oldies radio, music and associations
You don’t have to read this blog for long to know that my biggest musical love other than the indie rock is oldies music. I was pretty sad when KFRC switched from oldies to other crap (and that obviously didn’t work, because they now are a booty music format station). There hasn’t been an oldies station in the Bay Area for a couple years now.
Well, today, I was pleased to discover via this Bay Area Radio blog that there is KOMY (KOMY) in Santa Cruz. I’m not sure if I can receive the signal down here in the MP, but I’ll check and update later. However they do stream online and I’ve been listening for a while. It’s just a classic mix of oldies: Motown, Beach Boys, Beatles, one hit wonders, girl groups, etc.
The Letter (”Give Me a Ticket for an Airplane”, by the Box Tops) just came on. Man, I’m loving this. And now “Lola”.
(Oh, man, I’m a little disappointed to discover they’re getting their content from Jones Satellite Network. I was hoping there was someone real doing the programming. Note to Bay Area radio station managers: I’d be a very good oldies format radio music director.)
I grew up listening to oldies music and I think part of why I still love it (besides the genre having some of the best pop songs ever written) is the associations it brings up. I know some songs that bring me back to specific times, or in some cases, albums or artists (like, somewhat embarrassingly, Dashboard Confessional brings back this day my junior year in college where I hurriedly read all of Ender’s Game for a class during which I listened to only DC’s first two albums (yes, for like 10 straight hours), but it’s odd than a genre would have such associations. Oldies music brings me back my early teen years, listening to my radio in bed after I should have been asleep.
Update: My car radio doesn’t pick up KOMY, even at night. The streams still work nicely, though.
