Radio

In eighth grade I had to a project that was to write to a congressperson about an issue so I wrote about Clear Channel’s consolidation of radio stations throughout the country and how this was ruining radio I felt. The stations had too many commercials, not enough variety, and played the same songs over and over. Well in the five years since nothing has happened and Clear Channel still is the radio juggernaut that it was then. What has changed are a couple of things. I stopped listening to the radio stations I listened to then so I no longer cared what Clear Channel did. Also when I did listen to the radio in my car I had a new option, The Current. The Current is an alternative station owned by Minnesota Public Radio. In other words there are no commercials, there is tons of variety, and rarely are songs played twice. While as great as this option has been I have found that it is not a million times better than regular radio like I thought it would be. There are problems that I didn’t think would exist with this station. I barely ever know songs that are played and it almost seems that the DJs play songs that are alternative, very alternative just for the sake of being alternative. So while I used to be as opposed to homogenized radio as one could be I have now come to the realization that it isn’t the end of the world and while the radio market could probably use a little more regulation than it currently has it isn’t the end of our country if things stay the same.