Well, crap

As I was driving home from work today, I did my usual run through of all my programmed radio stations. I got to one that calls itself a "quality" rock station, Boulevard 99.7. It's fairly new. I wasn't immediately sold on it, but it's been growing on me in recent weeks. I'm still mourning the loss of "world class rock" when The Planet 97.3 went off the air (the best radio station ever; it was basically my cd collection), so perhaps I wasn't fair to the Boulevard when it first launched. There's certainly a dearth of decent radio stations on the basic airwaves, so I should just take whatever good stuff I can get. This morning, I heard Paul Simon among others. Tonight, though, when I pushed button 6, I got some pop ballad with hip-hop undertones. That's fine if you like it, but it is so not my cup of tea. I did a double-take. In fact, I'm pretty sure I did the confused-dog-head-cock thing. I checked the button number. I pushed it again, just to make sure. Still the icky ballad.

That's when that feeling of dread takes over. Format Change. Are there any two more feared words in the radio world? I listened to the rest of the song, just so I could be sure. Immediately after the song ended, I heard confirmation. "You're listening to the new Kiss FM." Ugh. Of all the radio chains out there, Kiss was the one I was happiest not to have around here. Then it got worse. "With Kit Craddick in the morning and Ryan Seacrest in the afternoons."

Guess Kansas City doesn't need any more quality rock. Just awful morning shows and mindless pop for us.