What I Get For Waiting

I haven't been posting much recently, have I? There's a reason for that: I'm usually too tired. See, I live out in the boondocks, but I have friends in the center of the city. So when I go out and do anything, I get home too late to consider writing anything before I go to bed. Luckily, I have now moved to a more happening area of Seattle. So my travel time should be greatly reduced, and I can get back to saying the things that really matter. Like "What's the deal with this '80s radio station?"

Actually, the window for that particular topic has closed. I was all set to air my complaints (which were many and varied), but a couple of days ago, they changed formats. I'm not sure what their new format is, exactly, but they're now calling themselves "K-Rock" and saying things like "If you had all these songs in your IPod, you wouldn't need us" and "We're the station built with your MP3s in mind." So I'm guessing they're the Internet Buzzword Station. They don't have any DJs yet, which is a good thing. I'm sure eventually they'll get around to installing pointless chatter in between the music, though. I'm trying to work in a reference to Dr. Johnny Fever saying "Booger!" in the first WKRP episode, but it seems like too much work.

Aaaaanyway, there were a lot of problems with the station's old 1980s format. For one thing, even though ten years is a long time, they only seemed to own about 30 songs. They had this one bumper of a guy saying "I love how you don't just play the same songs over and over again," which I too would love, but I think it was meant ironically. Because every time they played that bumper, "Living on a Prayer" would show up within three songs.

The problem is that I don't really like a lot of the Greatest Hits of the '80s. I realize Huey Lewis and Phil Collins sold a lot of records back then, but that doesn't mean I want to listen to them now. People into instant nostalgia are probably thinking "New Wave" when they say "'80s music". And even then, I'm kind of tired of the Greatest Hits mentality. I own plenty of New Wave Hits compilations, and they overlap a lot. Look, everyone who wants a copy of Too Shy or Voices Carry already has one. Songs that aren't exactly obscure, but had less popularity (like, say, "88 Lines About 44 Women," which I realize is on a couple of compilations) get missed out.

Seriously, I'd buy a "lesser-known songs that still got some airplay" cd pretty quickly. Much quicker than, for example, writing about it.