05 June, 2008

Radio Killed My Childhood



Growing up, I thought there was only one radio station: Mix 107.5 KSFI. Mix 107.5 changed to Magic 107.5, but they still played the same great hits from the 70's, 80's and today (today being early 90's at this time.) My passion for Barry Manilow, Elton John and Vanessa Williams grew every time I switched on the dial of my GPX AM/FM/CD player. Then one Christmas, I got a Sony Walkman tape player and the radio wave world that I once knew changed forever.
As the story goes, I was laying in bed one night, enjoying the soft hits of the 70's, 80's and today when I stumbled upon a dial of sorts that fudged with my reception when I bumped it. Ever the eager beaver, I gave the dial a twirl and what to my wonderment I should hear but Q99, the rock station. WHAT?! I'd never heard such uproarious, irreverent and obnoxious music; I loved it. Everything was downhill from there. I went from Q99 to X96. I distinctly remember finding X96 late at night while Deacon Nukem and Reverend Pinhead were doing some kind of perverted radio call-in show. It was awesome. From then on, I was a rocker. I moved Vanessa Williams and 70's Super Groups to the back of my CD collection to make room for Green Day, Sound Garden, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Blur and Beck.
People used to look at me and say, "Awe, what a good boy."
Now they say, "Ehk, what happend? He used to be such a good boy."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Q99 was the greatest radio station of all time. I was literally addicted to it - seriously, I would stay up way past midnight with my headphones on, saying to myself, "just one more song... just one more song..." In my own little social purgatory (Oak Canyon Junior High), it was the ONE thing I could be certain was cool, simply because EVERYONE listened to it. I still mark the day it switched to "ROCK 99" and started playing classic rock music as the single most traumatic event of my adolescence.