Everyone deserves music

I've spent the last few years in a comfortable public radio bubble, so much so that I've even made donations from time to time. Commercial radio's grinding conformity and mediocrity, combined with ever-more-obnoxious ads, drove me into the arms of college radio and NPR long ago.

Without WNCW anymore, it's been hard to find good music since moving to Baltimore. We had high hopes for the kids at WTMD out of Towson. Unfortunately, even though they play the kind of music I want to hear, they usually just play the same few tracks over and over again rather than dig deep into the albums. Tends to get boring, kna'mean?

Honestly, they've gotten a little better about it, but I tend to find myself wandering around the dial anyway.

WXPN? Too far away to get a decent signal most of the time around here, even with their translator in Maryland. Internet radio? Yeah, like I want to sit at the computer all day. Oh, I can get a wireless transmitter? Want to buy that for me for my birthday? Some of us have to work for our money, you know.

So what's the answer? Well, surprisingly, commercial radio.

Not the Clear Channel clones that clog our precious publicly owned airwaves. But the wonderful, if not particularly strong signal-wise, WRNR out of Annapolis.

Many a long and miserable commute has been improved by the diverse universe at that self-described "independent" station. I'll leave the local experts to debate that claim. As far as I'm concerned, I don't care who owns them as long as the format never changes. These guys play a wide and deep range of songs from a lot of sources, even if they still have the same obnoxious commercials. Kind of a public radio/commercial station love child.

Either way, let this be a message to the conglomerates: Good radio can be commercially viable! Stop crapping up our airwaves with the same-old, same-old pop junk!

Of course, now that I've posted this, the big boys are probably salivating at the chance to buy up and destroy yet another great station.