blog.forgreatjustice.net

I remember working at the venerable Record Hospital at WHRB back in college. I was distinctly instructed that a 1/3 of our musical selection had to be from our heavy rotation list of recently incoming new releases. Our new releases were significantly more indie-than-thou - we were playing the “Yeah Yeah Yeahs” decades before they were cool! - and yet I wondered why, in the midst of all this musical anarchy, would they still choose to be tied down to the tyranny of “heavy rotation”?

A few years later, I rediscovered the joys of listening to real over-the-waves radio. This was partially due to the recovery of my long-lost radio alarm clock, but also due to the discovery of the Coffeehouse, one of the best programs on WERS. The program is centered around indie-folk with a glance of alt-country (rather than the Record Hospital’s characteristic post-indie-punk-anarcho-noise), but is still hardcore by virtue of of having such a beautiful musical selection.

And yet, it’s not the music selection that makes the Coffeehouse sing with magic, because between MP3 collections and internet radio there’s no shortage of music to be heard. If anything, radio has lost the dominating advantage it once had.

Radio perseveres, and it comes back to the heavy rotation list. When you hear some songs more frequently than others, it gives you a sense of continuity. I know that WOXY played Sufjan Stevens; over the months, he was played less, and Shelby seemed to pick up the pace until they, too, gave way to… Sinead O’Connor. And this too will pass.

There’s a time for the sterile perfection of finely cropped MP3 collections and headphones, but there’s also a time for hearing a familiar song you didn’t expect, and a time when a well-worn playlist is a like a friendly face.

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