Scanny

I love the scan button on the van's radio. Or any radio, for that matter.

Today, during my lunch hour (after I had eaten, of course), I sat in the van with a notebook and pen and hit the scan button, stopping on each station long enough to write down a brief description of what was airing at that moment.

Here we go!

88.1 - DJ says, "I need you to tell me your favorite radio station." the listener responds, "Power 88," and I hit the scan button---

88.9 - [Preset 1] - KNPR! I usually love KNPR, but right now all that's going on is the announcer listing this hour's sponsors. Boring! Scan...

89.3 - This is a christian music station. A woman is signing, "All that matters is, all that matters is - I know your love has set me free," while guitars rock out behind her. It's actually not a badly sung song, but I scan...

89.7 - Classical music. Scan...

90.5 - Some guy is talking about his debts on a talk radio interview type of thing (he still has to finish paying off his student loan and...)

91.5 - KUNV, which is the university station. This used to have a program on overnights called Rock Avenue, where they played truly awesome alternative music. Now, it's all jazz, all the time. Right now is no different. Scan.

92.3 - [Preset 6] - KOMP - The "Rock" station. Currently some unidentifiable rock song, which sounds vaguely metal-ish is playing. I finish writing this description, and am still unable to ID the song, so I hit scan...

93.1 - a commercial for Wal-Mart, followed by a traffic report. Evidently, the 15 Southbound is looking slow...

95.5 - some country song. Interesting that the radio didn't stop on 94.1 this time around (I blame that on the lack of antennae on the roof) scan...

96.3 - KKLZ - another commercial. For Vista Chevrolet. Man. This is turning out ot be quite boring. Where are all the songs? Scan...

97.1 - [Preset 3] - KXPT, aka ninety-seven-one, the Point - Yet ANOTHER commercial. This one for Fitzgerald's Casino. Followed by a lawyer talking about the Hepatitis A, B and HIV scare from the Endoscopy Clinic fiasco. (Several clinics here in town have been shut down recently due to them having practiced the "money saving" technique of reusing needles on patients. Somewhere around 40,000 people may have been infected. Which is pretty horrific, actually. Needless to say, the lawyers have been advertising like crazy, trying to cash in.) Anyway, no song, so ...scan...

98.5 - KLUC, playing a hip-hop song I couldn't ID if my life depended on it. Scan...

99.3 - A Spanish speaking station

100.5 - [Preset 4] Jack FM, playing ELO's "It's a Living Thing". I bop my head a bit (because I'm dorky) and just before the song ends, I hit scan...

101.9 - Spanish speaking station

102.7 - [Preset 5] Star 102.7, now called "Fresh 102.7", playing some soft-ballad type of song that would be at home on VH1 if VH1 still played videos. The singer is saying he's "going home and the miles are getting longer, it seems"... and then I hit scan.

103.5 - Spanish speaking station

105.1 - Another Spanish speaking station

105.7 - The station Identification tells me that this is the "Smooth Jazz" station. The tune that starts after that is...well, smooth jazz. It's instrumental, but also somewhat familiar. I think if someone started singing, I might be able to recognize it. Instead, I hit scan.

106.5 - Bryan Adams is asking me if I've ever really, really, really, really ever loved a woman.

107.5 - The DJ is rambling far too quickly to write everything he's saying, but ooh! A caller just requested "some old school Rage", and so now he's playing "Just Another Bomb Track". Yay! Once the song is done, I hit scan one last time.

107.9 - [Preset 2] - Area One-oh-Eight (aka Area One-oh-Seven-Nine) plays a station ID, followed by Nirvana's "All Apologies". Yay! Two good songs in a row. But overall, this just highlighted how sucky Las Vegas radio is. If anyone else wants to duplicate this experiment, I'd be interested to see how other cities' stations compare.