Music and Radio

Topic 1:
There’s only been one time I can think of that I censured someone listening to music. That would have been my son, Noah. Noah liked/likes to listen to some really great stuff, however, as a teen he started to listen to stuff with some interesting language in it. Now, this on it’s own doesn’t bother me; Noah happens to be the eldest of four kids. My younger three daughters loved to listen to what he was listening to. When going by his room one day and listening to some of the lyrics that was coming from his room I decided it was time to talk about what might be ok for him was not say good for his sisters that are ten to twelve years younger then he is. We compromised on the subject, while the girls were at home he could listen to whatever he wanted while wearing headphones. If the girls were gone I didn’t care if he listened to his music on his sound system. I felt pretty bad about having to put limits on when Noah could listen to music. In a lot of ways Noah was and is very sensitive to music and what’s good and what isn’t. I did feel pretty good about being able to compromise and come up with a solution that worked for both of us.

Favorite genre changes with my mood and quite frankly with my age. As a teen and young adult I liked the modern stuff that was on the radio, most of the time. My parents liked to listen to music, we always had music on, when you walked into the garage Dad was listening to rock, Mom liked oldies and musicals on TV. My Dad was in the military and because of that I was influenced by different cultures and music. Starting at about twenty-three to about twenty-five I really got tired of listening to the same stuff on the radio. I have to stay one genre that has stuck with me through my life has to be Celtic music. My great-grandmother would sing Irish-Gaelic to me as a baby, I blame her. Right now some of my favorites artists are Bad Wolves, John Lund, Alter Bridge, Lacey Strum and of course Jeff Johnson. So, basically one extreme to the other. I love variety and I’m very proud my children are the same way.

Topic 2:
1.I would love to say that the idea had merit and could be done. However, in the Albany/Corvallis area I have my doubts. I don’t get the feeling the younger generation would support this type of endeavor, nor do I think there’s a large enough base to support a student radio station. The population is to diverse and very spread out.
2.I feel like the area that isn’t being served is the farming community, I had to learn by accident about the farmer’s market the school puts on during the growing season, why is that? A helpful program would be on growing and how to eat certain vegetables.  Maybe when to plant, what to plant and what to watch for in relation to bugs and the weather. Helpful hints would be nice too. Another program that would be interesting is to air some of the guest speakers that come to the school, this would be helpful for the students that live to far away to participate or for students that work and can’t make it. Airing the lectures from guest speakers from OSU would be really nice too. I know these ideas are a throw back to when radio was first invented, but gosh it would be great to have some of this information on the radio.
3. I gave this a lot of thought, why couldn’t the radio station do like most other radio stations of it’s kind and have sponsors and seasonal fund raising? I know that the UofO radio station fund raises seasonally. Which means they have listener supported fund raising three to four times a year.  Say if a person gives $5.00 a month of a flat $60.00 they’d receive a pen with the school colors, $20.00 a month or a flat $240.00 they’d receive a t-shirt; this would do a few things bring in money and do some advertising at the same time. The sponsors name or logo could be put on the t-shirts and mentioned on the air and online. Another idea that a radio station does that I like is have a section online where you can vote on songs that the station plays that you like so you can hear it again or hear the band again. This helps up and coming artists and puts the music in the hands of the listeners, which, might bring listeners back to hear the content. These could be future contributors.