Radio, Radio

I quit listening to music radio quite a long time ago. There wasn't a specific incident that made me quit, so it didn't piss me off all of a suddent, more like a slowly growing realization that, over time, there was less and less that I wanted to be bothered with listening to. It came in stages, really, the first being in college when I gave up on top 40 music. I think everyone does that at one point or another, as part of their growing up. I was a fan of New Wake and New York Punk, but still had a soft spot in my heart for top 40, because in small town Illinois, it's just about all you have.

I stuck with classic rock a while longer, but let's face it, there are only so many times you can listen to "Whole Lot Of Love" in one lifetime, and your average classic rock station burns through that in about six months.

Then, as the grunge wave hit, there were GOOD radio stations around, playing decent music...there was an Adult Alternative station (which at the time meant Tori Amos, Indigo Girls, Counting Crows and the like), the metal station turned its playlist over to grunge, and here in Minneapolis, there was REV 105 which played a WONDERFUL mix of music that I wasn't hearing anywhere else.

I still listened to NPR news, seeing as how I'm a news junkie , but I listened to a mix of swing, blues, old punk, new alternative and whatever else they could throw against the wall. Then, REV 105 was bought by Disney, they moved their grunge station to the frequency and brought back the metal station and suddenly there was nothing worth listening to anymore. I turned to CDs and news....but checked in once in a while with the Adult Alternative station and found that they hadn't updated their playlist since I was listening to them back in 1997. Classic Rock still had yet to realize that David Bowie put out anything after "Ziggy Stardust" and Led Zeppelin was still played hourly.

I listen to some internet radio, but for th emost part, I listen to radio when I drive...so I listened to my CDs, talk radio (since Air America started) and gave up on new music. I resigned myself to becoming like the baby boomers I'd known that just quit buying new music after a certain time. The difference was that they quit buying new music because they hated the stuff in the top 40, and I quit because no new music was getting airplay unless it was being pushed by some Big Monster corporation.

ALL of music seemed to be becoming two tiered...small acts who play clubs and big acts that are put together by Jessica Simpson's dad (oir one of his many clones)

This week, I started listening to the radio again. I even turned away from Al Franken and Terri Gross because there is a new MPR: station called 89.3 The Current. They are playing an amazing mix of music I've NEVER heard before, but like...and the few songs they do play that I know aren't the Big Hits but songs like, Johnny Cash: Kick against the pricks or Ashley MacIsaac: Sleepy Maggie.

For too long, radio has been saying, "We're like your CD collection," forgetting that I HAVE my own CD collection, and I don't need commercials in it to enjoy it. I want to listen to my smart, well-informed friend's music collection.

And I think I've found it.