TV, Cable, and Radio
This page is the only one where the "Delaware Only" rule is stretched. This
is because Delaware is really lacking in decent TV and Radio. Most people
above the canal get stuff from Philadephia and those in lower Delaware
scarf stuff from Salisbury or Baltimore Maryland.
This page is divided into two separate sections:
Northern Delaware and Slower Delaware.
Northern Delaware, the land of weak zoning laws and horrible County
Planning. There's so much traffic out there any more, that you might
as well stay home and watch TV. It sure beats waiting through the
same traffic light three times before getting through an intersection.
Cable
Everytime I get used to writing my check for cable to a certain company,
they go and change hands again. First it was Rollins Cable, then Heritage
Cablevision, then TCI, and now Suburban Cable. Suburban covers most of the
Philadelphia area. Their web site covers all of their markets with some
specific Wilmington area stuff here and there. Part of their service,
but on a different web site is DMX -
Digital Music Express. I'm a subscriber to this service, and highly
recommend it. 15 (should be 30 but oh well) channels of commercial free
CD quality music. [reviewed: 04oct96]
Television
This site centers mostly around Channel 6 Action News. It features
"The Big Stories," Accu-Weather, and a program guide that also includes
links to many shows that are listed. And, if you click right now,
you can get a still shot of what is on their station right now. So
don't delay, click NOW! Channel 6 is a local ABC affiliate.
[reviewed: 04oct96]
Channel 10 is Philadephia's NBC station. This site is loaded with
graphics that don't have any ALT tags. This means that getting around
the site with your graphics turned off is near impossible. But once
they are loaded, the site looks great. I'd have to give 10 an edge
over 6 on web site looks. However, most of the links point to NBC
stuff. Not as much local info as the Channel 6 web site but they do
have current local news which is nice. However, take a tip from Weave.
Look at your watch. If it is around 12:00, 18:00 or 23:00, forget the
web site and just turn on the TV and watch the old fashioned way!
[reviewed: 04oct96]
Believe it or not, this is actually a Delaware station! Well, it's
"kind of" a Delaware station. For all intents and purposes though,
it's located in Philadephia. Their web page contains program schedules
as well as Patrick Stoners movie flick reviews. [reviewed: 04oct96]
The local Warner Brothers affiliate. They can short circuit and drop
off the airwaves forever as far as I'm concerned. Why? They decided
to not carry the fourth season of
Babylon 5 leaving the
Philadelphia market without a station that will show it. Their stupid
little frog mascot can drop dead too. Am I bitter? AM I? No, not at
all. Babylon 5 is the only American TV series that was designed to run
for five years with an actual progressing story line. I watch
three years of it, get addicted to it, and dear old 17 decides to
not carry the fourth year of it. Aaarrgghh... [last cursed: 04oct96]
Home of such cherry picks as
the Ukranian Melody Hour, and Romanian Voice Television. They bill themselves
as a voice for groups in the community that may otherwise be unheard.
Hey, that's what makes this country great. They found a niche and are
filling it. It actually can be interesting at times, when you're too
lazy to change the channel. (OK, OK, I'm trying to be fair here!). The
web site contains program highlights and schedules.
Radio
AM Stations
Now this is neat. Visit their web page and if you have the
RealAudio 2.0 player installed, you can
LISTEN to WDEL anywhere on the
Internet. (After a brief commercial, the live broadcast kicks in).
WDEL is located in Wilmington and is primarily a talk radio station.
[reviewed: 04oct96]
WJBR's AM station is probably the last station around that still
caters to people that drive Cadillacs, wear white shoes, and only have
AM radios in their cars. Frank Sinatra is big time on "AM 1290." They
also have followed Delaware's media charitable guidelines
by providing Jim Stoddard with some air time (as well as a picture of
him, let's not go too carried away WJBR...) [reviewed: 05oct96]
Not much at all. Web page wise, there is no competition between WDEL
and WILM. WILM is a Wilmington news radio station. [reviewed: 04oct96]
FM Stations
University of Pennsylvania's college station. College stations often
provide really great music that isn't quite commerically acceptable
on other stations. In other words, it's fantastic. (However, be sure
to also check out WVUD below, which is true blue Delaware...)
[reviewed: 05oct96]
Non-profit PBS radio including NPR broadcasts. Some of their programming
is available via RealAudio. Not live, but nice nonetheless.
[reviewed: 05oct96]
"The Voice of the University of Delaware." Like most college radio
stations, you need a program guide to find what you want since they
play everything from classical to rap. WVUD's web site includes a
program guide as well as info about "Scare Your Roommate," WVUD's
compilation of cutting edge Delaware bands.
[reviewed: 05sep96]
WMMR's web site is really polished. Features top 10 song info as well
as concert information. Don't take too much stock in their information
and claims to be a "rock" station.
Among their top 10 songs is
Hootie and the Blow Fish. And they call themselves
a rock station?! (Of course I'm heavily opinionated. Makes life more
interesting. Chill!) [reviewed: 05sep96]
Includes current play list (as a scanned graphic, yack, long download
times...), as well as contest and event info. WSTW is located in
Wilmington and plays (their opinion of) "today's hits."
No thanks, I'll pass. [reviewed: 04oct96]
This web site is second only to John DeBella in bad taste and bad looks.
But then again, the site is almost nothing about WYSP and almost 100%
about John DeBella. If you like DeBella's style of bad humor, this
web page is for you. But there is some hope. I noticed that
wysp.com was registered to their station. Hopefully they'll get their
own web page and stop letting WMMR show them up.
Believe it or not, WYSP is my fave station in the
Philadephia market, now that they've changed their format. Boy, I really
hated them when they were "Classic Rock" for a long time there. How
often can you listen to the Doors and Billy Joel? WMMR bills themselves
as a rock station too, but they are still stuck in the past. Come on,
my father always listened to oldies stations. I'll be
damn if I fall into that same trap.
A classical music station. Believe it or not, I love good classical
music and often listen to WFLN. Nice web site, and they allow requests
to be submitted via e-mail. However, I don't think they'll consider playing
AC/DC so don't even try it. [reviewed: 05oct96]
When I was a kid, I remember getting tortured in a dentist chair
and listening to that horrible Muzak on WJBR. You know, the old saying,
dentist office music. Well that was the early 70s and times change.
Last week, I was in the dentist office and guess what they were playing?
Yuppers, WJBR. Their web site has their current playlist
(which was a month old when I checked). Check it
out and see what I mean. Peter Cetera, Bryan Adams, Whitney Houston.
You got it. It's "today's" dentist office music. Brings me about as
much pain as a root canal. The more things change, the more they
stay the same... [reviewed: 04oct96]
This Philly station plays popular hit music, what I call bumble gum
rock. But fresh bubble gum is still better than that stale stuff pealed
out from under the desk by WMMR! This web site contains a link to allow
you to listen to their station over the net. But don't get your hopes
up. Their RealAudio server must not be licensed for enough streams. Each time
I tried, all connections were in use. [reviewed: 09oct96]
They also claim to play today's best music (doesn't
everybody?!). Well, if you're into Coolio, then you'd probably
agree. But hey, your father doesn't listen to Q102, so that's a big
plus (he's probably listening to WMMR...)
I like WDRE a lot (like you care, I know). It's billed as "modern rock."
Modern, a term WMMR doesn't understand! (Have I ragged on them enough
yet?!). Unfortunately, WDRE is a low
powered Philly station that is hard to get in Newark area, where I live.
Nicely polished web site. (Wish I had the time to polish my motorcycle,
let alone the web sites I do...). [reviewed: 05oct96]
Guides
Philadelphia's Online's guide to Philly radio and TV.
Television
It might serve slower Delaware and the eastern shore of Maryland, but
WBOC was among the first stations in the country to get their own
web site. Not only that, they also sell accounts to the public in the
area. Be sure to check out their news link for current news of the
area. [reviewed: 05oct96]
Radio
AM Stations
WBAL is a news and talk radio station. Nice site, with RealAudio capability!
Listen to the station over the Internet! The best feature of their
RealAudio broadcasts is that they have to block out Rush Limbaugh. (I guess
his size requires too much bandwidth or something....)
[reviewed: 05oct96]
FM Stations
A top 40 radio station serving those below the canal. Site includes a
link to what songs are on top that week, contest info, plus a
"Gaffney in the Morning" link. I took a look and he has a link to
Full Disclosure home page plus a brew pob link in there.
This guy is obviously a crazed liberal who likes to drink!
[reviewed: 03nov96]
This is only a partial list of Delaware related web sites.
Click above if you want to search for other sites.
Return to Delaware's Front Door
All reviews, comments, and opinions are the sole opinion of the author.
Inclusion of sites on this page (or others) do not mean that I endorse
the sites. Commentary is meant as a guide only.
Comments about this page are encouraged, as well as ideas for new links.
Please send e-mail to Ken Weaverling at
weave@hopi.dtcc.edu.
$Id: index.html,v 1.2 1996/11/03 20:24:02 weave Exp weave $
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Official URL for this page:
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Page Maintained by: Ken Weaverling
Disclaimer: Commentary on this page is the sole opinion of the author. All
commentary and the collective work are © Copyright 1996, Kenneth J.
Weaverling