On the Radio

Ah, the public radio.  Don't know what the weathers going to be like?
Want to know if I-90 is backed up? Haven't head about Jamie Lynn Spears
being pregnant?  Want to spend some personal time in your car listening to
Delilah? Been wondering if your favorite DJ endorses any weight loss pills
or other quick fixes to unhappiness? All you have to is flip a small
switch and you are connected with a world of free knowledge.  And by
knowledge I mean information, and by information I mean gossip and by
gossip I most likely mean commercials.  None the less, growing up
listening to the radio is one thing that many of us (you one person that
reads this blog and I) have in common.  In fact, even back in my parent's
day, when radios were still made up out of rocks, twigs and a small bird
that would recite several phrases, many families, friends and foes would
gather around the small box for the nightly news report.

Growing up as a young girl in a small Hudson River Valley hamlet,
listening to the radio was the routine start to almost every single school
day.  Even some of my earliest memories of kindergarten and first grade
involve waiting down at the end of the driveway with my brothers and
sisters, waiting for the school bus that we often would miss.  ( My
mother, irritated and clad in pajamas and peanut butter from the 4 school
lunches she would have to race to make every morning, would then whip
through the dirt roads in order to get us to a neighbor's driveway in time
to catch their stop.)  (  One day, the neighbor's dog (Berwick), peed on
my backpack while I was waiting for the bus; Too embarrassed to tell my
mom, brothers or sister, I proceeded to school with my urine contaminated
sack.  True story.)  Anyway.  It was these first few years of life that
composed my earliest memories of the radio.  My friend Hannah (also on the
Red bus) and I would sit in the first seat of the bus and sing along to
the radio station that our bus driver, Norm, would play. ( K104.7- The
Hudson Valley's hit music station.)  We would also comb Norm's hair on a
daily basis which, retrospectively, is a little weird.

For the remainder of my career as a student who rode the bus, which
unfortunately took me throughout all four years of high school, I was
subjected to my respective bus drivers' radio choice every morning and
afternoon.  As a general rule, it was the cool bus drivers that would play
K104 up until about middle school.  In middle school, much to my secret
dismay, K104 became uncool and my male classmates who chose to sit in the
back of the bus would groan whenever the driver would play today's hits.
Instead, they would call to the front of the bus and request that the
driver put on Q104.3- Classic Rock.  Since this station was also the
personal favorite of my dad's, I was accustomed to hearing it so the
switch didn't phase me all too much.  Sometimes its nice, however,  to get
out of school, climb on to the bus with your friends, and dance around to
"Who Let the Dog's Out?"  What could be cooler than that?  Yet, I found
myself admist the cool kids in the last four rows of the bus singing along
to Bob Dylan and talking about cool things like how uncool the people who
sit in the first four rows of the bus are....they probably liked to listen
to K104.

My long awaited radio absolution finally came when I reached college.  It
was only freshman year when I met my friend, Joel, and we immediately
bonded over both being from downstate New York. (Yankees! Yankees!) As if
we had both been repressing a secret life-long love for our best friends,
we rejoiced in having secret affairs with today's hit music station.
Apparently, in college it is again cool to like the things that were once
cool but then became uncool.  Much like the recent reemergence of the
British pop group, the Spice Girls.  Luckily for me, Joel and I being from
the same general vicinity, we are able to carpool when we go home for
breaks from school.  As soon as we get to the Taconic State Parkway, we
immediately switch over and rock it with Fergie for the remaining duration
of the ride.  On our last trip together, joined also by friend my Courtney
who goes to school in Boston, we even called in and got to request Hillary
Duff on air!  We were out of K104 range by that point, but we managed to
call several people and told them to tune in.  Also, as if a gift from God
himself, advances in technology have enabled the LIVE STREAMING of K104
through the internet!  This means that NO MATTER where you are, you can
listen in and be connected with the Hudson Valley's number one hits music
station!

This brings me to the real point of this rant about public radio.
Starting tonight, my very own radio show will begin airing on a weekly
timeslot.  My friend, Nell, and I have joined forces to bring bus drivers
everywhere the option of tuning into our weekly rants on different themes
and delivery of eclectic tunes.  Norm- if you're out there, this one's for
you.

The show is called Broad Topics and it will be streaming
 live Wednesday nights from 11pm to 12am via the internet!
Type this little dingdong into your url bar to listen:

www.clarku.edu/students/rocu