Radio Radio

There's a tower in the heart of London/With a radio station right at the top/They don't make the city beat/They're making all the action stop...


I love radio, I hate radio. 

I listen intently to radio. I mildly tolerate radio.


Going back to cassettes my Dad had of old time radio programs through my formative years listening to WLS-AM out of Chicago to today when I can pretty much listen to any station in any country at any time, radio has been a major part of why I love music. 


I remember  waiting, waiting, waiting on a boring weekend day in the 1970s with my AM radio headphones on for the local station to play "Easy" by the Commodores (more another time about my "Commodores Phase" but we don't know each other well enough yet). I remember making my Aunt Millie sit in her car in her driveway so I could hear all of "Long Time" by Boston. I remember when I first moved to Washington, DC in 1988 and the local "alternative" station actually played a song by Naked Raygun (I had just moved from Chicago). 

Specific moments tied to radio are touchpoints for me, even today. Yet they are less and less as radio becomes more and more homogenized. 


Warning, looks like this post will become a screed against corporate radio. Here comes the music snob rearing his ugly head and demanding we all bow down to the purity of HIS music...


Actually, no. Yes, most radio is warmed over milk. Yes, radio is the same in Seattle as it is in Portland (Maine - get it? Other side of the country!). Yes, you can't tell one radio personality from the next, because half the time it's the same guy broadcasting to hundreds of stations nationwide out of a studio in Los Angeles. Yes, radio plays the same songs over and over and over.* 


That doesn't bother me. I understand radio is a business. It's people doing a job and making a living. Kind of how our system works. The business side of radio has discovered that certain formats work better than others, people want to hear certain songs more than others, and goofy morning shows with sound effects sell BIG! Booooiiiinnngggggggg!!!!


I listen to commercial radio, especially people like Bret Saunders and Ginger on KBCO and Mike Casey on The Mountain. These are DJs who are not only talented broadcasters, they know and love music; it comes through to the listener. Though I'm waiting for the day Bret gives us a KBCO Morning Show consisting of four hours of Sun Ra. 





There are plenty of other options out there, from apps like TuneIn Radio (ever listen to the traffic reports from South Africa?) to Pandora to Spotify. But the move to more and more internet options often leaves the human element behind. I want some thought to go into the musical selection. I want someone to tell me what I'm hearing. What's the context? Which is why I'm spending more and more of my radio time these days with Colorado Public Radio's OpenAir.


One of these days I will bore you with a complete dissertation (maybe even footnotes!) on why I'm really loving OpenAir. What station do you hear Radiohead in the morning, and not what you'd expect but something like "The Daily Mail?" What station goes Tokyo Police Club>The Monkees>Pavement? What station has major, major music geeks (and I say that in the most complimentary of ways) as DJs? 


Listening to "Capital Radio One" it reminds me of a scene in The Future Is Unwritten, the documentary about Joe Strummer. At one point, Strummer stops by a radio station to promote a local gig. If I'm remembering the scene correctly, the weekend DJ spends his entire time asking about "Rock The Casbah" and "Should I Stay of Should I Go." It's clear the guy has no clue about the depth of Strummer's work with both The Clash and afterwards. And it's not the DJs fault; he's a broadcaster hired to play a bunch of songs decided by someone in a city far, far away. Joe Strummer is the guy who sings on two of those songs; what else would he ask about?


If you're looking for something more, try OpenAir: 1340 AM or streaming on the website. It's important that creative radio still have a home on dial (and not just left of it). 




*Did you know Cheap Trick has written a few more songs than "Surrender" and "I Want You To Want Me"? You wouldn't if you listened to the radio.