Radio Broadcasts for Cats

By Darcy Lockman

What to do when you're worried about your feline's emotional well-being? If you're Nohl Rosen or Adrian Martinez -- founders of Internet radio stations Cat Galaxy and Dog Cat Radio respectively -- you set out to entertain them. For both men, it was the concern about a beloved-but-restless cat that sparked the idea to turn on the radio. Playing music, each observed separately, seemed to soothe the animals. With that, Internet radio for pets was born.

Music's Effect on Animals
A number of studies on music and animals have shown that they respond to all kinds of music. Cows, for example, have been found to produce more milk when listening to slow songs, hens lay more eggs when listening to the radio, and dogs are more relaxed and well-behaved when classical music (as opposed to pop or heavy metal) is played. Anecdotally, veterinarians have long observed that music has a calming effect on house pets.

While your own furry friend's preferences are sure to be a matter of personal taste, both Cat Galaxy and Dog Cat Radio play a diverse selection 24 hours a day in attempt to satisfy even the most finicky feline.

Programming to Pets
At Cat Galaxy, as founder Nohl Rosen will tell you, the cats have chosen all the music since the station's launch in 2001. "Everything we play is cat-approved," he explains. "We have three felines in the management. They're the deciding factor in what gets aired. If they leave the room, they're not interested in that artist, and it doesn't make the play list." Issis, Jade and Icarus -- the aforementioned management cats -- have eclectic tastes, and inasmuch Rosen plays "a lot of different genres," including rock, smooth jazz, alternative, swing and funk.

Local musicians (the station is based in Scottsdale, Arizona) occasionally bring demos by hoping for airtime, which is granted upon the cats' approval. Rosen also takes emailed requests, though preferably, he says, from cats. The station offers some talk, with news reports and live human guests from organizations like the Humane Society.

At Dog Cat Radio, which launched in 2005 in Los Angeles, the programming choices are made not by cats, but by cat owners: founder Adrian Martinez and his disc jockeys, Jane Harris and Deborah Ray. Says Martinez, "We play a variety of upbeat music, as many hits as we can think of, from the '50s on. We get about 4,000 emails a week from pet owners, telling us what their pets want to hear. We try to accommodate everyone as best we can."

Dog Cat Radio also offers some talk, regularly covering pet events, like pet fashion shows, and broadcasting live from pet parks, movie premieres (The Shaggy Dog, naturally) and animal benefits.

Animal Audiences Worldwide
Both stations boast an international audience of around three million listeners each week. Feedback has been largely positive. One listener in Japan recently e-mailed Rosen to report that Cat Galaxy had tamed his unruly kitten. "This guy wrote and said that he'd adopted a kitten with real behavior issues," Rosen recalls. "He stumbled upon Cat Galaxy when researching ways to relax the kitten. After he started listening, the kitten calmed down. He said his pet now listens to the station very intently."  

Cat owner Margaret Hanover of Sunrise, Florida, reported a similar experience. Her Siamese, Norma, would diligently attempt to swat her computer keyboard and screen whenever she was working. Hanover was able to distract her with Dog Cat Radio. "Suddenly she was listening. Then she laid down and started to doze off!" recalls Hanover. "Now she is a regular listener, both when I'm home and away."