One of the mediums I gave up many years ago was the radio. The commercials had become too much for me. Loud, obnoxious double speak about shoddy overpriced merchandise. Until last year, I had a small car that had been broken into enough times for me to keep just a small cassette/radio deck inside, and the tape player didn't work. Just the radio. The only station I would listen to was the local public radio station. Even when they did their semi-annual fund drive, it was slightly annoying. Now that car is dead, and my radio contact has dwindled to next to nothing. I don't mind one bit.

I was in a restaurant yesterday, and they were piping in the radio on a pop rock station. I heard Fall Out Boy, Gwen Stephani & the like, and none of it bothered me. Then, those chatty DJs popped on, and I was inundated with Britney's bald head, Anna Nicole's many suitors, and hype for concerts many months away. The tabloid fodder was in full swing.

It's not just DJs on pop rock stations. It's almost everyone on the radio. The most slanted, inaccurate spins on politics occur on a daily basis. If you listened to it every day, you might even start thinking there's some truth in the bullshit. Religious radio spews out fire and brimstone like were all going to hell, but none of them are toting the fact that America has summoned War, the first of the four horsemen to do their bidding. Just playing on our personal inadequacies. Sports radio is great when I want to check the scores of my local alma mater in football & basketball. Even their calling of the game is slanted and biased. Once the sports talk shows begin, it's even more frightening. A bunch of knee-jerk reactions and extreme opinions after every game.

None of this is good for you. None this is good for me. But we endure it because it's free. But we pay. We pay with our ears because we cannot turn it off. You can switch stations at will, but that causes its own style of schizophrenia. Nope, nope, nope, I love that song, oh wait, it's over, nope, nope...

Now there's satellite radio which reduces everything to mood music. Hip hop world, jazz lix 1, jazz lix 2, metal might, blues cruise. I guess it's a step in the right direction, but polishing a turd still makes it a turd.

There are no more story telling radio shows like The Shadow. Once TV came around, radio morphed and mutated. It bastardized itself over and over to the point that there is very little worth your ears. I'm not saying there aren't great pop songs or quality programming anywhere on the dial, but the price you pay with advertising, gossip and misinformation is enough to skew your thinking in all sorts of lousy ways.

Of course, I can scold & admonish the radio all I want, but it will never die. The I-pod can't kill it. The Internet can't kill it. The end of the world may come, and there will still be static on the radio.

People have told me I have a great voice for radio, especially when I'm speaking low and smooth. When folks suggest that I pursue a career in that way, I just remind them 'Yeah, but can you imagine the things they would make me say & sell.' They agree, and life goes on.

People have told me they heard our one recorded song on the "alternative" radio station's local hour. That's great, but it doesn't make me a radio fan. I can put on that song any time I want.

We all want a soundtrack, especially when we're driving. Cruising with tunes is an enduring part of Americana. On the weekends, kids still weave all over town with their bass thumping far too loud for enjoyment, but that's how they've been doing it for years. You cannot change it.

There's only one way to beat the radio, and that's to turn it off. Invest in your own music making system. Come up with your own political views, religious beliefs & sports opinions. The further away you get from the talk, the ads, the spin, the hype, the gossip, the lies, the overreactions, the propaganda, the better, the better, the better you will be.

Next up, the TV. Boy, it doesn't get any easier, does it?

Chris Jungle doesn't touch that dial.