Radio

Every morning on my way to work, I love listening to our local "oldies" radio station- 99.3 out of Sturgis, Michigan.  The morning DJs are entertaining and I rarely hear a song I dislike.  Usually within my twenty minutes or so of tuning in, I hear good, wholesome banter, a pun or two, and a list of local and celebrity birthdays.  By the time I pull into the parking lot of my place of employment, I think to myself, "I wonder if they have any job openings there."  It always seems like it would be a fun place to work--full of friendly people who take turns bringing in muffins and donuts, who meet up at some bar every Friday after clocking out.

Maybe it's not like that at all.  For all I know the DJs can't stand each other, and everyone that works there pulls into the parking lot thinking, "I wonder if there are any job openings at                   ."  Still, I like to imagine it as a wonderful place.

It all makes me wonder where radio is headed.  With I-tunes, satellite radio, and Internet radio stations, I am concerned about the future of local radio stations.  I like when people call into the station and reference a place I know.  And I like when a person's name comes up on the birthday list, and the DJ knows him/her from high school.  It is personal, and in my generation, little is personal anymore.

For some reason, when I listen to the oldies station, I imagine my parents listening to the same songs when they were new, and I wonder what they were doing and thinking at that time in their lives.  So in that twenty-minute drive to work, a radio station manages to become a time machine.