From Terrestrial to Satellite/Internet; As bogus Bay Area radio settles into the abyss, I seek a remedy; Sunday media sermon

I was in Santa Cruz on Saturday enjoying the summer-like conditions and seeking a refuge away from my mighty MacBook; a temporary reprieve from away from the vast broadcast wasteland called terrestrial radio.

On the way down to see some friends at KSCO, the AM community, 10,000-watt nifty little powerhouse, got a chance to visit the studios. What a museum! What facilities. A radio station with old-style RCA microphones and studios right out of the Texaco theatre. A gorgeous outpost right on the sweeping Santa Cruz coastline, a stone's throw from the Boardwalk which was full of January sun-worshippers. January? It felt more like the middle of summer without the fog.

**I've begun listening to more Internet radio. Most stations that are in the big leagues have live streaming audio. What a relief. Really no more reason to listen to local radio, other than KCBS for some news at the top of the hour; KQED, KCSM, for just periodic news and some local big-band/jazz offerings.

KGO has become merely an afterthought. An outright albatross shuffled into an empty forest with more baggage than Louis Vitton. The Monday-Friday content is officially abysmal and just a complete joke. And the leftover sloppy thirds on the weekend is almost as unlistenable as the weekday, only now more comical and irrelevant as all get go.

They shuffled out the late-night ghost-hunting, "guest host" with another borrowed shlug from Knibber, (stick to sports, buddy), with a very out-of-control, loud, obnoxious voice that tried in vain to create the impression that somebody cared; not.

It only reinforced my trip to the net to navigate to something serene and necessary: Saturday wee hours listening to Charlie Parker and McCoy Tyner. Add a little George Benson too from a recorded concert in Boston and I was in a state of bliss. You can do this anytime of the day, 24/7--it beats the hell out of listening to the utter audio contempt. I have resisted the 4.0 maneuver to Internet radio mostly out of sheer laziness and the fact that most of my radio services, (until now), has been concentrated on conventional local offerings. What a waste.

It is, after all, part of the "415 Media" landscape, and I'll continue to monitor the local landscape--part of the reason I write this blog. While I have some personal misgivings about the current palate, (like you didn't know already), I'll still check its pulse. Professional courtesy. Plus, I'm delighted that we have a vibrant new, "NewsTalk" station on 910 AM, (Steady doses of Tillem, Rothmann, Wattenburg, Colmes and the like), and local news stalwart, KCBS--hardly 1010 WINS, but just good enough and devoid of endless SweetJack propaganda.

Internet radio provides welcome musical, political, cultural, theatrical and even sports-themed content. It's a little less contrived and honest. not spectacular, but if you have a thirst for radio and like to listen, particularly when the local content is so awful, this is more than a healthy alternative.

Satellite radio is downright terrific. If your a sports junkie, you have endless NFL/MLB/NBA and even NHL offerings, with endless chatter too. I'm now a huge "Mad-dog/Chris Russo" fan. A taste of NY-flavored sports news and commentary makes the scene here, by contrast, just pathetic.

I've always been a Howard Stern fan, even with his juvenile toilet humor, but Stern always managed to provide the frenetic, funny, hysterical histrionics that few others could provide. His interviews are priceless and some of his very best content. Stern, by virtue of his shift to satellite, has come off the conventional water-cooler content machine, but that's fine with me.

Satellite isn't for everyone. First off, it's not free, and in this economy, it's a luxury, that many simply won't pay for, but if you drive a lot and are wanting something devoid of the commercial crap, it's out of this world.

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