On Air
Guide to local radio
By Amy Diaz adiaz@hippopress.com

While it’s still mostly free, let’s take a moment to consider broadcast radio.

Here in southern New Hampshire, “local” also includes Lowell and Lawrence and, of course, Boston as well as whichever city we live in. But this part of New Hampshire also offers some small quirky stations unlike anything you could find in the big city or, heck, even on XM or Sirus, the satellite radio that might become as ubiquitous as cable TV in the next decade.

We have low-power classical and even a low-power kids’ station. We have a surprisingly large number of religious stations (well, large compared to, say, how many hip-hop stations we have) and, though it doesn’t always come in crystal clear, we have a pretty cool college station (from the University of Massachusetts in Lowell) that doesn’t really disappear until you’re on the road north from Manchester to Concord.

So dig out that Walkman or find a stretch of road straight enough so you can fiddle with the car radio and let’s take a trip up the dial.

Radio listeners 101
You push a button or start your car and there it is — the music, the talking, the David Sedaris.

But how does radio work?

To get a quick lesson in radio, I asked Sean Sullivan for some radio basics. Sullivan is currently a spokesman for New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association and the broadcaster for the Manchester Monarchs but he has also worked for several area radio stations and is a guy who knows the business.

• What determines which stations I hear? Sullivan says the equation is simple — wattage + height = range. The stronger the signal, the higher the radio tower, the further out a station can broadcast. Mostly. Signal strength and reach can also be different depending on the kind of ground the tower is on (marshy land is best). At night, stations usually broadcast at a lower power because atmospheric conditions allow the signal to go farther.

• So if a tower in New York City were 200 stories tall, I could hear the signal in NH? No. As Sullivan points out, many stations have the same frequency. The FCC gives them a pattern within which each station can broadcast. Despite the many drawings of radio towers radiating a signal out in a perfect circle, most patterns are not circles but odd shapes designed to keep one station’s signal from overlapping with another (Only clear channels — which before it was the proper name of a giant company that owned lots of radio stations was a broadcast term — radiate out in a circle. Clear channels have no other station on that frequency on that station’s side of the Mississippi.) WKBR in Manchester has a pattern shaped a little like a cowbody hat, Sullivan said as an example. It’s up to the radio engineers to make sure these patterns are what they need to be. Engineers often apply clamps and other items to the tower in just the right position to change the broadcast pattern. Engineers, Sullivan said, are the unsung heroes of the radio industry.

• What’s the difference between AM and FM? To you and me — AM signals can travel farther but FM signals get better penetration. The result is that FM has better sound quality (the reason stereo broadcasting and most music ended up there) and AM became the domain of talk radio.

• Any New Hampshire radio fun facts? Keene is in its own radio world. Because of the geography of Keene, no outside radio gets in and no Keene radio gets out, Sullivan said. The one exception is a spot across from the mall where the Ames used to be in Milford. For whatever reason, in that parking lot, you can get most of the Keene stations perfectly, he said.

• How do I know what I’m listening to? Radio stations always announce their call letters five minutes before and five minutes after the hour.

• How do I get better reception in my car? Cars are basically one big antenna, which have the added benefit of direct access to the outdoors (no brick or metal like most buildings). So long as your wires are insulated (and the vibrations of the car aren’t interfering with your ability to pick up radio signals) your car will get great reception, Sullivan said.

• How do I get better reception in my house? Put your radio as close to the window as possible and, if you can, run an antenna on the outside of your abode, Sullivan said. If you have access to the roof (and own the building or have a landlord who won’t mind), you can attach a TV antenna onto the roof and run a wire from that into your radio. Point the antenna in the general direction of the stations you want to pick up (south, for example, to get Boston stations), he said.

FM

89.1 FM WEVO
Nickname/catchphrase: New Hampshire Public Radio
Station location: Concord; nhpr.org
Format: Public radio, NPR
Programming: New Hampshire Public Radio offers most of the major NPR radio programs plus some local programming including The Exchange (which airs weekdays from 9 to 10 a.m.) and The Front Porch (which airs weekdays from 6:30 to 7 p.m.). NHPR operates several relay stations including 88.3 FM WEVS in Nashua and 90.3 FM WEVO in Nashua.
Listenership: WEVO (which is the station that appears in Media Audit’s listings) is one of the most listened-to New Hampshire stations in the southern New Hampshire audit and has a high number of people who listen to it regularly (people who said they’d listened to the station more than any other in the past seven days). The station tends to have more female than male listeners and the bulk of listeners tend to be 55 to 64 years old.

89.7 FM WGBH
Nickname/ catchphrase: Public broadcasting from Boston.
Station location: Boston, Mass.; wgbh.org
Format: NPR
Programming: Where WBUR has NPR talk programming scheduled throughout the day, WGBH features long stretches of musical programming, mostly jazz and classical. Listenership: In the Boston area media market, WGBH gets about 169,000 listeners. In southern New Hampshire, the station still receives more than 10,000 listeners.

90.5 FM WSPS
Nickname/catchphrase: Commercial-free eclectic music from St. Paul’s School
Station location: Concord; http://wsps.sps.edu
Format: St. Paul’s School radio.
Programming: The station mixes live student programming (when school is in session) plus music played by automated DJ Paulie II. Shows play jazz, world music, bluegrass and trance music.

90.7 FM WLMW
Nickname/catchphrases: New Hampshire Family Radio
Station location: Manchester; www.nhfamilyradio.org.
Format: Religious
Programming: Mostly 30-minute to hour-long religious shows.

90.9 FM WBUR
Nickname/catchphrases: Boston’s News Station
Station location: Boston, Mass.; www.wbur.org
Format: NPR, Boston University
Programming: The station features a full schedule of NPR programming. Offerings different from NHPR include On Point (from 10 a.m. to noon and from 7 to 9 p.m., weeknightly). On weekends, WBUR airs Weekend America (1 to 3 p.m.), Only a Game (6 p.m., a more sleep-in friendly hour than NHPR’s 7 a.m.) and some Boston-specific programming.
Listenership: In the greater Boston area, WBUR gets almost 587,000 listeners (who tuned in in the last seven days). In Hillsborough County, the station gets about 26,500 listeners. The station skews slightly younger in southern New Hampshire than New Hampshire Public Radio’s WEVO does.

91.1 FM WVNH
Nickname/catchphrase: New Hampshire Gospel Radio
Station location: Concord; www.wvnh.org
Format: Religious
Programming: Familiar religious radio names like James Dobson, Chuck Colson and Chip Ingrim appear on the program schedule. Many of the station’s programs come from the Moody Broadcasting Network, out of Chicago.

91.5 FM WUML
Station location: Lowell, Mass.; www.wuml.org
Format: College radio, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Programming: Easily picked up south of Manchester, the station’s weekend programming offers Indian (Gunjan on Saturday at 9 a.m.), Portuguese (Radio Bom Dia on Saturday at 6 a.m.), Latin (Latino Café Saturday at midnight through Sunday at 9 a.m.) and Armenian (Armenian Heritage, Sundays at 11 a.m.) shows. During the week, tune in to indie rock, hip-hop, soul and jazz. The show schedule changes when the bulk of the students return in the fall.

91.9 FM WUMB
Nickname/catchphrase: Folk Radio
Station location: Boston, Mass.: www.wumb.org
Format: folk
Programming: Programs include long blocks of folk music during the mid day and, in the evenings, more specialized shows such as World Café (weekdays, 9 to 11 p.m.), Grateful Dead Hour (11 p.m. to midnight on Thursdays) and Beale Street Caravan (Tuesdays, 11 p.m. to midnight).
Listenership: WUMB has about 24,600 listeners (people who tuned in once in the last seven days) in the Boston media market and has a small but loyal southern New Hampshire listenership. Among southern New Hampshire readers who said they’d listened to the station more than any other in the last seven days, the surveyed tended to be female and most had an income of $50,000 a year or more.

92.1 FM WFEX
Nickname/catchphrase: FNX
Station location: Peterborough (relay from WFNX Boston, Mass.); wfnxradio.com
Format: Alternative rock
Programming: Current groups at the top of the playlist include The Killers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Gnarls Barkley.
Listenership: WFNX’s southern New Hampshire listener numbers are actually quite small — smaller than, for example, WGIR AM. In fact, the number of southern New Hampshire listeners who listen more to FNX than anything else is actually similar to WUMB’s listeners.

92.5 FM WXRV
Nickname/catchphrase: The River
Station location: Haverhill, Mass.; www.wxrv.com
Format: Adult Album Alternative
Programming: River musicians include Fiona Apple, Matt Costa, De Sol and Death Cab for Cutie.
Listenership: The River has nearly 28,000 listeners in Hillsborough County. Its overall southern New Hampshire regular listeners (those who listen to the River more than anything else) are mostly women between ages 35 and 54.

92.9 FM WBOS
Nickname/catchphrase: Powered by music
Station location: Brookline, Mass.; wbos.com
Format: Adult Album Alternative.
Programming: Artists in regular rotation include Franz Ferdinand, Police and Gin Blossoms.
Listenership: WBOS has about 11,400 occasional listeners (those who listened once in the last seven days) in Hillsborough County. In terms of share of listenership, the station does only a little bit better in the Boston media market overall.

93.3 FM WNHW
Nickname/catchphrase: The Wolf
Station location: Belmont Format: Country
Programming: Artists in regular rotation include Tim McGraw, Toby Keith and Willie Nelson.

94.5 FM WJMN
Nickname/catchphrase: Jam’n
Station location: Boston, Mass.; www.jamn.com
Format: Hip-hop
Programming: Top 10 artists on this station include Paula Deanda, Sean Paul and Cassie.
Listenership: In the Boston media market overall, Jam’n gets about 409,000 occasional listeners (at least once in the last seven days). In southern New Hampshire, Jam’n’s most regular listeners are overwhelmingly female and most are between 24 and 44.

94.7 FM WCNH (Low power FM)
Station location: Concord; www.wcnh.org
Format: Classical
Programming: Started by Harry Kozlowski, well known among local radio types, the low-power station plays classical music commercial-free.

95.7 FM WZID
Nicknames/catchphrase: The Best Variety of Yesterday and Today
Station location: Manchester; zid.com
Format: Adult Contemporary
Programming: Regulars include Sarah McLachlin, Rod Stewart and Faith Hill.
Listenership: WZID is one of the monster stations of this area — it’s number three in occasional listeners (the last seven days) and number two in stations people listen to more than they do any other station.

96.5 FM WMLL
Nickname/catchphrase: The Mill
Station location: Manchester; www.965themill.com
Format: Classic rock
Programming: The Mill shuts up and rocks to the likes of ELO, The Cars and Pink Floyd.
Listenership: Though not quite the powerhouse as its sister station WZID, The Mill gets middle-of-the-pack listener numbers for both southern New Hampshire and Hillsborough County.

96.9 FM WTKK
Nicknames/catchphrase: FM Talk
Station location: Boston, Mass.; www.wtkk.com.
Format: Talk
Programming: Personalities on this part of the dial include Don Imus (5:30 to 10 a.m. weekdays), Mike Barnacle (10 a.m. to noon weekdays) and Bill O’Reilly (1 to 3 p.m.).
Listenership: WTKK has about 7,700 listeners in Hillsborough County. Of its southern New Hampshire regular listeners, about three quarters are men and most fall in the 45-to-54 age group.

97.5 FM/ 97.9 FM WOKQ
Station location: Dover Format: Country
Programming: Regular artists include Alan Jackson, George Strait and Carrie Underwood.
Listenership: Apparently, everybody. It has the most listeners (of those who tune in at least once in seven days) in southern New Hampshire. Of radio stations that are their listeners’ most favorite, it comes in third. This last group is fairly evenly divided between men and women.

98.5 FM WBMX
Nickname/catchphrase: Boston’s Best Station for Today’s Variety
Station location: Boston, Mass.; www.mix985.com
Format: Hot AC
Programming: Artists in this station’s top 20 include James Blunt, Kelly Clarkson, Keane and Gavin DeGraw.
Listenership: The Boston station gets almost 20,000 listeners in Hillsborough County. Of its most regular southern New Hampshire listeners (those who tune in to BMX more than anything else), they are evenly divided between men and women and skew young, in the 18-to-24 age group.

99.5 FM WKLB
Nickname/catchphrase: The New Country
Station location: Lowell, Mass.
Format: Country
Programming: Among the current top artists are Josh Turner, Sara Evans, Trace Adkins and Sugarland.
Listenership: No match for WOKQ, WKLB still holds its own in southern New Hampshire near the bottom of the middle of the pack.

100.1 FM WPNH
Nickname/catchphrase: The Planet
Station location: Plymouth; www.wphnfm.com
Format: Modern rock
Programming: Similar musically to FNX (though slightly rockier), their favorites list includes AFI, Angels & Airwaves, The Raconteurs, Tool and Dashboard Confessional. Though out of Plymouth, WPNH can be heard as far south as sections of Manchester (the Mall of New Hampshire parking lot).

100.3 FM WHEB
Nickname/catchphrase: The Rock Station
Station location: Portsmouth; www.wheb.com
Format: Rock
Programming: A sister station to Rock 101, HEB also airs morning show Greg and the Morning Buzz and has on its regular play list Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty, Shinedown, Foo Fighters and Stone Sour.
Listenership: For southern New Hampshire listeners, HEB places at the high end of the middle of the pack. Its most regular listeners (those who listen more to it than anything else) are overwhelmingly male and fall in two age groups: 18 to 24 and 35 to 44.

100.7 FM WZLX
Station location: Boston, Mass.; wzlx.com
Format: Classic rock
Programming: On its top 500 Memorial Day weekend countdown, the top artists were Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pink Floyd and The Who.
Listenership: WZLX has about 13,700 listeners (those who tuned in at least once in seven days) in Hillsborough County. Its occasional listeners across southern New Hampshire tend to be in the 35 to 64 age group.

101.1 FM WGIR
Nickname/catchphrase: Rock 101
Station location: Manchester; wgir.com
Format: Active Rock
Programming: Artists at the top of the playlist include Red Hot Chili Peppers, Buckcherry, Three Days Grace and Godsmack.
Listenership: In southern New Hampshire, Rock 101 ranks fourth in most listened-to stations.About three quarters of its listeners are male and the biggest age group of listeners is 18 to 24 years old.

102.3 FM WWHK
Nickname/catchphrase: The Hawk
Station location: Concord; thehawkrocks.com
Format: Classic rock
Programming: The regular music line-up includes Aerosmith, The Who and Fleetwood Mac.

102.9 FM WLLO (Low power FM)
Station location: Londonderry; http://schools.londonderry.org/leo/wllo103/
Format: Londonderry school district station
Programming: The schedule includes shows such as Jarful of Stories (weekends at 10 a.m.) and Buck Howdy: Cow Pie Radio (weekends at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.).

103.3 FM WODS
Nickname/catchphrase: The Greatest Hits of the ‘60s and ‘70s
Station location: Boston, Mass.
Format: Oldies
Programming: Regular artists include Aretha Franklin, the Beach Boys and The Mamas and The Papas.
Listenership: WODS has a little less than 12,000 Hillsborough County listeners. The southern New Hampshire numbers for regular listeners (those who tune in to that station most) show the station evenly divided between men and women.

104.1 FM WBCN
Nickname/catchphrase: The Rock of Boston
Station location: Boston, Mass.; www.wbcn.com
Format: Hard rock
Programming: Top 10 WBCN artists are Tool, Stone Sour and Pearl Jam.
Listenership: This is the big daddy of Boston radio, winning the overall Boston media market with an estimated 1.7 million listeners (who tuned in once in seven days). It’s also tops in Hillsborough County.

105.5 FM WJYY
Nickname/catchphrase: Concord’s Only Hit Music Station
Station location: Hooksett; www.wjyy.com
Format: Top 40
Programming: Current hot artists include Sean Paul, All American Rejects and Daddy Yankee.
Listenership: Though similar in format to Boston’s Kiss, WJYY has a smaller share of the southern New Hampshire marketplace. Its regular listeners (those who tune in to this station more than others) are mostly female and are bunched in the 35 to 44 age bracket.

105.7 FM WROR
Nickname/catchphrase: The Songs You Grew Up With
Station location: Framingham, Mass.; www.wror.com
Format: Classic hits
Programming: Regular artists include Elton John, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Bad Company.
Listenership: WROR comes in at the top of the bottom third of stations in Hillsborough County, listenership-wise. The station gets an even number of men and women and sees most of its listeners in the 35-and-over crowd.

106.3 FM WFNQ
Nickname/catchphrase: Frank FM
Station location: Nashua; 1063fmfrank.com
Format: Classic hits
Programming: Regular artists include Aerosmith, Crosby Stills and Nash and Queen.
Listenership: Frank gets about 27,000 listeners (folks who tuned in at least once in the last seven days) in Hillsborough County. For its overall southern New Hampshire listenership, it gets about 25 percent more men than women listeners with the largest listener age group 35-to-44 years old.

106.7 FM WMJX
Nickname/catchphrase: Magic 106.7
Station location: Boston, Mass.; www.magic1067.com
Format: Soft rock
Programming: Regular artists include Coldplay, Paul McCartney and The Police.
Listenership: Ranked number 15 in the Boston media market, Magic falls near the end of the middle of the pack in southern New Hampshire.

107.3 FM WAAF
Nickname/catchphrase: Everything that rocks
Station location: Worcester, Mass.; waaf.com
Format: Rock
Programming: Bands on regular rotation include Pearl Jam, Buckcherry, and Korn.
Listenership: WAAF is the second most listened-to station in Hillsborough County (of listeners tuning in at least once in the last seven days) and is one of the top five stations of southern New Hampshire.

107.7 FM WTPL
Nicknames/catchphrase: The Pulse
Station location: Bowe; www.wtplfm.com
Format: News/talk
Programming: The Pulse features locally produced shows including The New Hampshire Wake Up Show with Peter St. James (6 to 9 a.m.) and Sports Light with Mike Murphy (6:30 p.m.) as well as ESPN Radio sports and syndicated shows.

107.9 FM WXKS
Nicknames/catchphrase: Kiss 108
Station location: Medford, Mass.; kiss108.com
Format: Top 40
Programming: Kiss is a Clear Channel format with artists like Nelly Furtado, Panic! At the Disco and The Fray.
Listenership: In Hillsborough County, it gets a little less than 30,000 listeners. In southern New Hampshire, its most ardent listeners tend to be female and younger, with the largest group falling between 18 and 34 years old.

AM

590 AM WEZE
Nickname/catchphrase:
Family 590
Station location: Boston, Mass.; wezeradio.com
Format: Religious
Programming: Talk radio with a religious bent featuring the likes of James Dobson and his Focus on the Family, Chuck Colson with Breakpoint and Dave Ramsey with The Dave Ramsey Show. The Sunday programming features broadcasts of several different Boston-area worship services.
Listenership: The station doesn’t show up as receiving any measurable number of listeners in New Hampshire. In the Boston area in Massachusetts, it has a little less than 50,000 listeners (people who have listened at least once in the last seven days).

610 AM WGIR
Nickname/catchphrase: New Hampshire’s Newsradio
Station location: Manchester; wgiram.com
Format: News/talk
Programming: Weekdays, WGIR offers local talk from 5 to 9 a.m. (WGIR Morning News with Charlie Sherman) and from 6 to 7 p.m. (Sports Night with Dave Long). Syndicated shows include Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Weekends include the Red Sox.
Listenership: WGIR AM’s most frequent listenership skews heavily male and tends to be older (45 and up), retired and Republican.

680 AM WRKO
Nickname/catchphrase: Boston’s Talk Station
Station location: Boston, Mass.; wrko.com.
Format: Talk
Programming: Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr is the big local talent on WRKO and his show airs weekdays from 3 to 7 p.m. Syndicated shows include Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage.
Listenership: WRKO gets about 280,000 listeners in the greater Boston market (listeners who tuned in in the last seven days) and out of about 300,000 estimated Hillsborough County radio listeners, it gets about 19,000, a number that still beats Manchester-area AM radio stations such as WGIR and WKBR.

800 AM WNNW
Nickname/catchphrase: Power 800
Station location: Lawrence, Mass.; power800am.com.
Format: Spanish
Programming: Billing itself as “the home of Boston’s only Hispanic radio station,” WNNW features a mix of talk and music.

850 AM WEEI
Nickname/catchphrase: Sports radio
Station location: Boston, Mass.; weei.com.
Format: Sports
Programming: The schedule packs in the Red Sox games and features week-daily sports shows such as Instant Replay (6 to 6:30 p.m.) and The Big Show (2 to 6 p.m.). Fox Sports runs from midnight to 6 a.m. most days. WEEI also has an FM station (103.7) out of Providence, R.I.
Listenership: Nearly 419,000 people listen to WEEI (at least 15 minutes in the last seven days) in the greater Boston area; in Hillsborough County, they get almost 28,000 listeners. The audience skews heavily male and the greatest number of its listeners are between 25 and 64 years old.

900 AM WGAM
Nickname/catchphrase: The Game
Station location: Nashua; wgamradio.com
Format: Sports
Programming: The station airs Fox Sports on weekends and Red Sox games. The locally produced sports programs include The Hometeam with Mike Mutnansky and Pete Tarrier, which airs daily from 4 to 6 p.m.

1030 AM WBZ
Nickname/catchphrase: NewsRadio 1030
Station location: Boston, Mass.; http://wbz1030.com
Format: News/talk
Programming: Traffic on the 3s and weather on the 10s is the focus for most of their broadcast day (5 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays; 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends), when the station also runs continuous news.
Listenership: This strategy has made WBX the most listened-to AM station in Boston and the most successful AM station in southern New Hampshire. A look at its demographics in southern New Hampshire shows the station getting a good cross-section of ages and income levels. Locally, the station does skew more heavily male, but it still gets a good chunk of female listeners.

1060 AM WBIX
Nickname/catchphrase: The Business Station
Station location: Natick, Mass.; wbix.com
Format: Business news
Programming: Nearly wall-to-wall business programming fills the airwaves at WBIX. Shows include Stu Taylor on Money (weekdays, 8 to 9 a.m.), Money Matters Radio (weekdays, 9 to 10 a.m.), The American Advisor (weekdays 5 to 5:30 p.m.) and It’s Your Money (weekdays 6 to 7 p.m.).

1110 AM WCEC
Station location: Salem
Format: Spanish
Programming: The station reaches easily up to Derry and can also be heard with inexplicable clarity in some center-city parts of Manchester but then not in other parts of the city. The station features Spanish language music and some talk.

1200 AM WKOX
Nickname/catchphrase: Boston’s progressive radio
Station location: Framingham, Mass.; wkoxam.com
Format: Talk
Programming: WKOX also broadcast on 1430 AM — both stations are easier to get from southern New Hampshire freeways than from city locations. These were the stations that first brought Air America programming into this part of New England. Weekday shows include Stephanie Miller (9 a.m. to noon), Al Franken (noon to 3 p.m.) and Randi Rhodes (6 to 10 p.m.).

1250 AM WKBR
Station location: Manchester; wkbr1250.com
Format: Oldies
Programming: When WMLL (the Mill) switched to classic rock from its WQLL (Cool 96.5) oldies format, WKBR took up the slack.

1320 AM WDER
Nickname/catchphrase: Life-Changing Radio.
Station location: Derry; http://wder.com
Format: Religious
Programming: The line-up features James Dobson (half-hour chunks at 8 a.m.; 11:30 a.m., 8:30 p.m.), Dennis Rainey and others (most religious programming seems to be scheduled in 30-minute segments).

1370 AM WFEA
Nicknames/catchphrases: Great Songs, Great Memories
Station location: Manchester; wfea1370.com
Format: Nostalgia
Programming: WFEA claims to be the oldest radio station in New Hampshire, with continuous broadcasting since 9 a.m. on March 1, 1932. In addition to the songs of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the station offers high school, Manchester Wolves and New England Patriots football. The station offers Spanish-language programming on Sundays, from 7 to 9 p.m.
Listenership: WFEA is the most popular AM station in southern New Hampshire that is also broadcast out of southern New Hampshire. Its listeners tend to be older and retired.

1450 AM WKXL
Nickname/catchphrase: Thoughtful Community Radio;
Station location: Concord; wkxl1450.com
Format: News/talk
Programming: News (national and local), weather, sports and features fill the morning rush hour programming. Local personalities, business owners and educational types host shows (some running weekly, some running once a month), most about an hour long. The weekends offer more of the same plus sports and some music programs.

1590 AM WSMN
Nickname/ catchphrase: Nashua’s Source for News and Talk
Station location: Nashua; wsmnradio.com
Format: Talk
Programming: Long-time Manchester radio personality Woody Woodland now does duty as the morning guy at WSMN (from 7 to 9 a.m.). The station also carries Laura Ingraham (7 to 10 p.m.) and Ray Lucia (noon to 3 p.m.).

1620 AM WNHC
Nickname/catchphrase: Radioactive 1620, Radio SNHU
Station location: Manchester
Format: Southern New Hampshire University radio
Programming: As with all good college radio, the programming offers shows featuring everything from punk to reggae, rockabilly to emo, hip-hop to rock. Plus, talk.