?And Then Came Something Listeners Hadn?t Heard Before?

Michael Giberson

So I was driving home last night, worming my way through traffic and punching buttons on the radio trying to find something to listen to. One of the buttons produced some brand of Latin pop, which surprised me since I hadn?t programmed any such station into the radio. But I just cursed at the driver ahead of me, punched another button and drove on.

Later, in the car on an errand, I explored the radio buttons with more care. Aha! The button for WHFS, 99.1 on the radio dial (for those of you that still have dials on your radios): instead of Green Day or Gwen Stefani, more merengue.

WTF?

Alas, the story on the front page of this morning?s Washington Post:

At noon yesterday, the station behind the HFStival, a popular annual concert, broadcast the late Jeff Buckley’s 1995 hit, “Last Goodbye.” And then came something that WHFS listeners hadn’t heard before in the station’s 36-year history as the arbiter of cutting-edge rock:

“WHFS transmitiendo desde la ciudad capital de America:

“Esta! Es! Tu! Nueva! Radio!”

Not that there is anything wrong with that, but in the Latin American music department I prefer Flaco Jimenez to Enrique Iglesias, so I’ll probably reprogram the button.

Please, WRNR, boost your signal! Northern Virginia needs more music!

5 thoughts on “?And Then Came Something Listeners Hadn?t Heard Before?”

  1. A few years ago, the nearest thing Boston had to a jazz station went to a news break, and came back as a country station.

    Apparently, the only thing that the first episode of “WKRP in Cincinnatti” got wrong, is the change usually goes the wrong way.

  2. Writing from California and further along in the demographic transition and all the problems it brings I think there is something wrong with it. Wait till you lose more radio stations and more cable TV channels to Spanish language programming. Wait till your schools go to hell in a handbasket. Wait till your taxes go up and your crime rates go up. Then tell me there is nothing wrong with it.

  3. Writing from California and further along in the demographic transition and all the problems it brings I think there is something wrong with it. Wait till you lose more radio stations and more cable TV channels to Spanish language programming. Wait till your schools go to hell in a handbasket. Wait till your taxes go up and your crime rates go up. Then tell me there is nothing wrong with it.

  4. Not worried at all about “losing” more radio stations and cable TV to Spanish language programming. While radio spectrum space is somewhat limited, cable TV channels seem to be in endless supply. Frankly, if it were not for the Spanish language cable channels, we’d have only 1/2 as much coverage of international soccer.

    I agree that immigration can place increasing and costly demands on public school systems and that will translate into a tax burden. But I don’t feel any particular reason to ration out the benefits of public schooling to children based upon the birthplace of their parents or, for that matter, the legal status of their parents in this country.

    I’d rather live in a relatively open society, even if that means paying higher taxes to support public school teachers, than live in a “fortress america” world (and pay those higher taxes to border guards).

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