|
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Lax 'fi 
| | The only parts of LAX I frequent are the United end of things: Terminals 6 through 8. I'm near the end of 8 right now, getting on via bluetooth and cell phone. No wi-fi anywhere except some Boingo/T-Mobile near Gate 71, same as it was more than two years ago. No improvement since. |
| | They could, and should, do better. |
See ya
| | Here and Here. With two planes between them. |
The compleat fear experience
| | ... is this, which happened to me once, but fortunately before they started operating, and only for a short time (that seemed extremely long, lemme tell ya). Being conscious on an operating table and unable to even blink an eye, much less cry out (Dammit, I'm still awake!) is not thrill I'd recommend to anybody. Advice: it you have any odd reactions to drugs, let your anesthesiologist know. |
Top of the dial to ya
| | As a service to subsequent drivers of the cars I rent, I always set every button on every button on the car radio. I'm board certified at this skill, apparently lacking in approximately every other driver of every other car I've ever rented. I forget the default settings for FM channels on factory car radios, but on AM they include 1000, 1400 and 1700. And sure enough, on nearly every car I rent, at least one or two of those channels are still there. (Of course, lots of drivers don't bother with AM at all, but never mind that.) |
| | So yesterday, when I was driving out of the Oakland airport in my new Ford Focus (thank you, Budget, for not obeying Searls' 4th Law), I began setting buttons. This time I started from the top of the AM dial, because I had hoped that KYOU (technically, KYCY) would still be playing podcasts on 1550. It was (currently playing the Rock & Roll Jew Show ... Google asks, "Did you mean: rock & roll new show?). Then I scanned down and found KPIG on 1510. They were playing something perfect, but I forget what. Doesn't matter. They're still the real-est radio station in the country. I set the other buttons to KQKE/960, KGO/810, KCBS/740 and KNBR/680. The last three are AM powerhouses that each cover half of California — and much of The West at night. KGO has been #1 in the ratings for something like sixty years. KCBS gets my vote for the best all-news station, period. And KNBR remains a landmark sports station. KQKE (The Quake) is the Air America outlet for the Bay Area. The signal isn't great, but it provides some balance to the all-right echo chamber that much of the AM dial has otherwise become. They're just as insufferably one-sided as Rush and the rest, but they're often a lot funnier. |
| | Then I went to the FM dial. First thing I did was wonder, Has Family Radio finally sold off 106.9? If you're not into listening to endlessly dull tapes of Christian Ministry, chances are KEAR/106.9 has been packing material for youtr Bay Area FM dial since... when was it? 1978, it says at that las link. Before that it was, among other things, the legendary KMPX, which many (including myself, even though I never heard it live) regard as the grandaddy of all album rock radio. (The daddy was "progressive rock", which survives in few places, including KPIG, which has a country/folk/blues/swing/whatever tint.) |
| | I thought maybe something was up the last time I was up here, and noticed that the also legendary KFRC had yielded its large (and original) 610 AM signal to something dull and religious. I hadn't guessed it was Family Radio, but should have. |
| | What I heard on 106.9 was unmistakably Darian O'Toole, who had been a Big Voice on FM mornings in the Bay Area a few years back. She was blabbing away on something called Free FM, which sounded like Infinity's KLSX in Los Angeles, basically. Seems I caught the station on Day One. |
| | Well, this morning I typed freefm.com into the browser, and up came an Infinity site that detailed pretty much the whole Infinity strategy in the Post-Stern era that will start on January 3, 2006. Later I heard Tom Leykis' show (originating from KLSX). |
| | I note that Infinity has stuff about streaming live, and podcasting. (I see by the latter that KYOU, the all-podcasting station, is an Infinity property.) The streaming is by Windows Media, which is too bad for us Linux users. And for everybody who appreciates nonproprietary encoding formats, and why they're important for free marketplaces that are more than Your Choice of Silo. |
| | Anyway, I have other things to do now, so I'll turn the thread over to Big Rick Stuart, who jocks for KFOG (and is an institution as well). And to Jeff Jarvis, who has already been on the case, mostly from the Stern angle. Nothing I disagree with from either one of those guys, for what it's worth. And they both know a lot more than I do about What's Going On. |
| | Anyway, it's good to be back, even if it's just for a few hours (I fly back to Santa Barbara late this morning). The San Francisco radio dial may the best in the country. Not saying much, perhaps, but there it is. |
There are responses to this message:
Copyright 2009 The Doc Searls Weblog
|
