Whole Wheat Radio

Whole Wheat Radio, or WWR for short is a bit different to other stations reviewed so far, with only a few stations under my reviewers belt it's a little too soon to say it's a unique proposition, but its pretty rare

So what is it? Take a look at the URL linked to above for a bit of a clue, the page it links to is a wiki, a user built website. In a nutshell, that's what WWR is, a user built radio station. The site is built by it's community of listeners, tracks and even shows are requested by the listeners, it's so Web2.0 it's even won a web2.0 award...

Ok, so background to one side, what are you actually getting, music wise? It's a little hard to quantify all in all and the closest their website comes to specifying their genre is to say "We tend to appeal to grownups who don't take life too seriously". As weird as it sounds I'd say they're probably spot on, the eclectic mix provided does appeal to someone with a broader appreciation of a number of musical tastes. As I listened, the music swung from light rock to light blues to a bit of country finishing with a samba. Always fairly light and low on the more challenging aspects of these genres, but in no way a bad bit of music. There seems to be little chance of a mainstream bit of music appearing on the playlists as they cover around 3000 independent artists which the seek out via their wiki.

On the technical side, the radio came through clear and strong both via the PC and Wifi radio, I guess that their 6 years of operation from the town of Talkeetna in Alaska has ironed out any of the teething problems newer stations might suffer with. Again a 24 / 365 station with no DJ's and minimal advertising, the station really allows you to get the most music per hour.

The website is HUGELY informative as only a Wiki can be, the Nth detail about artists, songs and even their listeners are available. They even want their listeners to add to their station logo gallery (I did like the one with the moose though..). Standard features such as a chat room and upcoming events are of course available as well as oportunities to buy the independent music you are listening too.

Sometimes I know the overall rating for a station before I start the review, but this one has rather crept up on me as I stepped through the stations features for you. WWR was going to get 1 rating lower, as the music can tend to lack professional polish and end up a little cheezy / lounge singer for constant listening, BUT I love the fact that they're sticking 2 fingers up at mainstream music. So for their musical credentials, their community based content and no issues delivery WWR gets a TURN-ON rating.