Ch. 28 - The Spectrum

It's a chilly, rainy, gross day. I hate this weather. Look at the temperature in the photo below. It's actually says 76 degrees. But a day like this comes so rarely in South Florida that I almost welcome it. It's a stay in sweats, drink hot chocolate and watch movies kind of day. I will dress in something cozy and pretend I live up north for a few hours. I will even make myself a hot chocolate with marshmallows and hopefully get a lot done. Can't wait.

Anyway, The Spectrum. The first thing I noticed about this station is that they are finally playing women. In the first 15 minutes of my ride, I heard Sheryl Crow and a woman named Kathleen Edwards, who I have never heard of but liked. In the last week or so, the only women I heard were Chrissie Hynde, Pat Benatar and Joan Jett. And only one song from each of them. I was so disappointed by Sirius. They could have played the Runaways. Or Souxsie and the Banchees. Or Janis Joplin. Or played these woman more. Or other women. But then again, there were not many women who actually rocked in the 60s and 70s.

What's strange about those other stations is that they had female DJs. I think that Meg Griffin was a DJ on each of the last 3 stations. And there is a female DJ on this station: Kristine Stone. Same deep, soothing voice.

Here's the tagline for this station: "music you grew up with." Who grew up with this? I'm confused. Everything so far has been brand new or from the 2000s. Then they say this tagline and play Jackson Browne from the early 70s, "Doctor My Eyes." That was followed by a brand new song from a group I never heard of: Portugal, The Man. And earlier they played a great song by Van Morrison: "Jackie Wilson Said."

Here's another tagline for this station: ""You don't stop working and neither do they. New music from career artists." Then they played Scars on 45. I have never heard of them. But I like them. Two vocalists, including a woman. Soundhound has this song on a Grey's Anatomy soundtrack. Gotta love those soundtracks. Always introducing us to new music.

This station is playing new "rock" or what many seem to call "indie rock." I have never heard of several of these artists. Which isn't bad. It's great because I love learning about new bands and singers. I like the new "indie" rock of the 21st century… for the most part. I always wonder how these artists can create new sounds. I love their sound. I have no idea what the true definition is of "indie rock." I always thought it was bands signed to smaller labels, meaning not the big labels like Warner Bros., Sony, etc. Who knows. Because I know many of these bands, like Coldplay, are on bigger labels. I think it could also be categorized as alternative rock. Who knows. Labels, labels, labels.

Oh, Fiona Apple. Such a cool voice. I just realized that Adele sounds a little like her. I wonder how old Fiona is now. She's got to be almost 30. She started at least 10 years ago and so young. Great sound.

So, I'm enjoying this station. Coldplay, The Decemberists and then my favorite Sheryl Crow and Van Morrison. Back and forth and back and forth; old to brand new an back to old.

Well, I only listened to this station for a little over an hour. And about 1/3 of that was time was spent sitting in my driveway in the pouring down rain. I liked it. It's a good mix of old and new. I guess it really is indie rock. Well, here's to indie rock and The Spectrum.







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