Stuff I shout at my radio while driving

[slipjig3]

Dear Listeners of Alternative Radio WEQX's All-Request Retro Lunch:

Okay, lemme explain this to you: The Retro Lunch is a 30-minute all-request, all-80's-and-90's-alternative program. The folks at WEQX have a ginormous library of music that fits this category, and believe it or not, you can request any of it. You can ask for obscure Prefab Sprout and Echo and the Bunnymen cuts. You can make them go trolling for Waterboys B-sides. You can request Tanita Tikaram, or the Creatures, or even frickin' Bourgeois Tagg, fer crissakes. And they can, and will, play it.

So why, in the name of all that is good and holy, are you calling up and wasting those precious 30 minutes on "Love Shack," "In Your Eyes" and "Walking on Sunshine"? Jeezum crow, is that the absolute best you can come up with? Do you really and truly hate me that much? I mean, they're not bad songs—truth is, they're all quite good, all told—but have you noticed how, two decades later, they're still overplayed?

Look, from now on, if you're dying to hear something that gets played twice daily on the adult contemporary station three notches over, do not pick up the telephone between noon and noon-thirty, mmmkay? I would rather not get all stabby like this again. Thank you.

Drop dead Cordially,
Adam

Comments

[zarhooie.livejournal.com]

What about Blondie?

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Depends on the track.

[theloriest.livejournal.com]

Don't get mad?

Some of us don't know music. Some of us LIKE those songs that get played. Some of us are brain-dead when it comes to obscure music, so we rely on the music we already know and love to make us smile and bounce.

There. End of mini-rant.

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Not mad at all. You make a good point, and honestly, I would expect at least one or two tracks to be more mainstream, more commonplace choices, for just this reason. My objection, however, is that when there is nothing but tracks that I already hear on a regular basis, it seems a waste of a generous resource. (There's also a Sunday show that lasts about three hours, and is entirely selected by the DJs; this one is usually much more balanced between the usual and the unusual.)

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

as an ex-college-radio DJ, you know I agree. If it got played on top-40 radio 20 years ago, it's *NOT* "alternative".

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

*nodnodnod* Well, it might be alternative. (Then again, it might not.) That's entirely beside the point, though, if I already heard the song while surfing past the easy listening station fifteen minutes ago. Throw me a frickin' bone, people.

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

Makes me wanna call and request The Fugs.:D

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

Oh, and let me add Live Floatin' Anarchy by Gong to that:D.

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

You rock.

[icarusfallen8.livejournal.com]

Isn't that what college radio is for?

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

True. Unfortunately, to pick up most college stations, you need to live within about 200 yards of the transmitter.

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

No Shaggs allowed though.

Awwww....

[icarusfallen8.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree. One of these days I will actually request something. Probably by e-mail.

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Let me know if you do! Out of curiosity, what would you pick?

[icarusfallen8.livejournal.com]

That would depend entirely on what I'm in the mood for at the time. Probably nothing too obscure, maybe a non hit by Oingo Boingo.