Posts Tagged ‘Public Radio’
Forgotten Albums
I went on a download binge of old music from my youth over the weekend. When I finished high school, I spent a year working full-time in a record store. Spending long hours exposed to a repetition of newly released music tends to in grain the songs in a person’s mind.
Every once in a while I get an urge to hear the old tunes again, but the majority of my old album collection was sold long ago. If I want the music back, I need to buy it again. I’m okay settling for digital versions that can be conveniently downloaded, but those offerings aren’t as complete as I need them to be.
My tastes, and the depth of music I was exposed to back then, move beyond the mainstream of what has been converted to digital.
I don’t know what the parameters are that record companies use to dictate what gets digitized and what doesn’t, but it always surprises me when I stumble upon something that has been passed over for upgrade to the latest technology.
Luckily, I still have my old turntable, so if I get truly desperate, I can always shop for the vinyl versions of old favorites that I once thought I would never miss again.
Before I do that, I first need to find the single milk-crate-sized wooden box of the most precious saved albums I couldn’t part with, stored downstairs somewhere, to verify my latest craving isn’t actually one I kept.
My digital music collection has taken on a renewed importance again, as the public radio stations are running one of their thrice yearly fund drives this week. We are already sustaining members, so I avoid the whole pitch and replace radio in the car with my iPod on shuffle.
I keep coming up with songs I had no idea were in my collection. It’s a wonderful distraction during my long commute to the day-job.
After purchasing some old favorites, like the Blues Brothers album that came out while I was working the record store, I needed to update my iPod. I didn’t want to completely sync it with my home iTunes library because the iPod has some music on it from CDs I ripped on my work computer (because it is an old iMac that still has a disk drive in it).
Not thinking clearly, I stumbled on the feature where I could select just the new songs I wanted to add. Thinking I had found my answer, I clicked the 5 new —using that term relatively— albums to copy over and hit sync.
Do you see what I did there?
When it was finished, I had all 5 freshly downloaded albums moved to the iPod… but that was all I had. Be careful what you sync.
I gave in and let my entire home iTunes library re-sync with the iPod. Now I need to go back later and figure out what method I originally used to move only the 4 albums ripped into the work iTunes library, onto my iPod.
I’ve done it before, I should be able to do it again.
I suppose this would be a lot simpler if I’d just store all of my music in the cloud.
Maybe I’m just waiting until they digitize all the music I really want before I will finally take that step. The ball’s in their court.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Mary Returns
Looch is back! Honestly, I didn’t realize how much pleasure I had been missing out on during her absence from the airwaves, until I experienced an hour of her first day back and everything, …everything! around me seemed to have a glow of happiness around it.
Mary Lucia is an afternoon host on my preferred public radio station, 89.3 The Current. Cyndie and I are founding members of the station, and have maintained a sustaining membership every year since the start. Public radio broadcasts, devoid of the noise of commercial advertising, with an eclectic mix of contemporary music, is a dream come true for me.
It was an added bonus that I ended up truly appreciating almost all of the KCMP on-air voices that moderate the playlists. Mary has always been my favorite, for reasons both obvious, and mysterious. Certainly the sound of her delivery, the way her splendid personality radiates with a mixture of warmth and brilliance upon every uttered genuine thought that she shares, is captivating to me. But there is something more, and I can’t quite put my head around what it is.
On Monday, while I was smiling with joy over how much pleasure I was getting out of having the radio on again in the background while I puttered away on my laptop, I mentioned to Cyndie that I was even getting a kick out of the song that was playing at the time.
It was something that didn’t appeal to me, at all. I recognized that I was liking a song that I normally wouldn’t like, and it was because I knew Mary had selected it for her first day back. She was having fun. You could hear it. I could feel it.
I was having fun, because she was having fun.
If Bill DeVille had played that same song, I would have hated it. Probably even if he was having fun in doing so.
Somehow, that it was Mary’s doing, made it appealing to me. It’s not entirely logical, but I understand why she might have that effect on me.
I have been a rather sad radio fan for quite some time now. Within a very short time frame, 3 of my favorite radio voices vanished from the airwaves: Steve Seel, Mark Wheat, and Mary. Mark made it back first, and much later, Steve did too, though he didn’t reclaim his old role in the morning slot.
The station has had other personality changes occur, as well, beyond just those three, and the lineup of who I was hearing seemed juggled to the point I felt like every person was filling a temporary role, whether they were, or not. I began to lose interest. My iPod on shuffle replaced the radio in my car. I stopped turning on the radio at home.
I felt no incentive to listen. The thrill was gone. For some reason, I couldn’t even appreciate hearing Wheat back in his normal slot. His glory was diminished, but not by anything of his own doing. It was simply by the absence of the others that evenings with Mark just weren’t the same.
My, how quickly that has changed, and I have Mary to thank. I couldn’t wait to get my radio on yesterday for the drive home. It didn’t even matter what music she chose.
I liked whatever she spun, even if I didn’t.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Relative Something 