Phillyist Framed Returns!
Whole Hog Is All Heart
Playlist Rewind: AFI at the Factory
Extra, Extra
Across the Ist-a-Verse
Dear Radio 104.5:
I don't know where you came from, but I think I love you.
With Y-Rock exclusively 24/7 on the internet and in HD, the Philadelphia airwaves had been severely lacking in the modern rock department of late. And then one day, while my boyfriend was surfing the radio in his car, "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" came on. I assumed that we were still listening to one of his pre-programmed XM stations until I looked at the dial (do they still call it that in the age of digital radio?) and saw that, no, we were listening to plain ol' FM radio.
"Where did this come from?" I asked him.
"New station," he said.
"Wasn't this the Latin station before?"
"Dunno. But I like it."
I'd been listening to you on and off since then, usually just when I was in my boyfriend's car, but what did it for me, what really did it for me, was that on a recent voyage to Ikea in a PhillyCarShare Element (oh, PhillyCarShare, you deserve your own column!), I turned up the volume just in time to catch most of Stroke 9's "Little Black Backpack." Now, the band's MySpace page claims that that song was a great commercial success for them – but I know about three people outside of myself who know that song, and it's probably because I introduced them to it. So hearing this song—this song that meant, probably, way too much to me in high school (how couldn't you love lyrics like "Don't wanna tango with you/ I'd rather tangle with him/ I think I'm gonna bash his head in"?)—not only made my day more than any old Ikea bookcase could, but also solidified my love for you, 104.5, and your kick-ass modern rock playlist.
I know, I know. By professing my love to you, I'm risking my indie cred. You are, after all, owned by the rather odious Clear Channel Communications, an organization I have not been shy about disparaging amongst my friends. But somehow, Clear Channel managed to get it right with you; I just can't get enough. And so indie rock cred be damned (but only when I'm listening to FM radio and XPN isn't interesting me): I have fallen in love with a commercial radio station.
Just don't get any annoying morning DJs, okay? That's a good way to make me fall out of love really quickly. I don't want to give you up, but I can.
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whoa...this is deja vu.
I live in Michigan, but travel to the Lehigh Valley area at least once a month for business and have always hated the 1/2 hour drive to my hotel...then to work.....absolutely nothing worth listening to on the radio (especially in the Allentown area due to alot of interference from the hills).
On my last drive in on 7/10 I tuned to the upper part of the dial so I could at least hear some clear reception on the stations up there (usually Spanish...but I can listen to the songs in short burts...a nice departure)...and suddenly I'm listening to alternative rock, old and new, no annoying dj's, very few commercials, crystal clear reception everywhere I went....I think I wet my pants.
Will definitely enjoy the drive to my hotel tomorrow night.