a Lynne's

Lynne's

Monday, May 09, 2005

My First Love
Only a handful of people in my current life know of my true passion for radio. M is one of those people, he sent along this: Confessions of a Listener by Garrison Keillor.

I am not a huge fan of Mr. Keillor, but I am a bigger fan that I use to be. All my 50-something friends listen to Keillor, and that was a bit of a turn off for me. Once I got passed my "I rather listen to someone a bit fresher, more hip" snobbery I started to enjoy his show more.
I turn to Ira Glass for truly wonderful radio. He is one of the greatest talents of public radio; the crew over at This American Life are the best. (I wanted to be that talented, fresh and brillant with radio once.)

There is another side of radio - the music side. Unfortunately, it has has taken huge hits in recent years. As Keillor says much of commercial radio has been turned into "robot repeaters". First it was the rigid formats, now it is edging toward automated personality free non-radio. We have seen it here in Portland, Oregon. Aaron Duran describes it as: "lowest-common-denominator, fake-iPod-music radio."

In my perfect world everyone would think of radio as I do. A medium that is filled with personality, spontaneity, improve, insight, and great music. For a taste of my perfect world take a listen to one of the radio stations listed in my sidebar. All are public radio stations, because they are doing it right. A decent commercial music station worth checking out is WFNX in Boston. Enjoy.

2 Comments:

I enjoyed your posting on Keillor. I identify with your feeling that all of your post-50 friends listen to him -- that's certainly true. But you can take me off the list. I started listening to him in 1985 and used to listen to him all the time and like him, but his recent forays into politics and snide political commentary (only in the past few years) have completely turned me off to his shows. I hate it when artists jump into politics, no matter what side they are on. Yuck.
I only listen to public radio, but I, too, am an addict. I listen online and listen to the same things over and over. I LOVE This American Life!

Not a fan of Garrison Keillor, though my boyfriend's grandma (she's in her 80s, not 50s) LOVES him!!

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