I do like to listen to the radio, but I don't frequently find opportunities to enjoy it. Which, in turn, contributes to my liking of the radio. Of all the complaints I've heard of radio, the most frequent one is repetition. The same songs, advertisements, and announcers driveling the same drool day in and out. Usually, the radio plays as people spend time working or driving where such repetition becomes bothersome. Thankfully, I haven't driven my car in over a year, nor have I punched a time card for a much longer time. This has allowed me to elude the radio-burnout that so many others have experienced.

This leads me to enjoy a rather odd phenomena of radio novelty. If I were to listen to a CD and one of my favorite songs began playing, I wouldn't think much of it. At the very same time, if I were to flip on the radio and that same favorite song were to begin playing, a strange sensation overcomes me. Where the song on the CD was inconsequential, when played on the radio, it now has significance. This doesn't make very much sense to me, nor do I find this to be a common quality among my friends. I try to explain it by using the fact that I enjoy connecting with people on a musical level. Knowing that others are swinging to the same sounds as I am gives a feeling of camaraderie.

For a while, I was very interested in the competitive promotions put on by radio stations. A few years ago, a prize was so enticing, I had to elevate my level of participation. The game was a scavenger hunt. The DJ had hidden a rock with Q-98 written on it for the listeners to find. Each day, the announcer proclaimed he was giving clues to the location of the rock. A few times, I had unraveled the clue and went to the various locations described. Each time, I found another, horribly vague, clue. After a couple weeks of nonsensical pursuit, a viewer did find the rock. It turned out to be miles and miles outside of town, hidden along a railroad track with countless other identical rocks. Comparing the clues I had deciphered to the actual location revealed no connection whatsoever. The only clues that actually lead to the plunder were the very last ones. All preceding clues were designed to merely string along the attention of the gullible listeners. This became apparent when considering the announcement of a clue was never at a specific time, despite the critical time-keeping nature of radio itself. The announcement was always advertised to be within some hour-long window.

To conclude, here's an example of something I'd expect to hear on the radio:

"You're in the middle of a 45 minute solid commercial-free rock-block that has been brought to you by the #1 station in Fargo-Moorehead, *short chime* KPBR 106.5 FM *short chime*, winner of the Raspberry Award for rocking out three years in a row."

In what universe is that NOT an advertisement in itself? I just spent the last 30 seconds hearing about your station for the purpose of gaining listeners advertising revenue. Just because it's the station's DJ that performs the interlude does not make it any less of an advertisement. A TRUE commercial-free solid-rock segment would not have interruptions, such as call-signs.