Open Air!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

It’s been a while since I enjoyed listening to the radio. I’ll admit I’ve been known to turn it up for Taylor Swift, Usher, Adele or Foster the People, but that only goes so far. There’s no sense of discovery or excitement, mostly cheap thrills and tolerance (slight exception for Adele). But in the last couple days that changed.

Riding around Denver with my friend Jeff, I discovered CPR’s Open Air on 1340am. A radio station like this in America is nothing new but let me tell you, living in Denver this is a breath of fresh air! It reminds me of many days driving around Los Angeles listening to KCRW and waiting in anticipation for the song to end so the DJ would tell me who it was, or excitedly aiming my Shazam app at the speaker every other song that caught my ear. This is what radio should be and I feel like this is what radio used to be before corporate America took over.

This would be an appropriate time to note that the corporate age of American radio has done a lot for my career as a musician, it has helped me and my band reach a lot of people. But it hasn’t inspired me like Open Air has lately.

Go listen to Open Air and support Public Radio!