Radio, play my favorite song

I am not quite old enough to remember the album-rock era when radio stations would play whole albums, but the quality of commercial radio has gone down significantly in my lifetime. Most of my peers seem to have completely abandoned the medium in favor of iPods and CDs. "There's never anything good on the radio," they say. 

I have to disagree. Regardless of how homogenized, repetitive, and obnocious many radio stations have seem to become, I still find good stuff. Sometimes you have to flip around for a while, but there is good music on the radio. Maybe I feel this way because I like so many kinds of mainstream music. 

There are roughly three dozen FM radio stations in Atlanta. If you discount the non-English stations, country music stations, Christian radio (about twice a year I hear something descent on Christian radio), and NPR (which is great, but not for music) you are still left with a handful of good stations. My presets include two Top-40 Pop stations, one Hip-hop station, a soft rock station, an Alternative Rock/Adult Contemporary station, two college stations, two classic rock stations, and an oldies station. Sifting through the fluff and rubish (Fergie, Nickleback, etc.) I still seem to hear plenty of good stuff (David Bowie, Sigur Ros, Natalie Merchant, U2, Peter Gabriel). 

So you might wonder why I wouldn't just play the songs I want from my iPod. (And actually it is rare that I hear a good song on the radio that I don't have.) There is just something about the unpredictability of radio. Even if I put my iPod on shuffle, I am not as genuinely surprised or excited when say David Bowie's "Modern Love" comes on as when it comes on the radio in between mediocre singles by lesser artists. 

Yes. I'm basically saying that I often wade through the crap on the radio because it makes those little diomonds shine brighter. If David Bowie's "Modern Love" comes on the radio (which is not a very common occurance) I get pretty excited. I could turn off the radio and play the song from my Best Of Bowie CD or from my iPod, but of course I don't. I listen to it in lower, compressed quality via an FM signal miles way, because of an inexplicable excitement that comes from the radio format. I spend hours in the car, and I listen to plenty of audiobooks and full albums (good Jazz is particularly hard to find on the radio). But when I turn on the radio, even if the music is more lousy than good for given stretch, it's like someone is in the car with me. Even when the DJs are automated recordings, it's like there is a living, unpredictable thing sharing the audiospace. 

Oh, and I love pop. That's also a pretty genuine reason. I will never have to pay to hear Kanye West, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and many others thanks to the radio. The radio that introduces me to fun pop singles is also responsible for making me hate and dispise them months later, but still, I like the radio.