FM -- No static at all

I first of all want to thank my great friend Paul for telling me I would enjoy this form of written expression. I had been toying with the idea of a blog, but tonight the right moment of thought about one of the things that I am passionate about really came to light, and it was all because of a comedy.
FM is a rock comedy (complete with a pretty good collection of music, and two concert scenes that include skinny Linda Ronstadt and Jimmy Buffett when he had a full head of hair) made in 1978 about a radio channel that had made it all the way to the top, and how its owning company had decided to "conglomerate" it. They had decided to force certain commercial spots onto the number one station in Los Angeles because it was number one, but it got to number one by not being a corporate sellout. When the station manager refuses, it turns into a rebellion of sorts. I don't want to tell you the entire movie, but wanted to talk about what this movie tried to tell us would happen 29 years ago, when it came out.
It is now the latter half of the "20 oughts" or whatever they call the decade after the 90's, and my hometown, Roanoke VA, has a station that has been around longer than my 44 years on this earth. It was an AM station (Oh Lordy 12-40) that began just before Christmas 1946 (for those interested, check out http://www.wrovhistory.com/main.htm) and it was the one station that played the music that mattered while I was growing up in this town. I can remember listening to Stairway late at night as a kid and could hear vague radio signals through the static before Mr Plant hit his final "to heaven". But then came the 89, and the station moved to FM. This was quite a good change for awhile, but then things went the way of...well, THAT way. Yes they were bought by that great satan of mass radio negligence, Clear Channel.
WROV, I will always think highly of you as a whole, but your Clear Channel years suck. I have become a subscriber to Sirius Sattelite radio, and you only have Clear Channel to blame. If you, or any other radio channels come around that are for the listener in Roanoke (as opposed to the person who has the most money), let me know, and I will give it a shot, but suffice to say, I think those days are long gone. Oh, I am sure these things are blamed on lack of local monies, or downloading, or whatever they say is robbing the industry of money, but thats what any big business does these days. They only want you as a customer, but once you are they could care less about service to you (this is also another blog another day).
Well, I can see where getting this stuff out is therapeutic. I'm outta here, and in the words of Bart Prater (long before Jim Croce said it), Have a good night and don't spit into the wind.

Later Daze