Classics stations on FM of Thessaloniki
Here you will find a nearly complete list of classics and alternative music stations from Thessaloniki together with their mottos minimal historical information and other interesting technical information. This listing excludes stations of mainstream music (Zoo, mainstream / V- pops /,Plus radio- dance ./more -pops/Mylos-var and some others )and other heritage stations i didnt hear (as classic 98 ). MY original idea was after to make a small record of these stations as a follow up article of my older listing of rock stations This bundle article was written in in just one day together with the necessary phone and net research .
I have made a very extensive net search for assuring that my information was accurate or not especially for station startup years. However one station was without any info as you will see below.
Notice that I refer to only internet audiences as automatically measured by two stream sites .There is an audience research company here in Thessaloniki who measures via telephone calls .I am in their list. Each call is about 15 minutes of duration. 32 out of total 50+ stations are listed and the interviewer is asked to advise the station the time and the duration he listened. The results posted later 2 times per year show no ranks but merely people listening at a given time and time they listened that adds more complexity or ambiguity to the final result. A well known radio and TV persona of our city blamed them for their ambiguous methods as all listed stations sponsor them. For this reason I don’t add this info in this post.
Most of the stations below cane accessed via stream sites. They are not noticed but are :e-radio, live24 , tune in , greekradio radiofono-live and 24radio though many others exist.
The Listing below is per my interest rank.
RSO 91.7 (old motto ) 'Songs that cannot be rewritten but simply can be reheard!'
(new mottos ) Hits that last /Feel good feel music
This is one of the oldest existing stations of Thessaloniki and my fav oldies station .They started around the end of 93 (supposed and unconfirmed ) with offices on the centreof the city. Later they changed their offices to a place 10 km far from the city centre. . New format is noticed their program and RDS is supported that shows the song ID. They air evergreen songs from 70s and then.
Although station seems having higher audience in the past ranked in the top 5 stations on town they are now on #16g or #25e as measured by greekradios and e-radio stream sites respectively via the internet and as reference ranked as #17 by the phone research company.
Their main page www.rso.gr is still under construction possibly due to change of main address. Their twitter page has not been renewed after sept 12 Facebook ie also available but is used only 1-2 times per month.
https://mobile.twitter.com/rso917?lang=en
Rainbow 89 feel music feel Thessaloniki
Another quite old oldies radio station started around 2000.This station however is quite different from others as more rock music is included in their program though many pop songs can also heard in weekends with additions from nowadays .RDS can show song ID. There is also an app that offers the ability to request a song .Their mean difference between others is that they play nonstop music without any advertisements.
Audiences #7 on greekradios #13 on eradio #7 in FM
Velvet 96.8 "Greatest hits of all time" One of the most recent stations in the FM with life of about 5 years. It is part of a commercial radio group called MetroGroup that consists of 4 radio stations in Thessaloniki a newspaper and more. All its music stations are with foreign music: Velvet [oldies] Zoo [hits ] and Republic [alternative see below] Velvet has nearly the same music collection with RSO with actually little differences as for example adds Italian songs .There are also adverts in regular time zones . Older times, the listener could send a message via SMS to require a song Station also includes RDS with song ID. Audiences are very good .As measured by greekmedia and eradio they are ranked as #4/5 or ard. 5% of internet audience Their web page http://www.velvet968.gr is very rich and separate column shows the latest 10 songs played. The web design is very similar to Republic's webpage structure with program /news/ events and competitions columns .Also there is android application available.
Easy 975 "always the best music"Easy is part of Antenna Media group one of the media leading groups in Greece with two TV channels Ant1and MTV (former Macedonia) with neatly the typical 'recipe' or classics. Always with RDS and most ID. Their program is 45+ minutes of non stop music though they air also adverts .The previous period (heard early17) there was also a one-hour news program on 3 morning. Audiences are #17 on greekradios but not listed in e-radio.If you can try to listen to easy 975 you get redirected to the Athens site: https://www.easy972.gr that includes the following subprograms: 80s,love ballad,rock,deluxe, millennium, oldies on the bottom of the page
Gold 106.5 "Music that lasts forever /Eng»
Started April 17 after the stop on 14/4 of 'extreme 1055' my fav station on FM with thrash and related. They are relatively close to the same recipe of oldies tough their play list include s many unknown songs to me though "I can boogie" and "eye of the tiger' can also be heard' .As for example I found several German songs and possibly less known songs of the 70s-80s era The station for the moment (Sept 17 ) still has not any adverts as it was the case of Xtreme expecting for sponsors . Unfortunately there is not any other info on the station. Their RDS shows their ID and motto. There is a Facebook only page with some photos and no other info can be found https://www.facebook.com/GOLD106.5
Special report:two stations of the same headquarters
Imagine 89.7 "radio as you fancy it "Made by John Servetas member of the older Aman group ,now called Arvyla, a a group of friends with satirical program in Ant1TV that includes also Kanakis the owner of the newer Fly 1004 shown next . The station was ’born’ 28.10.2007 and includes mostly rocks and also ballads from various alternative Greek and foreign rock groups but also vintage music on weekends.
The freq was previously used with the name Studio 5 since 1990.
http://www.imagine897.gr and also available apps for android and appstore and live stream with aac+
Fly 104 »fly into the music «original motto in EnglishMade by Antonis Kanakis on 1.2.16 with his name as the owner who is the main member of the Arvyla group. As per its web site the station plays mostly house tough I also listened to various music kinds closely related to electronica as lounge and trance. Appropriate Music for lounge bars with minimal talks. Thus this station is the only today airing dance e-pops in the town after the collapse of Naoussa Fm and Sunshine (read below ) the previous times that had nearly the same or broader style. But neither the style Jarre as produced in earlier times (totally ambient that I still love very much).This freq has been used by many names and owners: top 104 since feb.91 /12.9.2k as kanali 104 /1.4.03 banana 104 /12.07 as rythmos then 1.2.16 as Fly 104 Web page http://www.fly104.gr/en/ with stream playback It is also available via various stream platforms.
Both stations share the same building facilities somewhere in EastThesaloniki. They are very well ranked with #8 for Imagine and #9/14 for Fly. The Fm search company shows #17 for Imagine but not for Fly however as it is not in their list. I hope that this project will exist for much time as two other projects stopped for less than 4 years as you will see below.
Heritage stations with oldies
This was the oldest station of the town with oldies and hits of the time. it started around the end of eighties stopped abruptly on 21.9.12 , 23 years 7 months and 10 days after its start as called by its owner for the goodbye with sign off that midnight .As noticed by various Greek sites on that time one of the reasons was a bad management and crossfire’s between station members and the change of the program one year ago with 'poor mainstream westerns" of 00s .
I will not go further to the reason why StarFm was stopped but it was the hottest station of the town on 90s and 00s and one of the very few most profitable stations ever .its program consisted of mainstream music and also some oldies. Many stores also used its program as background music.
Many stations transmitted later in that frequency but more recently Almopia from a place 40km SW of Thessaloniki
Star Fm 97.1
Heart Fm 93.1this was Star fm's envy (or sister?). Started on 2003 as noticed in one site though think it was on air much longer (around 90s?) with offices very close to Star's in the centre of Thessaloniki .Their program was very clear :the greatest vintage o 70+then. Also was one of the top stations of the city. Stopped around 15 from unknown reasons.