Video didn't kill the radio star

I'm done with terrestrial radio.

Oh, if I'm in the car, and I left my satellite radio at home, and Julie doesn't feel like listening to my mix CDs, I suppose I'll put it on, but otherwise, forget it. The archaic amplitude modulation and frequency modulation bands are a thing of my past, and that's a shame. I grew up with the radio, and supported it long after so many other people switched to video.

Years ago, while rummaging around through a record store (something else that's slowly fading into oblivion), I found a Jazz compilation produced by Chicago's WNUA. Always one to try some new Jazz-related CD, I picked it up and gave it a listen. It had some great music on it, introducing me to incredible talents.

Pittsburgh didn't have a full-time Jazz station at the time. WDUQ did have some Jazz programming, but it was limited. Seemed like they played more NPR than Jazz, and they specialized in traditional Jazz...guys like Davis, Coltrane and their like. This CD was contemporary Jazz, artists like The Rippingtons, Spyro Gyra and my personal favourite, Earl Klugh. It was a vibrant sound, and at the time, spoke more to me than the more traditional Jazz did.

Mind you, over the years, I've come to appreciate and love the older works, counting Kind of Blue as one of the best albums, ever, but back then, I was making the transition from 80's Rock, discovering there was something else out there than the big-hair bands and the pop drivel of the day.

Pittsburgh eventually gained...then lost...a full time contemporary Jazz station, but I still remembered that CD from WNUA.

Flash forward to about a year ago, when I started coming out to see Julie here in DeKalb. I'd grown more and more frustrated with terrestrial radio, especially the limited choices in the Pittsburgh radio network, and with the growing control over the medium by Clear Channel, a corporation more interested in the bottom line than creativity and variety. I'd bought a XM satellite radio, and loved it! What a concept: Variety in radio. I could listen to anything from pop to Jazz to, well, you name it.

Even though I listened to it more than anything else, I was eager to listen to the legenday WNUA, since DeKalb was just at the edge of their broadcasting range. It amazed me...music legends like Ramsey Lewis and Dave Koz, Jazz musicians, were radio show hosts! I loved it!

So you can imagine my surprise the other day when I switched the receiver in my home to "radio" and went to listen to this wonderful station...only to find Spanish programming.

What. The. Fuck.

A quick check on their website, and the answer became clear: For financial reasons, they switched formats.

Oh, sure. If you have a HD Radio, you can still listen to WNUA, but I don't have a HD Radio, nor do I plan to get one in the near future. The hardware is still too expensive, and you're still getting a commercial-based service. Yes, my satellite radio is subscription based, but at least I don't have annoying commercials.

And I can still listen to great music.

Video didn't kill the radio star. Corporations did. People more focused on profit, the bottom line, and what they can mass-market and overproduce that sounds like shit, over something of quality. Jazz may not be profitable (and no, I don't consider the drell Kenny G makes as Jazz), but it is good. It speaks to the soul, something that gets into you and can liberate and lift you up. You won't find it in the latest Top 20 download from iTunes. You won't find it in the overproduced, heartless, synthesized little miss flavor-of-the-week corporate shill.

It's something that you have to really listen for, not something that sits in the background while you mindlessly go through your day.

Jazz radio stations are like lighthouses, beacons beckoning to the listener, to guide them away from the rocks, and bring them someplace where they'll be welcomed. With the loss of WNUA, another light has been extinguished, making it harder to find their way home.