I'm on a Mexican Radio

I want to take a second to write about my frustrations with San Diego radio.

First of all, I understand that radio stations don't make as much money as they once did and have the need to syndicate to make up for lost revenue. After all, it is a business. But, I've been listening to the same radio station since I was a kid and now the DJ that's been there for 11 years has been let go after an "extended vacation" so that they can syndicate Adam Corolla, who in my opinion doesn't have much of anything good to say. Now I know that most of the men out there would disagree, but for us women, why do I want to listen to another talk show that focuses of boobs and beer? I'd much rather have back the Thursday craigslistjunk finding sessions or some good discussions about surfing. Can't San Diego have anything that is just "ours." Why do we have to keep copying LA? IF I wanted to listen to some bigoted LA person, I'd move to LA and be around those people all the time. 91x plays music right now in the morning, which is nice, so at least they haven't totally gone down the drain (yet), but I still miss some intelligent talk.

So, wanting to listen to some intelligent talk in the morning, I switched over from 91x to NPR (I may have lost the music but at least was moving to something that I could learn from). Sometimes I even switch back and forth between the music and the talk (gasp, I do this while driving!). This morning I learned that the 4 day 1 hour membership drive must only be on work days because I swear it started last week and I thought it would be over today. So, I've been avoiding NPR for almost a week now because I can't stand their membership drive. This has made me cranky because now I can't get news in the morning. I get it that you need money but for Christ's sake, do you have to bring it up so often? Plus, they ask for the money in that whiney, soft, "I'm so academic" voice that just drives me up the wall. I WILL NOT GIVE YOU MONEY UNTIL YOU SPEAK LIKE A NORMAL HUMAN BEING. I want to tell the morning DJ that her soft, psuedo-academic voice makes me want to attack her through the radio. If you need money, be persusasive. Give me some good reasons. Appeal to my selfish need to feel that I am part of something bigger than myself. And also, NPR obviousy doesn't make as much as they should be with their membership drives or else they wouldn't have them so often. So, BE CREATIVE. Find a new way to raise money! Here's a good NPR angle: pick up some illegal immigrants on Encinitas Blvd. and have them wash some Minute Men cars (the Minute Men hang out with their homemade signs in front of Home Depot on El Camino Real) and let the general public pay to watch what ensues in the wash. Then, ditch the soft academic voice and voice it over WWF style!

Onto the next radio station. Grant listens to KPRI in the monring. Now, I don't know this DJ personally at all, but I think he must hold a mirror up to himself while talking. He LOVES himself. He thinks he is so funny and witty. But he is annoying. I don't care about what he cares about. Just play some music and SHUT UP. Radio is a changing medium. People don't have time for pointless blubbering. We are on the move. I want to hear traffic and music. Maybe if something unusual is going on with the weather, fill me in. I also don't want to hear news stories from you. I know you read everything straight from the paper or from the AP Wire. I can do that myself. Plus, your commentary on the news stories is worse than the TV anchors and weathermen's commentary. And that's just pathetic.

Speaking of reading straight from the paper, this is a problem I encounter at work. A lot of radio and TV stations take the newspaper story and rewrite it. Now, when I was a reporter I have to admit that I did the same thing. However, I NEVER ran a story without confirmation first. So, if a story was run, say, about a college, I would call the college PIO and confirm the accuracy of the story. Most of the time, surprise, something in the paper is not accurate. Then you book a quick on-camera interview, which takes maybe 30 minutes, write up a VSOT and are good for part of the day. When I did radio news, I did the same thing, but it was even easier because everything is over the phone. No need to go drive somewhere to shoot someone. But, apparently, this rule does not apply to San Diego radio stations, who rewrite the things that the newspaper has gotten wrong and then broadcast it out into the world. Then, all those unsuspecting listeners, who have no idea that their favorite DJ is NOT a reporter, just some lazy dude who doesn't want to pick up the phone, get upset over stories that are factually incorrect.

Well, hopefully tomorrow will be better. The NPR radio membership drive will be over, unless they found a new way to calculate time, and at least I can listen to some news that has not been recycled. I have also decided to spend more time updating my ipod so that I can be one more person that helps to further degrade the quality of radio.