No such thing as good ole days

This is not a reminiscence or a “those were the good old days” thing, but there used to be some really cool stations on the radio landscape. The first time I ever traveled to Los Angeles (1989, I think) I tuned in the world famous KROQ, and although the music was similar to what my own station played (102.1 CFNY “the spirit of radio”) there was a clever sense of irreverence and self-deprecation in the station’s promos and ID’s. These were all written and produced by a genius of a guy named John Frost.

Another L.A. station that was just plain fun was KNAC. KNAC was a 24/7 heavy metal station. One morning they played Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” at 8AM. I was impressed. KNAC went dark a few years ago, now they’re just a web stream.

And of course KPIG in Santa Cruz, which was a tie-dyed in the wool hippie station. The day I was listening was the day Brent Mydland, keyboard player for the Grateful Dead, died – so needless to say it was nothing but Grateful Dead music that day.

These kinds of stations as they were could never exist today, and I don’t say that with any sense of bitterness. Everything has a time and a purpose in it’s time. Things are SUPPOSED to change, if they didn’t we’d lack social context, there’d be no watermark for progress or the lack thereof.

When I worked at CFNY it was a magical place at a magical time. I will always consider myself really fortunate to have shared that experience with some really special people, but much the same as people grow up and move on, special times and places in our lives are not meant to last, except in our memories, and there will always be new ones to add to this great, long and hugely interesting trip.