KSEG 96.9 ‘The Eagle’

Update: They got rid of their weekend shows, and seem to be doing little more than having contests at times.

I’ve been listening to Eagle 96.9 lately After a friend got me into it. I love that the songs are a mix of great classics like the rolling stones plus music from the 90’s that I enjoyed back then but don’t get to listen to as much as I’d like.
Sometimes there are talk shows and long commercial breaks, which usually cause me to tune out then tune back in later. Some of the commercials are really dumb but this is not Eagle’s fault.
Eagle 96.9 gives you a variety of the best classic rock and they have great free streaming online which I have grown to love.

I used to love this radio station, but after hearing the same 100 songs over and over and over again, I don’t listen much anymore. It’s a good station if you’re looking for an introduction to classic rock, I suppose, as they play all of the hits. But there’s only so many times I can hear «Down on the Corner» before I lose my mind.
The DJs on this station are cool guys and seem to know a lot about the genre, so that keeps things interesting. Nice to not have to listen to the typical douches yelling about the «hottest» auto mall in town, or whatever. God I hate the radio.

I love classic rock, and when I first discovered «The Eagle» after moving to Sacramento, I loved this station, but as time went on I grew wary of their selections and even more tired of the DJ’s and their inane chatter. Oh do I miss the glory days of 98.5 and 92.3 down in the South Bay. They have long commercial breaks, they talk over the music, and generally they just talk too much. There is no way you can listen to it in the morning without being subjected to some talk show, and the ride home is almost as bad. I pretty much listen to my own music, but if I must listen to the radio, now that I’ve found it, usually I’m on 94.7 for music, otherwise its NPR or the classical station out of Sac State.

**Update 8/​310/​10** The Eagle is taking our suggestions seriously. Just last week I turned it on and Bob Dylan, The Doors, and Credence were all in one hour set! The next day had a great mix including Jefferson Airplane, the ubiquitous Led Zep and what the. Stevie Ray Vaughn! **Up one star!**
I grew up listening to the Eagle. Alice’s Restaurant on Thanksgiving is a family tradition, so thanks. I find Mark and Brian pretty funny. Much better than Rob, Arnie and Dawn!
Santana, Deep Purple, the Eagles, Family Stone, Hendrix, Joplin, Airplane, Stones, Buddy Guy, Zepplin, Beatles, Cream, Clapton, Joan Jett, CCR, Van Morrison, The Doors — all the CLASSIC ROCK songs of the day — was the music of yesteryear on the Eagle.
Apparently classic rock is now defined as anything a 45 year old listened to in his 20s. Eagle, it is not. Bön Jovi ain’t classic rock. Guns and Roses, Journey (gag), Van Halen, Foreigner, hell, they ain’t classic. They’re dated.
Love Bob Keller, Kat Madru, Tom Nakashima. Love the 60s show, but for the love of god don’t relegate it to just the mornings! The recent top 50 rock songs showed that people still love the real rock music, not this hair band of the 80s and late 70s shit. Eagle, include more CLASSIC ROCK and less CRAPTASTIC NEW JERSEY DRIVEL. If a song has a thin guitar, it doesn’t belong on a Classic Rock Station. I can’t stand Stevie Ray Vaughn, but I’d welcome him back in a heartbeat.
When Poison and Boz Scaggs start getting played, I’m sorry Bob, but even Chef Ptomaine isn’t enough to keep me.

I grew up around Motown, funk, soul, rhythm and blues, jazz and disco. So when it came to rock, I could take it or leave it. Well, the older I get the more I can take it. Rock music was always around me unwittingly penetrating my brain. Even though it just wasn’t something I could dance to. And as much as I would often tune rock out, I still found myself moving my head or tapping my feet to the music. This radio station fills the bill when it comes to classic rock. From AC/​DC to ZZ Top. No obscure bands here! Only the best and most popular music from the 60’s to the 90’s. Great variations to where you are rarely bored. Memories galore come flooding back!
So, if you are musically eclectic like I have become, I recommend setting this station to your radio tuner of top favorites. It will make your radio surfing much more rewarding!

I had a love-​hate relationship with this station. I like that it played classic rock, but I hated how it was managed. It seemed like they went to commercials every 15 minutes and then would come back and play some piece of garbage tune. It’s also funny that they advertise aplenty for Satellite or HD Radio or whatever it was (or maybe both, they gave up after a while, good move), but ultimately this service would pull listeners AWAY from the Eagle. Seriously, did management not realize this? Dur dur, let’s advertise a product that will make us LOSE customers but earn us a couple bucks in the process because we’re so financially poor. Sometimes these commercials were just so out of hand. One time the DJ who comes on at 10 AM said «get ready to rock ‘n’ roll» and then went to a commercial. Really?
Oh yeah, around the 4^th of July, I think it actually began a week before, they thought it would be a GREAT idea to play ONLY American bands until Independence Day. In case you’re not strong on classic rock, this means no Zeppelin, no AC/​DC, no Stones, no Beatles… pretty much none of the bands that DEFINE classic rock ‘n’ roll. Needless to say, somewhere in the middle they realized how dumb of an idea this was and «snuck» some of these bands in.
The playlists… eh. It’s classic rock so obviously I love the selection, but, you know, AC/​DC did put out many other great songs other than «Back in Black.» Oh yeah, and this station syndicates the Mark and Brian Show. Who can listen to this crap? Honestly. These guys are two of the more boring eggheads I’ve ever had the misfortune of listening to. «hur hur Mark and Brian in the morning, Mark&Brian, Mark&Brian, Mark&Brian dur dur dur.»
I still stream the station in (I’m streaming it now, in fact[but I don’t stream Mark and Brian cause they suck]) because I love listening to radio and the stations in San Diego stink. As far as I can tell, the station isn’t out of control with commercials anymore, so that’s good, and it IS classic rock, so that’s always rockets. So… you may get frustrated while listening to this station, but it does have its strong points (mostly just the music).

Yay, classic rock! I like classic rock and this station, but they could do a lot better.
+1 because they play good songs I like most of the time
–1 because they tend to play song by certain themes or alphabetize them… why? Rock and roll is supposed to be random and free-​forming, not structured!!!
+1 because Mark and Brian are hilarious and get you through the morning drive to school or work
–1 because sometimes they play bands that aren’t even classic rock… like Dave Matthew’s Band for example. How is that possible?!

At my old job, which was located in a warehouse deep in West Sac, we could only get in two stations without making a mile-​long paper clip chain: The Eagle, and KSFM 102.5. As much as I love a station whose entire rotation consists solely of «Shawty Lemme Buy U A Drank», «Luv In This Club» and «Umbrella (ella! ella)!», I usually opted for the Eagle if only for the fact the they never repeated the same song in one day. Also, Two-​fer Tuesday is always awesome, no matter what.
Since I had no internet access at this job, I had to find other ways to properly dick around on the clock. Eventually, I started calling the DJ’s to request Cheap Trick and T. Rex and shoot the shit about music. I really don’t know who the sadder party was in these equations, but it was fun times and one of the few good memories I have from my last place of bidness.

Once upon a time, you could count on radio stations to play the greatest in music. When Rock & Roll ruled the airwaves, and the DJ was who controlled the output. Now, it’s all corporate, the DJ’s have been neutered, and music is played within a specific format.
With the advent of the Internet (and Internet radio stations), and satellite radio, it’s failing.
There’s an old DJ rule which states that the more a station has to bribe to have listeners, the more it’s going to suck. «The Eagle’ is #1 proof of this. constantly playing the same 50 songs over and over, listeners are dropping off like poisoned flies. So to try to win back listeners (and advertising dollars), they are now bribing listeners with $ 100 bucks an-​hour on-​the-​job contests (usually lasting an hour or two, until the next sucker makes their claim).
If you’re into listening to the same two Lynrrd Skynrrd songs every day, and listening to a bunch of corporate-​whipped, burnt-​out DJ’s who saw better days and freedom in the 60’s & 70’s, check out The Eagle.