Bob-FM 103.5

As others have stated, there is no Bob: only your irritating ClearChannel overlords. If Bob were a real person, would you *really* want to hang out with him?
I mean, Imaginary Bob irritatingly talks about himself all the time even though his only job is to play music. Shut up, Bob. Nobody cares about you. You have ONE made-​up job and your constant discussions of yourself are not in the job description of «play music.»
Secondly, he plays dull music most of the time. For a forma – err, Imaginary Person Thing who purports to play everything, he’s got a lousy collection, and his playlist is short. It’s played-​out old-​fart-​grade music at its best, and easy listening at its worst.
It’s the same boring stuff that every other town gets, because ClearChannel.
Every now and then, I’ll get an okay song on Bob, but the promise of chatter-​free muzak is fleeting. «Bob’s» got to say something completely irritating in the meantime, or jam out to the same 80s cheese-​rock tune he’s already played 42 times today.
Seriously, I think Bob would be less offensive if they dropped the fake Bob persona that defeats the whole purpose of not having a chatty on-​air DJ and admitted that no, they don’t play everything. Not anywhere even close. Really, though, «Bob» is the worst.

Bob’s station plays a lot of great classic music from most genres, but with all the music library that this station says they possess… they need to play everything that’s out there… lol
I mean… don’t get me wrong, I love Steve Nicks, Fleetwood, Eagles, etc, but there are many other classic songs from artists and bands that Bob hasn’t played. I should be able to hear the same song within a week or two. :) Come on Bob, you have that huge music library, play it all :)
Nonetheless, they play great music and I do enjoy listening to them daily, once I get my fill of KLBJ AM lol… Keep up the great music Bob! :)
PS…I have a nice collection of music, if you need some… let me know lol ;)

I only typically listen to BOB FM when they do 9 @ 9 from the 70’s, and every now and then from the 80’s, and early 90’s.
They used to do 9 @ 9 from the 60’s but stopped doing that in 2006, and the last 60’s year done was 1967.
I have no use for the new stuff they call hits. If I liked that I would tune to K Crap FI or the Sorry Beat, or the thousands of Crap Rock (Indie format) stations that flood the airwaves.
If the 9 @ 9 goes, so does my tuner.
Love the 9 @ 9 but dislike the rest.
.

Full disclosure, Bob and I go way back. We were dorm mates back at ASU. So I am a little biased, but I can say Bob is as good as it gets. He is a masterful DJ. I helped him out now and then when we were running to the student radio station. In fact I coined «Bob plays anything» because he was like that in college. Everyone just wanted to hear The Cure, but Bob was like «here’s some Stevie Nyx instead.» You never knew what he was going to do. The guy is like rainman in a DJ booth. He can tell what band made a CD just by looking at the shiny side. I am so proud of him that he has his own station. Imagine my suprise we both made it down to the lower 48 and both in Austin!
I always make a donation when Bob is doing their fund drives. When I am ready for a new car I’ll probably donate my old one to Bob. He just is really an asset to the community. I am lucky to call him my old friend and my always DJ. See ya around Bob!

This review is more about their customer service and response to a complaint then the music itself.
I was one of the lucky winners on Santa Bob. I won free passes to the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar as well as $ 100 in gift certificates to spend there. WooHoo! I never received notice on winning but saw my name on the website (and having a rather unusual name I knew it was me!). Wrell I only had a few days to go to the Bazaar before leaving on vacation and so decided to go pick up my tickets at lunch and go after work.
Well, I get to the station and give the guy at the desk my name and he looks and looks and says nope, we have nothing for you. He asked how I won and when I said Santa Bob he said he didn’t know what that was.
So I left, completely humiliated and pissed off. I get back to my office and send an email to Krash Kelly and one other person (can’t remember who at this moment). Two minutes… no joke… two minutes after I hit send a nice lady called me. I also received an email from Krash within 5 minutes. The lady I spoke to said I did win and I could come pick up my tickets. I explained that 1) I was humiliated and would not be returning, 2) I wasted time already by going there and could not do that again and 3) was leaving for vacation in a few days and did not have the time to waste. She asked if she could call me back.
She called back within fifteen minutes and told me that they would overnight the tickets to me or I could come pick them up and to make up for the inconvenience they were going to give me: 2 tickets to «The Star», 2 tickets to «Hansel and Gretel» and a $ 150 gift card to Eddie V’s. Holy Crap! I about fell over!
Well, obviously that went way above and beyond the call of duty. I was able to do all of my Christmas shopping at the Bazaar and now I am taking my mother to the opera and a fancy dinner for her birthday. How awesome is that?
So I say thanks to the managers at Bob FM. You made my Christmas brighter and I’m sure my mother will love her birthday outing!

I know there’s no BOB and I have a dislike/​secretly like relationship with Clear Channel. But I work in an office with a man in his 50s. Its really the only station that is a good compromise for both of us, although we could do less with the 90s and today. 90s is ok for nostalgic reasons and today isn’t so bad but I can’t jump on the Taylor Swift wagon or that «Sweet Home Alabama» sampled Kid Rock song. We actually look forward to the 9 at 9:00 because we enjoy guessing the year, after typing it out I realized what a sad life I may lead and how unenjoyable our job really is. I think the other plus is that they don’t have a radio DJ for the most part just songs and a long break of commercials. I won’t lie I don’t mind the thundercloud subs commercial and they seem to play less strip club commercials. I know one of us could play an mp3 player on shuffle and that would be suffice, but this way we both don’t feel responsible for what might come up that the other will despise. I think most mp3 players also have a larger capacity than 120 songs.
Oh I also won a wendy’s gift card and bowling passes from BOB.

First off, I miss the oldies station.
Now for the review. I’ll listen to BOBFM if I’m doing some yardwork or housework and want some music in the background. Their motto is that «We play anything.» Except their «anything» is mostly The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, any of their solo members or any of their members combined (Leather and Lace).
Do you remember that part in The Big Lebowski when The Dude tells the cabbie to turn The Eagles off? Then the other part where The Gypsy Kings are playing an Eagles song while Jesus is bowling? That is like my relationship with The Eagles and therefore with BOBFM. I hate BOBFM as I hate The Eagles but sometimes both are appropriate. Listen sparingly.

The concept is great. So great that Steve from Apple decided to make the ipod shuffle due to how people in this era like to listen to music. At Random.
I do have some freakin’ problems with Bob though. One, when Bob first came out, the music to commercial ratio was on point! I understand that they get money by commercial sponsorship so when they started having more and more commmercials it was understandable. But it irks me.
The second problem I have is the selection is getting predictable. It seems as if they only play 50 songs. The same 50 songs over and over and over and over.
The third is this. I love hip hop and I know this is not a hip hop station. But it is not a rock station, country station, pop station, etc. They claim to play it all. And they do. But yo, come on Bobby, can I call you Bobby? Look, you claim to play all genres but playing only 4 hip hop songs, crappy ones at that is not going to do it for me. Its always a Will Smith song, or some cheesy song that is so corny that when i crap there is corn in my doo doo.

Bob FM works for me when I do decide to listen to mainstream radio in my car. I like the variety and I am happy that there is not an abundance of new music. Some of us do not like the music from the past 36 months so this channel gives us our fix from the 70s, 80s and 90s. Yes… we all know its a computer on shuffle but I would rather hear that than the rubbish that the other stations play constantly.

I think I am going to be busting some bubbles. There is no Bob. There is only Clear Channel. Clear Channel has entered many markets with radio stations that play the same 150 songs that claim to be from some guy’s cd collection. The claim is the same with all of them. «We play everything.»
There is no guy with a CD collection in any of these markets. There is only an evil censor-​happy conglomerate called Clear Channel who is trying to keep you away from anything new or interesting or challenging.
In the Bay Area, its Max FM
In Boston, Its Mike FM
In Detroit, Its Doug FM
Portland has Charlie FM
Nashville has Jack FM
They all have the same motto — «we play everything.»
Which they do not.
They don’t have DJs most of the time — Clear Channel likes it better that way. Its cheaper and they don’t have anyone to challenge them. I think Bob may have a few during rush hour that are really lame and robot-​like. But most of these stations are just putting a bunch of oldies on «shuffle.»
Its soothing. Its … old. But it really isn’t what radio used to be or is supposed to be. Remember? DJs? Spinning the newest songs? Getting excited about new acts? New tunes? Being the first to buy a cd or an album?
Fuck Bob. And Clear Channel.

I recently had the honor of being selected to attend a meeting of the minds at the radio station. We discussed the types of music played, other stations, radio talk shows, and just about anyting you can think of about radio in Austin.
I was quite pleased with the response of the staff attending, (Krash Kelly and the program director…). Can’t remember all the names, but they seemed to be interested in what we ordinary, different opinioned folks had to say. We even walked away with a gift and were fed upon arrival. That’s a pretty nice treatment for opinions.
Visit the website for this radio station and let ‘em know what you think. Of course, listen first!
You can even send in requests, make them Frank Zappa !!!

When KOOP /​KVRX is playing not my thing, and KUT is in pledge drive, and Kgeezer is spewing out sappy self pittying drivel, I turn to BOB FM, becuase I am certain to hear all of the following:
1. Music, actual music
2. A song I haven’t heard in a decade or more.
3. Something I really enjoy.
I remember the early 90’s when oldies stations played the 50’s 60’s and 70’s. Now BOB does everything form the 60’s onward. In some sense its a testimony to rock and roll’s staying power that it now transcends over 2 generations.
For awhile I objected to the robo DJ quality aspect of the station. Perhaps I miss the more involved DJ’s of yore. Now they have live people there, and they have started to grok Austin a bit.

Bob FM is one of my guilty/​mainstream pleasures. I try to be cool and tell people I like more interesting/​unique music (and I do), but there are also times when I am perfectly happy with an earful of top 40ish music from the past thirty or so years, and during those times, I tune to Bob FM. They advertise that they’ll play anything, and the station is purportedly owned by this dude named Bob who grew up in Austin and has a giant CD collection from his entire life that is used to put together the playlists for the station. I don’t know whether Bob actually exists, although they certainly try to make it sound like he does on both the radio and their website. For example, they routinely run little spots about what Bob did or about Bob’s past, like «Bob streaked Memorial Stadium in ’74,» or «Bob never had a mullet, but some of his favorite bands did.» They have a few edgier ones that surprise me (in a good way), like «Bob borrowed Governor Perry’s iPod, but he doesn’t like show tunes, so he gave it right back.»
I like the station because it’s all about the music. They have DJ’s, but they don’t say much — no annoying morning show to take up all the air time. I used to listen to another top 40 station on occasion that did have a morning show, and they continually pissed me off with their frat-​boyish, right-​wing rants (I’m sorry if you were a frat boy — some of my best friends were frat boys, but this is just a stereotype that is too convenient not to use here). It was a crappy way to start the day.
So if you can stomach the Talking Heads back-​to-​back with Chaka Khan with a Hall & Oates chaser, then Bob FM may be the place for you.