Thin Mint Flit Down Memory Lane

Long before KBOO has felt like and became a wonderful second family to me, I was living between Boulder and Denver, Colorado, growing up listening to a lot of Clear-Channel corporate radio, because, after all, we don't get community radio up and down the foothills there. The closest thing you would get to eclectic radio was Radio 1190, the University of Colorado in Boulder's official college station:

http://www.radio1190.org/

Sadly, college radio just doesn't have strong frequencies, they only reach a limited audience in circumference closest to the university. It's a shame too because they truly have much killer programming, especially "Testosterone Detox", "Parallel 5ths" and "The Acid Lounge" which influence me to this day.

Listening to corporate radio certainly wasn't all bad, however. Personally, I admit every now and then I always love to keep up with the Top 40 charts because I've always recognized and believed that many of the artists that have become the staples and pillars of each radio format, such as matchbox twenty and Sarah McLachlan, never meant to become corporate triggers; they just wanted to make the music they love, and many still love doing it.

One thing I do wish is, while the deregulation trend of our media must be reversed which homogenizes our musical cornucopia as it is, is that everyone could make the effort to become more adventurous in broadening their musical horizons, develop that wanderlust in walking to Timbuktunes and picking up a random CD without the fear of listening to it to assume disappointment. I always love picking up each new matchbox twenty and Shakira record because I grew up loving them and they are artists of sentimental value to me deep in my heart, but I also balance my selection with some of the most "eclectic", undiscovered gems, jazz and power pop my two favorite genres.

But long before I learned of the dark side to corporate radio growing up, before I even heard of Clear Channel (which now owns a majority of the stations in the Denver/Boulder market) I enjoyed listening to a couple stations in general, which still resonate in my heart today.

As I was going through high school at Denver Academy, I enjoyed being in a carpool with Bryce, Andrew and Cindy, all fellow DA students who were going through middle school at the time. We always loved listening to Mix 100 FM, which plays much of your typical Hot Adult Contemporary hits and 80's Pop favorites, but we enjoyed tuning in most of all because of Dom and Jane, who have a long-living weekly radio show from 5:30-9:30 every morning. You can find the official web-site of the show here:

http://www.domandjane.com/



They also have a blog here:

http://domandjane.typepad.com/

Me and the carpool coterie always loved working together to figure out the Mind Bender at 7:50 A.M every morning before we got to school in the 45-minute drive from Arvada down to Denver. They always give all these random questions where if you answer correctly, you win a random prize (tickets, CD's, food certificates, etc.). Ever so often, it could take a half-hour or longer for a correct answer to come through, and every five-to-ten minutes they would give away a clue to the listener. Some of the Mind Benders would include the following! (giggles)

*************************

1: 35% of men say this has not changed since they were a kid...
Answer: Their favorite brand of cereal

2: The FBI will spend half a million dollars this year on this...
Answer: Sunglasses

3: 78% of us sing in the car, 48% of us sing in the shower, 13% of us sing here...
Answer: In The Elevator

4: A survey found this to be the #1 pet peeve of people regarding hotel showers...
Answer: Flimsy shower curtains that blow in and stick to your body

5: 61% of women say they have stolen one of these...
Answer: A boyfriend's shirt

6: When the divorce rate goes up, sales of these go up as well...
Answer: Toys

7: The average 4 year old will do this 137 times a day...
Answer: Ask a question

8: The United States has 5% of the world's population, but 70% of the world's _____?
Answer: Lawyers

9: Experts say that to do this properly, you need 2 1/2 inches of water...
Answer: Fill a Bird Bath

10: An experiment has proven that one of these is 68% air...
Answer: A Twinkie

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(giggles) I'm part of the elevator singing minority and proud of it! I wonder what percentage of the American public whistles underwater? It must be the #1 guilty pleasure! LOL!

Good times, great oldies indeed! (does flashback foxtrot) Boys Against The Girls was entertaining too. It's a silly little questionaire game show where a male and female listener call in and challenge each other in answering questions and the one with the most points wins in the match-up, and both masculine and feminine-hinted questions are equally distributed to both contestants. I proudly admit most of the time I always cheered on the girls, yay! :)

http://www.kbco.com/main.html

The other station I enjoyed listening to was KBCO (one letter off from KBOO, LOL!), which has played world class rock and adult alternative for nearly 40 years (unfortunately kowtowing to Clear Channel in recent years). Bret Saunders, a.k.a the Sonic Garbologist, y.a.k.a The Sage of World Class Rock, still resonates as one of the best DJ's I've ever heard to this day, with an encyclopedic knowledge of rock and roll, liberal philosophies and sarcastic charm.



Every Wednesday morning I always loved tuning in to The Sage Rules beginning at 7 A.M, where callers make an attempt to ask Bret a musical trivia question (some of his rules include no Jimmy Buffett questions, two-part questions, "I know someone in the band" questions, concert date and venue questions, Journey questions, WB-network related show questions, etc.) and if Bret cannot successfully answer the question and the question follows the guidelines, then the caller wins a great prize! :) Ever so often Bret always prevails, but it is entertaining hearing the occasional day where he is stumped multiple times and then the soundbyte, "You have beaten the Sage of World Class Rock........damn you!" comes on, LOL!

There were many good times listening to radio back in Colorado that will always feel like home in my heart. But KBOO infinitely feels more like family to me and I love soaking up all the unique music you don't hear anywhere else there. KBOO has something that a vast majority of other stations do not have, an all-volunteer family, which out of it gives the station a personality, an appeal unlike any other. We truly are all of the same heart, we are all siblings in spirit, and if you came down to KBOO to visit yourself, you could see exactly what I mean in that here, everyone treates each other like family, we are like one big second family small business, a family radio small business, giving you not just some of the most eclectic music out there like "The Don Manning Show", "Tiki Cha Cha Club" and "Good Times With Reggae Bob", but also spoken arts programming ("The Talking Earth"), radio theatre ("The Ubu Hour") and original public affairs broadcasts produced entirely by KBOO family members, all independent of corporate sloganing. This is as organic as radio can possibly get.

I truly belong to KBOO and am proud of it. I have nothing against the personalities whatsoever that represent the stations governed by Clear Channel and other behemoths and do enjoy skipping the dial every now and then to keep up with the pop culture and music I grew up listening to. When me and my sisters are playing board games, we usually like to go back and forth between KBOO and The Buzz 105.1. I do listen to The Buzz every now and then because again, though I desire and encourage everyone to develop more of a musical wanderlust outside the Top 40 circle, the fact is it would be most unlikely to have a deep conversation with someone over Dharma Wheel. I absolutely believe there's a positive side behind Top 40 and all the hits it continues to make. These are the hits that define our popular culture, our youth love music and love talking about it, and in knowing this music, whether you're an enthusiastic fan or not, you can develop kinships and relate to one another in hearing a little of it.

But my sisters always do admit when I turn back to KBOO that they love the station for the people, the personalities. And THAT'S exactly what magnetizes me back to the little blue building behind the Juniper Hotel at 8th and Burnside and purely seduces me into spending hours and hours with the other 500 friendly folks who make the station the spirit of the City of Roses, yay! (does KBOO happy dance)

Hey, how about I close this post with a Mind Bender treat for y'all! Please post your answers in the Comments Box, yay! :) (giggles) OK, here we go:

Americans eat enough of this every year to fill the Grand Canyon...



:) Yay, have fun, lil' bubblegum beagles! :)

Love,
Noah Eaton
(Mistletoe Angel)
(Emmnauel Endorphin)