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Air Waves Good-bye (08.30.02)
This week I'd like to shed a little light on a Squamish
institution that is a cornerstone in this town. That's right boys and
girls today's topic is Mountain FM. Face it, no one has been in Squamish
more than 5 minutes without thinking, "I wonder how much it would
be to start up a radio station" During my employment with Mountain
FM I rarely, if ever discussed the station due to the inevitable statement,
"Dude, the music sucks", funny enough though, half think it's
too hard and half think it's too soft. It's the old adage, you can't please
everyone. Unfortunately, bad music is just a byproduct of corporate radio.
They don't play music because it's good, they
play it because the numbers tell them to.
However, naysayer and fan alike, back in the day, everyone
agreed that Mountain FM's local news coverage was remarkable. It didn't
matter if your
favorite band was Nana Mouskori or the Dead Kennedy's. The second you
were
stopped on the highway you'd be waiting for Rod Stewart to shut the hell
up so someone could tell you what was happening on the road. Even more
amazing was Mountain Monitor. Here was the opportunity to call up the
radio station and publicly grill your mayor on air. I still shed a tear
for loosing what could have been the best radio ever. Can you imagine
if we still had Mountain monitor during the woodchip fiasco?
Times change, and in a move that is now a corporate standard,
Rogers decided
to trim the fat to make a better bottom line in Toronto. It happens all
to often, many local jobs (including mine) are now easily done by the
drones in Vancouver. But, I suppose that's life in this day and age. (A
pox on the foul bastard who decided technology is progress).
To their credit they were blatantly obvious about it, announcing proudly that "Your Sea to Sky Station" has become "Toady's' Best Music". Those nine words are depressingly telling.
Gone is the local station, now it's a proud Rogers cookie cutter station operating with Kiss FM, News 1130, XFM and Star FM in the valley.
But you still need people to push buttons and believe it or not, there are some fabulous people still employed part time in their Squamish office. Sure some of them live in Vancouver, but you should cut them some slack, they're just living the minimum wage dream that WKRP began those many years ago.
What can you do about it? Well I admire council and other concerned citizens going straight for the jugular/CRTC, the same way I admire anyone hitting a big corporation where it hurts. But if it's really ticking you off that badly, how about just turn it off and go play outside. After all, we are living in the outdoor recreation capital of Canada.
Now if you don't mind I'd like to add a small Daffodil.
A daffodil for the fresh grave dug for whoever
stole my friend's comic book collection. Not dusty comics in the garage,
we're talking, framed, on the bedroom wall
comics, from days when 20 cents could buy a dream. When that karma train
rolls into town, don't bother asking why your head is tied to the tracks.
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