Ah
radio! I forgot how much I love you. For years I lived without a car
and with no radio receiver in my apartment. I was radio deprived. At
home, I only had an amp, CD player and turntable there was no radio. I
rode the subway and listened to a walkman. I went to bars and clubs and
heard music but no radio. Then I started to drive a car again. The car
I drive is old not an antique or anything just old. It has a tape
deck/radio but no CD player. I need to hear music when I driving alone
so I turned on the radio. It was more out of desperation than desire.
Not only was I driving again I was living in a new city.
I didn’t know the radio stations. They were all a mystery to me. I
played around with the search button. That was when I discovered that
the search button only picks up the strongest signals in whatever area
you happen to be in. Not surprisingly the strongest signals are from
the crappiest stations. Sure I love to hear a little old stuff here and
again but where was the new stuff that wasn’t crap? I started to look
at ads. There again I found the ads were only for the stations I was
already starting to hate. Doomed!
Then one day I was at a traffic light and just couldn’t listen to one
more play of Counting Crows. I pushed the search button steeling
myself, ready for what ever came up; as long as it wasn’t Counting
Crows I’d be happy. The light changed and I was sort of distracted by
the act of driving for a moment and then I realized I was listening to
something and I didn’t hate it. It was The Butthole Surfers! I
practically had to pull over I was so happy. “It must be a fluke”, I
thought or maybe a hallucination. No it was the Buttholes and it was
followed by a Green Day song from an early album! What was this
station? Hey there weren’t any commercials. I must be in another
dimension! I looked at the radio and it said 92.9. The Station
announced it was WBOS. I must admit I was disappointed when I heard the
first commercial. Eventually I found out that they play very few
commercials and hey someone’s gotta pay the bills right. Finally I had
found a station!
Encouraged by this success I spent a little more quality time looking
around and found a couple of local college stations. I was set. I could
finally get into the car and not fret. This is when I realized how much
I missed radio. When I lived in the Haight in San Francisco I listened
to KUSF all day long. I didn’t have much choice as I lived to close to
the transmitter and that was really the only station I could get. I
would wake up to the Germ and listen all day until Chinese Hour when I
would turn it off as I can’t understand and apparently tolerate
Cantonese. Now I was suddenly a radio listen again thanks to an old
Honda. New music was entering my life through the car. I am hearing
bands I’ve read about but never heard. I was getting excited again when
I heard a song. I was getting annoyed by bands that got a lot of play
but sucked. Ah radio! I really have missed you!