I LOVE Public Radio

And you should too. Public radio changed my life. When I was in high school everyone around me was listening to those icky top 40 radio stations playing the same 100 songs over and over. I got bored of that and played around with the dial on my radio, turning it all the way to the left into the upper 80's and low 90's region of the dial, and boy did that just rock my world. I listened to jazz and blues and old time music and discovered the best radio station in the whole world, KCRW. It totally opened my world. There is such interesting work being done out there--people taking risks and experimenting, and people from other places making beautiful music, and people who just can't be categorized and niched into this or that genre. It really made me appreciate music. Made me learn how to listen with an open mind and to really enjoy what is out there. When I moved away from home I was sad because I could never find a radio station playing quite the same music as KCRW. Yes, there was college radio, but college radio is dj'd by college students, and although KCRW is technically a college radio station it has honed the craft of bringing cutting edge, little-heard, interesting music to an artform. And in recent years, it has honed the craft of bringing radio to as wide an audience as possible, and with the rise of the internet and data streaming, they are able to broadcast live programming as well as bring their rich archive of music right to your computer, just with the push of a button. Amazing. I can't listen to a show without discovering something spectacular. Yesterday I heard a group who were at one time rebel-fighters-in-the-Sahara-turned-musicians, and I had to learn more about them (used up some of my precious i-credits to download an album). You don't hear that kind of stuff on the top 40s, believe me.

There's a little icon there to the right advocating for Saving Net Radio, since the Suits want to make public radio stations pay steep royalties for bringing little-heard music to the masses. Typical. Contact your congressperson if you can. My beloved Barbara already said she would vote our way. And in the meantime, turn on your radios, people. Listen. Subscribe. Enjoy!