On the Radio (and Travel News)
Driving down to California, I did something I rarely do and listened to the radio.
Observations of a radio novice:
* All the music sounds the same, except the country stations are a bit twangier; 95%+ of the songs are about falling in love in the most trite possible terms.
* There are many Christian stations, and none for any other religion. I was surprised, however, to find better music on the Christian stations. They sing about God (rather than your girlfriend) being your reason for living, and of the two, I find God more interesting. Some of these stations had interesting biblical commentary, but I was put off by the running theme of "you are a horrible person, but God can save you, but only if you realize that you are a horrible person and are constitutionally incapable of doing anything to make yourself worthy of being saved." This rhetoric is so obviously manipulative that I have no patience for it.
* There is some good news/commentary, but most of the talk stations play like a sketch out of A Bit of Fry and Laurie: "Well, when you consider people today, you have to be annoyed by a lot of this, and my feeling is that I personally don't care what you do, but I find all of this annoying...."
* At least a third of the air time is devoted to commercials, and the commercials are often constructed to be mistaken for news items.
* Of the music stations that offer news updates, all seem to be affiliated with Fox News.
***
The drive was exciting around Mt. Shasta; there was a lot of snow and strong recommendation for chains. I didn't have chains, so I just limped along through, but it was very beautiful, like Narnia. I was also impressed that everyone was driving very safely, and I saw no accidents or stalled cars (or highway patrol of any kind).
Observations of a radio novice:
* All the music sounds the same, except the country stations are a bit twangier; 95%+ of the songs are about falling in love in the most trite possible terms.
* There are many Christian stations, and none for any other religion. I was surprised, however, to find better music on the Christian stations. They sing about God (rather than your girlfriend) being your reason for living, and of the two, I find God more interesting. Some of these stations had interesting biblical commentary, but I was put off by the running theme of "you are a horrible person, but God can save you, but only if you realize that you are a horrible person and are constitutionally incapable of doing anything to make yourself worthy of being saved." This rhetoric is so obviously manipulative that I have no patience for it.
* There is some good news/commentary, but most of the talk stations play like a sketch out of A Bit of Fry and Laurie: "Well, when you consider people today, you have to be annoyed by a lot of this, and my feeling is that I personally don't care what you do, but I find all of this annoying...."
* At least a third of the air time is devoted to commercials, and the commercials are often constructed to be mistaken for news items.
* Of the music stations that offer news updates, all seem to be affiliated with Fox News.
***
The drive was exciting around Mt. Shasta; there was a lot of snow and strong recommendation for chains. I didn't have chains, so I just limped along through, but it was very beautiful, like Narnia. I was also impressed that everyone was driving very safely, and I saw no accidents or stalled cars (or highway patrol of any kind).