Thursday, September 5, 2013

Revival Radio

As you may or may not know, there are a few things in life that I [irrationally] cannot stand to be around. They're ridiculous things, I'll admit, such as having my picture taken without my knowledge, bowls that are square-shaped, and people who say things like "I want to tell you something, but it's a secret..."

Topping out the list is a.m. radio. Maybe you already know what I mean, and just maybe I am about to spoil a.m. waves for you forever. But regardless of any of that, I can't stand it. Something about the frequency or the shape of the waves of a.m. radio specifically make me feel sick. It might be something physical or psychological (who can really tell the difference) but I cannot be around it. It has this scratchy, buzzy, broken quality that just makes me want to stick my finger so far into my ears that they touch.

Speaking of annoyances, I feel like this might be a better one to have, if only because all radio (in the sense that I knew it while growing up in the nineties). Radio is becoming obsolete. Perhaps the car is the only place I ever hear the radio anymore. I think some people find it easier to just push the radio button than scramble for a twisted and tangled iPod adapter or clean the dust off that old S Club 7 CD they found under the seat. But as cars are becoming more and more technologically advanced, they can sync with your phone and play music right off of that. And then there are the thousands (or more) of satellite radio channels that can be yours for the low, low price of $XX.xx per month. And they're not really "radio stations" they way that I think about those lame talk show hosts, the call-in contests, the request hour, all of that horrible pop music...the list goes on.

Well, now to get to the gooey center of my point, I present to my fellow Torontonians: Indie 88.1. I must begin by stating that I am very biased, only because from the moment I tuned into this station, an easy 70-80% of the music I have heard has been straight out of my iTunes playlist, and the remainder is awesome music I am ready to add to my library. Being someone that really can't stand much of the popular music on today's charts, I find this station's choice of music very fitting (if not always independently-based) to my musical tastes.

While there is an almost infinite amount of diverse music in this world that people in Toronto may never hear, I feel that at least one amazing alternative to the crap playing on every other station is better than nothing. Seriously, if I can find the same song playing twice within three or four station changes, something needs to be done about diversity of genre.
I surprised myself the other day by dragging my reasonably heavy iPhone on a neighbourhood jog (instead of my tiny iPod nano) so that I could listen to the station during my workout. I think I am obsessed. And if I have to be the one to spearhead this station to everyone I know, I am up for the task.