Airwaves Dream
We perpetually listen to Chicago NPR affiliate WBEZ in my apartment, on my aging VW's radio and today at work via the inter-web-net. In general I really dig the programming, it's a bit more lively than the NPR you get in DC, which is wonkish, aimed at a classical music listening staunchly, stuffily liberal Northwest DC residents (though we did have Derrick
McGinty for a while). WBEZ does however go off the rails quite often, it gets kinda kooky. Odyssey with Gretchen Helfrich often has really hilariously amorphous topics and usually only features academics who sound as if they've been locked away in the basement of the library since the Carter adminstration. The discussions rarely go anywhere, it's an intellectual circus with a shortage of disagreement. The music reviews on NPR almost always suck. Today, this guy was blathering on cheerily about the Bob Dylan book like someone who's never actually reviewed a book but just really loves Dylan. I would have rather just read the book jacket. Earlier, Dan Sinker from Punk Planet was on 848, which was kind of interesting though I haven't picked up PP in years to be honest. You can listen to WBEZ online.