• I Love Charlie

    Posted on November 27th, 2007 by and currently 8 commenting.

    First things first. I will go ahead and confess that I am one of the backwards luddites who has the nerve to still listen to the radio – not even the HD radio – just the plain old radio in my car. I know. I should be shunned.

    Anyway, a while ago… maybe as long as a year, maybe as little as 6 months… we got this great radio station in town. Part of the Greenstone Media Network, it was women’s talk radio. The hosts were intelligent, the topics were engaging… I loved this station.

    Of course, if you are astute, you’ll note the copious use of the past tense in the preceding paragraph. So there ya go. My great station that I had gotten oh-so-attached to disappeared. And one would assume that the replacement would be more inane, whiny, Top-40 schlock… probably with some shock jock DJ as the cherry on top.

    Well, one would be wrong.

    The station that has replaced my beloved WGVC is named Charlie. Charlie is partnering with a natural food store to give away a Prius. Charlie has no DJS and Charlie has no rhyme or reason. Charlie is random. The line that is repeated every few songs is quite simply, “We play everything.” And they do. Just on my lunch break, I heard Blues Traveler, something that might have been by Phil Collins, “Dancing Queen,” the theme from Cheers and a cover of Iko Iko. I love this station. I have heard songs I haven’t heard in decades – some had been deservedly absent, but it doesn’t matter. Even when a song I don’t know or don’t like comes on, I stay put, knowing that it’s only a couple minutes until there’s something else entirely. It’s not just the music I listen for, but for the non sequitur, (one might even call them socialist) playlists. All songs and all listeners get equal weight on Charlie.

    It seems almost unfair that we can just plug in some music-phile’s iPod, get some call letters and call it a radio station, but really… who needs another obnoxious DJ? Simple, straightforward… with sister stations in Portland, OR and Milwaukee, WI, and cousin stations in still other markets… could this possibly be a successful embodiment of all things to all people? {shrug} I guess time will tell. In the meanwhile, you can keep your XM. I’m stickin’ with Charlie.

  • http://brainsonfire.com Alison

    I discovered this station when the battery in my truck died. Apparently it wiped out my radio settings and I had to start over. If I don’t listen to Charlie I plug in my ipod. I just hope they don’t start doing the all Christmas music thing like everyone else in town.

  • http://www.whatsthediff.com Christy

    We have one of the sister stations in Detroit, but it’s called, “Doug.” I wonder if the name is different in each market… Hm.

    Well, enjoy. I shudder at lots that Doug plays, so I’m still enjoying my XM. Except when I have to find a new station because I got sick of Lucy.

  • Jenny

    so far i’ve heard of steve radio in columbia and chuck fm in charleston.

  • ali

    This is quite interesting. It seems maybe there is an underground revival of radio going on. One with stations that “get it.”

    Three years ago I had a favorite station. They played what you normally wouldn’t hear on the radio and I loved it. One day, out of the clear blue, they switched formats and started playing rap.

    Three weeks ago, they switched back to the old format, but even better. They play just 3 commercials every 20 minutes or so and there are no DJs at all. Just plain old gorgeous music. I cannot explain here just how much better this has made my commute into and out of work. I smile knowing I’m going to be riding home listening to music and not hearing the babble of DJs.

    I used to listen to CDs exclusively in my car. Now, I hardly ever put one in.

    I live in Massachusetts, and it is a Connecticut station that is making my day every day.

    I hope this quiet radio revolution continues and grows in more places every day.

  • Alphonse

    The ‘shuffle’ format for Over-The-Air radio stations is not only a sweeping change but is sweeping the nation. A total backlash to the stiff programmed genre stations. Not sure what caused it but I have a hunch it was the internet, sat-radio and the want for something different then what has been on the airwaves for decades. You can see the roots of this revolution here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_FM

  • http://blog.marinedepot.com jeffry r. johnston

    Alphonse mentioned Jack FM in his comment. I live in SoCal and listen to “Jack” who has the motto, “Playing what we want.” I’ve never heard a DJ, just the occasional soundbyte from a listener stating how much they loooooooove Jack. It’s a good station with a large, varied playlist. I can’t think of a time I’ve ever heard the same song twice within an hour. I also dig how they play songs from every era.

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