My favorite Houston radio station by far is 106.9 The Point, "The Best of the 80's, and more from the late 70's and early 90's!" Just browsing through their "Last Songs Played" list on the website reveals many timeless classics, including "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by Poison, "867-5309/Jenny" by Tommy Tutone, "Open Your Heart" by Madonna, "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" by Chicago, "Hold On Loosely" by .38 Special, "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey, "If This is It" by Huey Lewis and The News, and "Summer of '69" by Bryan Adams. And that's just in the last two hours! Go ahead and listen to it online. You know you want to.
Now, usually, when I am in my car, I'm listening to XM Radio, which I received as a gift last year. It's great, there are lots of stations, and no commercials, and you can almost always find something to listen to. Each station is devoted to a certain time period or style of music, such as "Alternative Sounds of the 70's and 80's" (Fred - XM 44), "Hard Alternative in the Post-Grunge Era" (Squizz - XM 48), or "All of Alternative Rock music's Monster Hits" (Ethel - XM 47). Take your pick! Of course, it does get more diverse than those three, with other stations like The Fish (XM 32), which plays Christian Pop, and Cinemagic (XM 27), which is completely devoted to playing movie soundtracks. You can find a station for pretty much any kind of music you would want to listen to.
At least, that's what I thought, until I got to Houston and discovered 106.9 The Point. I found myself switching back and forth from satellite to non-satellite radio depending on my moods (commercials=annoying, but come on! 80's! Late 70's! Early 90's!). I had to do this because there was no station on XM that could compete with The Point in 80's classic rock territory.
Until now.
XM sent me an email recently telling me about 10 new stations that they added. I perused the list, not thinking that any of them would be interesting, or that I would ever listen to them. I was right about nine of the ten, but one stuck out. It was called "Big Tracks" (XM 49). Check out the tagline on their website: "The 70's wasn't the end of classic rock - only the beginning. From mullets to air guitars, Big Tracks delivers classic rock's best, straight through the early 90's. What a rockin' state of mind that is." Rockin' indeed. And check out the "What you'll hear" list: Journey, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Boston, The Police, Van Halen, Bruce Springsteen!
Sorry, 106.9 The Point. I mean, I still love you, you know that, it's just that I - well, I've found someone else. You know, she's really upfront with me, she always tells me what song is playing. You do that online, sure, but not in the car. I miss that. And she doesn't have commercials. That's a big factor, too. Really, it's not you. It's her.
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7 comments:
In my opinion the best thing that Satellite Radio ever did for us was play Frankie Smith's "Double Dutch Bus," which could be called without error either the worst thing ever recorded by man using audio equipment, or the only achievement in a new, utterly unredeeming kind of art. I think that it's my favorite song. It has that rare accidental quality of freezing you to the spot and forcing you to listen to the entire thing, mouth hanging open in disbelief, skull pounding from the way your brain is pulsing and pulsing inside it and trying desperately to escape the input it has no way of sorting or dealing with. It's like being screamed at in an alien language. There is no way to process it. You just have to listen. And remember.
My secret word is "qluna."
Happy senior recital anniversary.
I'll miss you tomorrow...it'll be my first Tophless Easter since we've known eachother. Have fun eating Jesus without me.
Thanks, Jill, though I will be spending Easter morning playing trombone at a Methodist church. They don't eat the Jesus. That's pretty much just a Catholic thing (Episcopals do it too, but then again there's not much difference there at all, beyond the whole female priests aspect).
Double Dutch Bus is probably one of my favorite songs also. I've been trying to figure out why, and it's probably the hardest thing I have ever tried to reason out.
Let me tell you what I say
When I'm dealing with
The funky sidewalk
I say...
ssssssssssssssssssssugar!
come on, chris, really? i mean, 1069thepoint brings us our daily dose of journey and bon jovi...it always seems to know when i need to hear that shockingly beautiful key change in 'livin on a prayer,' or when i feel down and nothing will bring me back up besides screaming along to 'don't stop believing' on my three or four-times daily 3 minute commute to school. are you really going to give that up for a soulless, non-personal-sattelite-1069thepoint-rip-off station??
plus we can't call in to satellite radio every hour on the hour for three hours to "win $100 just for listening" while stuck in the worst houston traffic since the hurricane...
just think about it. that's all i'm saying.
How can O-Town's Liquid Dreams not be the worst thing ever recorded?
Simple...
It's the best.
And what could be better than Liquid Dreams? Easy. 16 of them playing at once.
Just got back from England. You'll be getting a postcard sometime soon.
everytime i read your title i think that it says Music for your Brian instead of for your brain. and i think, how sweet, he has made a c.d. compolation for brian p. zeller. and then, no, i realise that i have been being stupid. stupid.
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