Remembering Radio

      At a dinner party recently, a neighbor told me about the radio station WXPN (“Vinyl at Heart”), a member-supported station affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania. A couple of days later, I checked it out. Their program list was interesting and included programs like “Funky Friday” and “Highs in the 70s.”

      The station was in the middle of its annual countdown of the 885 best cover songs. I happened to catch a really nice cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane” by Two Nice Girls, a band I never heard of. I heard The Brothers Johnson’s “Strawberry Letter 23,” a song I had not heard in nearly 50 years, that took me right back to my junior year of high school. I loved hearing the DJs comment on the songs they were playing.

      I almost never listen to the radio anymore. Once I retired, I no longer even listened to NPR, which had been a companion on my morning and evening commutes for decades. But I have sweet memories of how important radio was to me and my peers a few decades ago.

      Remember when you and your friends were primarily listening to the same one or two radio stations? Maybe you stayed up late to hear an album side played in its entirety, knowing your buddies were listening too?

      When I was a teenager in New Orleans in the 1970s, the rock station to listen to was WRNO (99.5 FM), “the Rock of New Orleans.” It was the first station in New Orleans to adopt an album-oriented rock format at a time when AM radio was still dominated by Top 40 tunes. WRNO was known for deep cuts and live DJs; it promoted concerts in New Orleans, often sponsoring shows at The Warehouse, a legendary rock venue on Tchoupitoulas Street.

      My sophomore year of high school, my girlfriends and I had driver’s licenses and often on a Friday night would cruise the main street in a part of the suburbs called Fat City. Cars of teenagers ogling each other moved slowly down the street in both directions, windows open, music blasting from windows. We all were listening to WRNO.

      In college, my boyfriend’s roommate was a DJ at LSU’s student-run station. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. Bruce had the Thursday afternoon shift, and one day he invited me to sit in the DJ booth with him. After watching him spin records for an hour, he asked if I wanted to cue up and introduce a song. I said, sure.

      I don’t recall the song I chose, but I do recall how my hands shook as I tried to line up the needle in just the right place, while forming the words in my head that I would speak to introduce the song. In the moment I was to speak into the mic, I realized that potentially hundreds of people might hear my voice come out of their stereo speakers, and I froze.

      I flubbed my debut as a DJ, but it was fun to sit in the booth that afternoon and see how it all worked.

      A lot has been written about how we no longer get our news from the same sources and what that seems to mean for our shared understanding of reality. The same is true of music: we all have our own Spotify playlists, easily cued up with a tap of the finger. We can still experience the group effect of music at a concert, but it’s not quite the same thing as experiencing the same song from the same station coming out of open car windows on a summer night.

      But maybe the pendulum hasn’t quite swung away from human connection. I was surprised and heartened by the survey results from Jacobs Media Techsurvey 2024 that indicate survey respondents had a strong preference for real human voices over AI voices and algorithm-generated playlists: “Listeners value the authenticity and spontaneity that radio hosts bring to the table, creating a sense of familiarity and connection that cannot be replicated by technology.”

      The survey’s report added, radio “continues to serve as a bridge that brings people together through shared experiences and shared love of music.” The survey concluded that “a significant portion of the population still tunes into traditional radio, underscoring its enduring popularity and influence. FM and AM radio outperform listening to satellite radio and podcasts.”

      In our era of cultural fragmentation, I wonder how engaging in more shared experiences—like simply listening to music on the same radio station—might help break down our divisions.

      So, I think I’ll start tuning in to WXPN. Listening to “Funky Friday” seems like a great way to kick off the weekend.