Radio Gambling

Today I look at how the serious music fans listen to the radio. Of course by now you might be thinking, are you crazy? What serious music fan in their right mind would listen to the radio with all that inane chatter, commercials, and crap? I'll tell you what kind of music fans. The type of music fans who don't believe in ripping from their computer the hours of dedication, love, and sacrifice recording artists release into the world. The type of fans who believe that there still might be some music left out there they would have never found on their own and are looking for a new sound to enjoy. The type of music fans whose tape player broke and whose new car stereo which will be installed December 26th is sitting under the tree right now. But for the time being, so I can save face, let's focus on the first two.

Those of you familiar with your car stereo you probably do the same thing I do. You have FM and FM2 and you program the first 6 stations you like on FM and the next 6 on FM2 so you can maximize the stations you can get to by pressing only one button. Plus with all the non-music on stations, you like to flip through quickly to get to the good stuff. Now that we have our set up, I can get to my point.

Suppose you turn on the radio and you're flipping through. You get to the second button on FM and it's a pretty decent song. But the question is, do you keep flipping and risk missing a good portion of it to hunt for other good songs, or do you enjoy it and risk missing an even better song? That's when you get to the point where you judge the song itself. Is this song really good enough to where I would be upset if I found out that I missed it on another station or does it stand by itself? Some music it's a no brainer. Led Zeppelin’s Over the Hills and Far Away will always be on my radio if I find it first. And I will get pissed if I missed a piece. But what about those others? The other day I was listening and I found the absolute neutral song (in my experience). This one could go either way. The Eurhythmics Walking on Broken Glass. This particular song is catchy and everything, but whether I decide to keep it or go hunting depends on my mood. For those of you judging me it’s a fun song for me because I have alternate lyrics that make reference to Bruce Willis and Die Hard. Try not laughing at that. But sometimes you’re not in the mood and you decide to hunt. It’s a rather hilarious situation. Is this song good enough or do I got for door number 3? In my head I’m doing an ‘I have to pee dance’ because sometimes the decision makes me that anxious.

So you think about this the next time you’re stuck in traffic and it’s nothing but radio entertaining you until you get home. That’s for you drivers without a CD player, DVD player, cell phone, or book in your car. You know you’re out there.