My Kingdom for a Rock Station

Something is up with my XM.  I suspect I need a new antenna.  For some reason, it won't tune in and it's been on the fritz for about a week and a half.  A cursory look at the wiring turned up precisely nothing.  Now I'll have to go trace the antenna wire from the roof down the weatherstripping, through the firewall, under the dash, etc. On Long Island, The Bone is no more.  It was one of those cool rock stations that regularly played Guns 'N Roses and knew that The Who recorded songs other than "Baba O'Riley" and "Pinball Wizard."  The old standby, 103.9 WRCN, has stopped doing anything cool whatsoever.  No more shows featuring local bands, no DJs with personality.  Just "Get the Led Out" segments consisting of the most overplayed Zep tunes of all time.

Rock is not dead.  But radio stations are certainly acting that way.  Whoever is in charge of formats seems to think it's better to have a station that a million people listen to for background noise than to have a station where 500,000 people listen passionately.  I find myself listening to WRCN and sighing at what seems like the millionth play of "Tom Sawyer" because the alternative is silence.

I tried listening to some of the other stations around the island, too.  WBLI, which used to be a pop station when I was a kid, is now a death-dealer.  No, it doesn't play satanic metal.  "Death-dealer" is the term I use for stations that latch onto anything popular and play it to death until you can't stand it anymore.  In this case, they play "Rehab" by Amy Winehouse, "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston and Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry" in endless rotation until you hear Kingston crooning "sooooo-i-sy-dull, sooooo-i-sy-dull..." in your sleep.

I got XM a while back because of terrestrial radio's suckitude, thinking that terrestrial radio couldn't slide further into the maw of suckiness.  Listening to XM pretty much constantly kept me from noticing that yes, it was possible for terrestrial radio to suck more.  Now that I've been forced to go back, it's like I would rather puncture both ear drums with a meat thermometer than let my XM Radio go unrepaired for another week.

There's a special level of Hades reserved for Clear Channel executives.  I just know it.