Small Town Commercial Radio
I live in a town with a population of about 35,000. We have two commercial FM radio stations that get as close to rock-n-roll as local sensibilities will allow. One of the stations is a typical Top 40 station and I just can't tolerate it. The other station plays a mix of pop and alternative rock. I think it's in the adult contemporary genre. I listen to it at work. It's either that or silence.
I've been a trucker for a long time and a satellite radio subscriber since the inception of such a thing. They have a lot of commercial free music on there and it really spoiled me. I took a new job a couple of months ago and I can't have the satellite radio at work. It's also just a ten minute drive to work so I gave the satellite radio to my wife. She has a half hour commute to work.
I've been thinking for a long time that there isn't much good about commercial radio. I still think that holds true in a lot of cases. There's a radio station, for example, in a nearby town that plays nothing but 70s and 80s rock with a few pop songs from the era stuck in there. It's terrible. It wouldn't be so bad if they went a little deeper than each group's number one song, but they don't. They've had the same songs in rotation since they first signed on with that format five years ago. It makes you hate songs that would otherwise be good if you didn't hear them so often. It was bad enough when they killed them in heavy rotation 30 or 40 years ago.
But there is something I have noticed that's kind of cool about some of these small town commercial radio stations. They can really give you the flavor of a community by the songs they play and the commercials they run. Almost all of the commercials are for hometown establishments. The DJs that do the morning show live here and know the town. The station kind of gives you a sense of community that you don't really get on satellite radio which has to be less personal and more general because they are serving customers all over the country.
So it's not all bad. I still wish I could have my satellite radio. I get turned on to a lot of new music on there that I otherwise wouldn't hear in my little burg. But that local station is still pretty good, and I know exactly who to call if my house ever gets infested with bed bugs or if I need a good, honest mechanic.
