On your FM dial ...

I've spent more time than I like to think about sitting in a car the last 6 weeks or so. Really I don't mind long drives as a rule because I'm not a person who needs a lot of distraction and I'm very happy lost in my thoughts, listening to an audiobook or singing along with the radio. Which brings me to the title of this blog.

I don't usually use my iPod in the car unless its a longish trip, like two hours or more. I dislike getting out my iPod only to have to tuck it away, along with the thingie that allows me to listen to it through my radio, when I arrive at my destination. I'm not dumb enough to leave them in full view of anyone who wants to test their carjacking skills. So rather than getting everything out just to put them away again a short time later, I usually just listen to the radio if I'm only running errands and so forth.

As it happens most of my in car time lately has been just under the one hour mark which is why I was searching desperately for a good radio station recently. This really should not have been a problem because my taste in music is pretty eclectic. I enjoy jazz, oldies, C&W ... lots of stuff. Unless its all thumping bass ... can't stand that, makes me feel postal. But it seems like your standard stations these days all have a playlist of about 20 songs, whatever the most recent big hits are, and they play them over and over again. I start out liking a song well enough but if I hear it too often I'm going to burn out on the song. Was radio like this when I was a teenager?

Anyway I was getting desperate and flipping up and down the dial trying to find something that I would enjoy listening to for more than a few minutes at a time. And 'lo and behold I found two stations. One is a smallish station that I lose if the wind is wrong or the road dips. But the other is a fairly big deal, as far as I can tell. They're not based out my my 'home city' which is why I didn't know about them before - no local advertising. But I can get the signal pretty well so I'm happy.

In fact I'm really really happy because although both stations advertise as playing 'lite' music, what they really play, both of them, is a very nice mix of music from the 60s on up to present day including some decent rock, the good stuff before everyone tried to reinvent it. But its basically a mix and includes some of everything. You can go from Billy Joel one moment to Tim McGraw the next. Eclectic ... like me.

In fact the one station, out of Baltimore, has "flashback weekends" which are a blast because they are playing all music from the 60s and 70s which is what I cut my radio teeth on, those being my formative years. Say what you will about the music of yesterday, but you can't beat it for singing along with on an open highway. As a bonus, you can listen through your computer as well. And as my little gift to you, I'm including the link here ...
http://1019litefm.com/index.php.

Go ahead, turn it up and roll down that car window, metaphorically speaking, and enjoy some "real" music for a while.