Radio Geek

I'm a radio geek.  I have been all my life.  Grew up with it.  Didn't have TV till I was 11.  By then AM radio was my life.  Heck later in life I started and ran a radio network.  I created the first application for the license for frequency 107.9 in Fargo.  So radio is a big deal to me.

 

My wife and kids used to tease me.  If I made a purchase it was usually for a new radio, Bible or gun.  I mean, can you ever get enough of any of these.  You can't shoot the same Gun all day long, now can you?  I probably own a dozen of each right now.  And I'm thinking of buying a new one.

 

We have pretty good radio in the Chicagoland Metro area.  I listen all night.  Partially because I suffer from insomnia if I don't.  Eric Zorn, a columnist from Chicago recently blogged on this and now has written a column about people who can only sleep with talk radio on. I am one of those.  I try to listen and then fall asleep.  Usually it's Coast to Coast with George Nory.  Banal enough stuff but just interesting enough to fall asleep to.  Good radio.  Read Eric's whole thing.  I have tried to use music but I end up listening to it.  If I am going to sleep it has to be talk.  Not loud upsetting talk.  Just talk. 

 

You will have to be an online subscriber to the Tribune (it's free) to read this, but trust me, it's worth it and they won't send you a bunch of crap.  Plus how are you going to keep up with the Cubbies without this.  So, sign up.

 

The other  radio article was about an eclectic radio station in Arizona.  How this guy just plays music he likes.  How his mix has attracted listeners far and wide.  How people love the format. 

 

I love that kind of format.  Personal and eclectic. We all do.  Look at Howard Stern.  Look at Rush Limbaugh.  Not matter which one, they talk about what interests them and we listen if we are in tune with them.  If not we switch.  They have soul.  That's radio.

 

So, here's the question, if stations like the Arizona station get such rabidly loyal listeners, if Limbaugh and Stern get such rabidly loyal listeners, and might I say in the eclectic, Jack Sunday and Sandy get rabidly loyal listeners, why in heaven's name (or the other place) would the suits at conglomerates make a concerted effort to rip the soul out of radio by programming the mindless playlists they do.  We have every format on the planet in the 40 radio stations I can get.  Half are programmed from Mars.  I know these people are from Mars because they have no idea what humans like.  Bonneville, Integrity, Clear Channel.  They're all here.  Dummies.

 

I wish someone would walk into the suits at these conglomerates and say, do you want to know why no one listens??  We play crap.

 

Let ONE person with a specific musical taste play what THEY like no matter what.  That's radio. 

 

I remember in the early 70's some late nite Jock on KQWB FM played In a Gadda da Vida all night long straight thru (the long version).  I don't remember his name, he was controversial and brash and loud but Dang, he played good music.  You had to listen because he played songs before anyone else even knew it was coming.  Cutting edge.

 

I know there is all kinds of eclectic music available by internet.  I know I can go to the antichrist store (Wal-Mart) and buy a cheap FM retransmitter to pick it up on any radio in the house.  I may do that.

 

But, wouldn't it be really wonderful if free broadcast radio actually regained a soul and allowed music programming to reflect the views of the host alone, not some playlist created in San Francisco for Oklahoma City.  We do this with Talk Radio and it works.  Get a clue you big radio owners.  You are asleep.  Internet and Satellite will eat your lunch if you don't.

 

But I will fall asleep tonite late night  with WGN, WLS, WTAN, WKTC.   Life is still ok.