The Radio Dial

I really need to get reacquainted with a few of my local radio stations. Well, not the country station. That one hasn't changed in forever, and I don't care much for country music anyway. The rock station will no doubt stick with its usual annoying metal, and the public stations will also stay true to their mission. But the others? Not so much.

One of them used to be an oldies format, but it switched to R&B/Hip-Hop for a while, and now it seems to be a Top 40 of some sort. I think that's where I first came across Colbie Caillait's "Bubbly." (Damn that song. Generally speaking, I enjoy cuteness, but I have a lower threshold for it when it comes to music. Sometimes its better if the twee does not get stuck in your head.)

And then there's the station that used to be Top 40, back when I was in middle school or maybe early high school and came to the realization that sometimes pop music can be good. I used to listen to the Billboard Countdown on weekends, keeping track of the latest Sophie B. Hawkins single ("As I Lay Me Down" is still and will always be a great song.) or whatever for some reason, until most of the music on the list started sounding the same and sleeping in became more important than listening to Casey Kasem. That didn't take long. The station changed formats, and now plays... Top 40. Sort of. It's the same music I listened to back when, plus current stuff like "Bubbly" plus Queen. And Mellencamp. Can't forget him, not when said station played "Cherry Bomb" today, which I hadn't heard in I don't know how long.

Hrm. Oh, yes, and we can't forget the station that used to be classic rock, which was virtually identical to another area classic rock station. Seriously, I couldn't tell them apart. Now, of course, I can, as one of them is now some sort of Adult Easy Listening station, the kind they pump out into doctors' waiting rooms. I first realized it had changed formats when my dad flipped to its frequency and it was playing a romantic duet from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. Not classic rock anymore! Which is sad.

I'm not sure what else there is to be found. Probably plenty. What am I missing...?