Photo: Darama/Corbis

Thanks to the proliferation of satellite radio and the availability of free music on the Internet, "terrestrial" radio is suffering through a lot of static these days. The latest blow came last year when Howard Stern decided to head for the FCC-free pastures of Sirius Satellite Radio; in response, Stern's former employers at WXRK changed the station's call letters to WFNY, switched to an eclectic format called Free FM during the week, and hired erstwhile EMT and Van Halen singer David Lee Roth to fill Stern's morning-rush slot.

It's too early to tell whether Diamond Dave will hold on to Stern's rabid audience—early reviews have been less than positive. But for those enduring Stern withdrawal or simply seeking a dynamic voice, the local airwaves are rife with unconventional personalities who are battling to keep listeners from touching that dial.

Star & Buc Wild
WWPR (105.1 FM), Mon–Fri 6–10am
While rock that isn't "classic" is now a rarity on the radio, tune in to Power 105.1 in the morning and you might hear the Killers, Iron Maiden or the Smiths alongside the station's mix of hip-hop and R&B. This juxtaposition is one of the many idiosyncrasies that lend spark to The Star & Buc Wild Morning Show, a forum for the provocative observations of "Star," a.k.a. Troi Torain, a mixed-race, 41-year-old former metal bassist, music marketing exec, Source columnist and MTV veejay from Scotch Plains, New Jersey. Armed with an Ayn Rand–like philosophy he dubs "objective hate," Star pontificates daily on race relations, religion and sexual politics—wielding a quick-witted, acidic style that leaves his guests and cohosts scrambling for air time.

Torain knows Star can come across as a dick. That's why he created "Buc Wild," a role originally filled by his half-brother, Timothy Joseph, but now occupied by "Killa Kaheem" Vance, an 18-year-old recent high-school graduate from Yonkers. "Buc Wild is a young person who's battling the odds to find his niche in society," Torain explains. "He keeps Star abreast of what's happening in the street. It's the balance for who I am. If you were given Star straight with no chaser you might say, 'This guy is too much—he's too full of himself.' "

Since luring Torain back to New York from a sister station in Hartford last January, Power 105.1 has pulled past archrival (and original Star & Buc Wild home) Hot 97 in the Arbitron ratings, with the numbers for November showing the station in the top position among 18- to 34-year-olds—a spot almost always held by Stern during his tenure. "Young people hear the sincerity in my voice and they respond to that," Torain says. "They also hear the rough, rugged 'fuck you' in my voice. I'm trying to encourage independent thought, not pull anyone into my way of thinking."

Rachel Maddow
WLIB (1190 AM), Mon–Fri 7–9am
Right-wingers like Rush Limbaugh make fun of Air America's low ratings, as well as the liberal radio network's reliance on "celebrity" hosts like Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo. But Air America's future is found in Rachel Maddow, a fast-talking, openly gay 32-year-old former Rhodes Scholar, who talked her way from a Western Massachusetts AM station to a cohosting slot on Air America's Unfiltered (with Chuck D and Daily Show cocreator Lizz Winstead) on the occasion of the network's launch in 2004.

After Unfiltered dissolved early last year, Maddow was given her own hour-long news program at the ungodly time of 5am—but apparently people were listening. As of this month, The Rachel Maddow Show has been promoted to a two-hour slot in the middle of radio's morning prime time. "With Howard off the air, it's going to blow open the way people try to get ratings in the morning," says Maddow. "Everybody's going to be trying something different. We'll have quite a bit of absurdity but the point is to be a news show, with interviews. People want to hear news on the radio and right now the news on the radio blows."

Michael Baisden
WRKS (98.7 FM), Mon–Fri 3–7pm
"Infidelity is probably the biggest problem there is. Who hasn't cheated or been cheated on?" asks Michael Baisden, the 42-year-old host of KISS-FM's Love, Lust and Lies. And this DJ knows about extracurricular activity: He's the author of 1995's Never Satisfied: How and Why Men Cheat, as well as several novels and stage plays on the subject. So while Baisden's show deals with any number of topics, from dating with AIDS to bankruptcy, "some caller will always flip it and throw infidelity into the mix." 

The program, which Baisden calls "grown folks radio," is frank talk with listeners (-mainly black adults over 30), along with strictly upbeat funk and soul. "I had to make [KISS] understand that having a slow R&B song kills the energy," Baisden says. "We're talking about serious things like suicide, depression, molestation. Hell, I'd want to cut my own wrists if I was listening to four hours of depressing conversation and depressing music."

Wendy Williams
WBLS (107.5 FM), Mon–Fri 2–7pm
Call her a hip-hop gossip. A shock-jock diva. But don't second-guess the sincerity of self-professed "Queen of All Media" Wendy Williams, the ebullient, surgically enhanced, unnaturally blond host of WBLS's The Wendy Williams Experience. "I hate disappointing people and I hate 'best of' shows," she says of her infrequent absences—she's just returned a day early from a book conference in Germany to surprise her listeners—as she rummages through gossip headlines in her office.

Since returning in 2001 after a three-year stay in Philly, Williams, 41, has become one of local afternoon radio's highest-rated talkers, expertly dissecting celebrity lifestyles and connecting the dots between frivolous gossip, hip-hop politics and the real-life hardships of her listenership. "I'm always aware that I'm talking to a girl sitting at her desk or a guy driving a truck, and it's just us," she says. Her most notorious interaction came during a 2002 interview with Whitney Houston, when Mrs. Bobby Brown unleashed a torrent of exple-tives after Williams asked about her past drug use and Brown's time in jail. "That was a lightbulb moment for me because it opened my base to more white people and black people who might have thought of my show as too 'hip-hoppish,' " Williams says. "I got my VH-1 show based on that interview."

Ed Shepp
WFMU (91.1 FM), Fri 6–7pm
Long-running specialty- music programs such as Irwin Chusid's eponymous exotica expedition or Doug Schulkind's show Give the Drummer Some might be the mainstays of Jersey City's WFMU, but equally integral to the freeform outlet are a handful of nervous, abstract shows. "People aren't sure what they're hearing," program director Brian Turner says, "but they know they can hear it at a regular time."

Take The Ed Shepp Radio Experiment, one of several WFMU newcomers. Shepp, 32, a Florida native and current Upper West Sider with no experience in radio before his debut in June, found his stride producing holiday-themed programming of the most bizarre kind: He used December as an opportunity for not one but four Christmas shows, offering revisionist histories of Santa Claus (in one he was an elf-eating abominable snowman; in another, the reincarnation of Buddha) and other seasonal staples. "I knew I didn't want to just play music and talk in between, and I knew I didn't want a regular talk show, so I just started coming up with ideas," Shepp says. "I have one really elaborate one involving a garbage barge floating through space populated by various civilizations in the future."