to believe that Denon and Bose are the best. You could probably talk about the marketing process and the economies of scale with audio gear in general.

Anyhow...I just thought it would be interesting by starting the show by attempting to bridge the gap. Tubes and Vinyl could still be discussed as could entry level IC's and speaker cable so that people understand that the little black connectors that come with their CD player *actually are crap and that for less than the cost of a dinner out they could make a significant upgrade.

From my experience...people that listen to public radio are usually pretty hip when it comes to music...this could be the opportunity to let them in on the secret of how to go about getting their favorite music to sound its best. Who knows...you could even invite some listeners to the studio to hear the difference first hand so others can hear the impressions of someone who hears good gear for the first time.

looking forward to the show...I'll dial it in on the internet.
Thank you gus all so much for answering. We do stream at http://kzsulive.stanford.edu/ at 24k mono, 56k stereo, 128k stereo (all MP3) and now at 192k AAC for those with a good internet conection. KZSU does all sorts of specialized stuff- from the Palo Alto City Council to a weekly show on intelectul property law in the information age. I don't think that the geek-ness of an audiophile show is out of line- who knows, it might even peak the interest of someone who is not already "in the choir."

I think I am going to go ahead and do it. I would love it if anyone else had some more specific ideas of folks & topics for interviews!

I will post as soon as I have a date and time for the first "audiophile" half hour.

Sans Dosage
You might want to contact John Sunier for some advice. He is from the Bay area and ran a nationally-syndicated radio program called Audiophile Audition, now a web-zine.

I mourn the loss of In Fidelity, the local L.A. radio program on all things audio. They even broadcast an interview with Harry Pearson. Ahh, the good old days...
sure...we'd all love it...but look at the audience you are asking. Would your radio audience like it? Not to rain on your parade or anything...I just wonder how much interest there would be from the general public being that "audiophiles" are such a rare breed themselves.

just my 2c
I would love it. Stream it to internet if the station is not already. Post the times here and AA and I am sure there will be an listeners from around the world.
Sounds like a great idea.. Hopefully you can make it a podcast so we international folks can listen to it as well. :)
I think this is a great idea. I hope you know that several reviewers, TAS chief editor, and lots of knowledgeable audiophile and music lovers within 45 minutes of stanford. I can imagine lots of interesting topic perhaps two 30 minutes shows a weeks. send me your email if you want to talk?

enjoy the music,
GerryM5