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June 30, 2020 2:19 pm  #1


The Rewards Of A Radio Road Trip

The Globe & Mail's Andrew Clark weighs in on the joys of listening just to regular radio while on a long road trip. 

"The key to rewarding road-trip radio is to keep searching. You station-hop until you find something you a) like or b) can tolerate...

"Radio also reminds you what you hate. You hear music you would never willingly play. I lost count of the number of times I thought to myself, “I’d forgotten how much I hate that song.” There’s something empowering about feeling that negative surge and then changing the station."


I don’t begrudge those who like their driving playlists, but they’re not for me

I can relate to this column. Back in the days before .mp3s and even cassettes, I fondly remember car trips to Florida with my family at Christmas, a transistor radio stuck in my ear most of the way, searching for the Top 40 station in whatever town we were passing through.

There was almost nothing to listen to on FM back then and besides the signals didn't travel far enough. It was a DXers dream come true and I recall it very well. 

First time I ever heard KQV in Pittsburgh, WNOX in Knoxville or WQAM Miami. And then there was the year I discovered CKFH's Steve O'Brien working at WKAT in Miami. So THAT'S where he went. I actually dropped a dime in a pay phone and called him from the motel, telling him how much he was missed at 'FH. I have no idea what happened to him there, but boy, he wasn't too complimentary about the place!

He was a hilarious jock who went on to have quite a successful career in New York City. 

 

 

July 1, 2020 9:37 am  #2


Re: The Rewards Of A Radio Road Trip

I remember those days ... driving from city-to-city, town-to-town hearing different stations from different markets. Now the stations sound very much alike from market-to-market as a handful of companies have gobbled them up and homogenized the playlists. Occasionally you find a few gems but they are few and far between. I normally listen to Sirius/XM on drives - they are far from perfect but the signal is the same no matter where I go.


"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram