Vacation Robo-Post: That Other Box

I drive to work. I have satellite radio and an iPod. In the car, it's satellite. At home, it's the iPod, music on which I can play through our Tivos. I used to love radio back in the 70s. These days, except for the occasional NPR, I never turn one on. I even subscribe to several NPR podcasts and listen to them either at my computer or through the iPod. (That's the only way I can keep up with Click and Clack)

Unlike New York, we in Oklahoma don't believe in mass transit and we all drive our big gas guzzlers everywhere we go. We usually have our radios on while we are doing it.

In the morning, I listen to the same country music radio station. I mostly listen because one of the personalities is a very creative comic and is really funny. This station started up some years back being a classic country station and actually played older stuff that I considered "real" country. As time has gone by, they have fallen into the same top 40 mentallity as the other stations.

I do like talk radio, but all of the talk radio stations in town only have local news on during the morning drive time. I usually listen to talk radio on the way home from work. I'm not sure why the right wing is always complaining about the liberal MSM and say they are trying to offset the MSM. The only political talk I can pick up in OKC on the way home is Savage, Hannity and Ingraham. If there is an alternative, it does not exist in my town.

My biggest complaint with talk radio is that they do 5 minutes of news at the top and bottom of the hour. They also do 5 minutes or more of commercials at a quater after and a quarter of and then preach in between and there is actually very little talk that happens.

My wife has XM and loves it. The older I have gotten, the less music I'm REALLY into and I just can't see paying for it.

I have never even programmed the radio stations in my car because I never listen to the radio. I have an Aux input to plug in my ipod, or put all my music on MP3 cds. I listen to a lot of music, but the radio just does not play what I want to hear...

I do not listen to talk radio, never had any interest. I have 5 music stations programmed into my car radio, and often I will cycle through every one of them and not hear any music - just commercials or obnoxious people chattering loudly about nothing in particular. I have standards, I can't stand listening to commercials and idiots, so I usually cycle through them quickly and turn my Ipod on.

I have a 45 minute commute, but being the fanatic reader I am, I devote most of that time to books on CD (currently listening to Lies My Teacher Told Me, which is a fascinating and somewhat frightening look at the way our society teaches a distorted view of history). When I'm in between books, I occasionally pull out my iPod, but more often listen to the local college indie rock radio station, which is easily the best radio station I've ever known - of course, the fact that it has no commercials and virtually no talk is a huge plus.

For long car trips with my husband, we usually rely on his iPod, listening to both music and podcasts - NPR's are my favorite.

I have a 35-40 minute commute to work and I rarely listen to the radio. I tune in to one of the KISS stations at about 6:45a because they play a game that I enjoy and then it is back to the iPod. I was an avid NPR listener and I suppose that I still am - but now I download the podcasts of "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition" and listen to them on the iPod. I can never be sure what they are going to play on the radio and what I will have to explain to my 7-year-old. Example - Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girl" - perfectly fine summer song, but I really did not feel like explaining to idigress jr. what suicidal meant! I had to tell her not to spread this information to her friends - as her friend's parents may want to explain this to them at some other time!! UGH!!

Ipod, Ipod, Ipod!!! I used to listen to a radio talk show called The Phillips Phile down in Florida that was super but I live in Mass now and you can't get radio anywhere around here.

@Molly, don't believe everything "Lies My Teach Told Me," says. Like every other book in the "Everything you know is a Lie" it's mostly opinion based on choice facts. Also, don't blame the Teachers for what they teach as they generally are following scripts created by the major book publishers which like to sugarcoat history to reach a wider audience.

Mass Market History FTW! If you like that book though I would really recommend the book "What If's? of American History."

Sorry for my speech but as a future History, or possibly Elementary school, teacher I am concerned with the plight of the American teacher.

Thanks,
Karma

I am at my desk all day working in a small shared office. When I am alone, I listen to local NPR or catch up on podcasts of tech and talk radio that I cannot get locally.

Also pod cast Satellite Sisters daily (where I learned about this blog). Listen to it live on computer when I am alone in the office or just wait until later and transfer it to my iPod (Tivo for radio?)

I haven't listened to FM radio since I got Sirius to listen to Howard Stern. Radio stations are all owned by a few companies now, and they play the same boring music. Before getting Sirius, I tried the new Jack format. It is horrible.

The only AM radio I listen to is sports events.

@Karma - Don't worry, I know where you're coming from. I've taught HS English (and hope to return to it) so I understand the contraints created by textbooks and curriculum guides. Actually, in spite of the title, the book is much more critical of mainstream textbooks than actual teachers. I agree it's important to keep in mind that the author is making an argument, but his essential ideas - that the history we learn in high school is mainly from a white, Euro-centric perspective which sometimes discounts the accomplishments of other cultures while downplaying our own's darker moments - are certainly valid. And I'll add the "What Ifs?" book to my list - it sounds interesting.

@Molly, each culture likes to whitewash it's own history. You can even see it in the comments in the Mid-East and China blogs here at TIME.com. Some people want to completely omit slavery from our textooks. The Japanese don't like to talk about their invasion of China during World War 2 and Germany only gives a cursory look at it's own coverage of the Nazi party.

These events tend to encourage a shame about your own countries history and that's something people are not encouraged to examine in this, my country's the greatest thing since toilet paper, world.

Good luck getting back into teaching.

Alright, time to hijack this thread for AWESOME Lost casting news, courtesy of TV Guide's Michael Ausiello.

Lance Reddick, who plays (or perhaps more accurately, embodies) Lt. Cedric Daniels on HBO's awesome "The Wire", has been cast on Lost to play Arthur Stevens, some type of intense, dangerous corporate recruiter type (for Dharma? The evil people on Naomi's boat? Start discussing!).

Also, Ken Leung (who played the guy that beat up Uncle Junior in the nuthouse on Sopranos, and was a pretty fantastic actor in his own right) has been cast on the show in an unknown role.

So what does everyone think? Me? I'm thinking this is proof that Lost is amazing, taking some of the best actors out there (a la Michael Emerson) and adding them to their already stellar cast. Expect the quality of Lost to CONTINUE to ratchet up over its final three seasons.

(Seriously, who, like me, can't WAIT until this show comes back in late January-early February? Most anticipated season premiere of all time? I think so...)

Here in Europe, radio is alive and well, thanks to ... OK, I don't know why it's still strong here, actually. Vikings are probably involved.

My friends here get very involved in radio programs, particularly news and debate, and it's where the urban European elite get their 'high-end' news. The print media here is all tabloids, and the TV is all based on the CNN model ("let's just talk about the same story all day"), so radio's the only option for actual news.

As for me, I haven't listened to the radio in years. There's simply too much great stuff on the Internet (and now, my iPod) to pay much attention to what Chamillionaire is up to these days.

Living in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area, a lot a time is spent in my car. I live in a town with only fast food and no good shopping. I love our local AM news/talk station. For the noon hour we have Len Tillem, a lawyer from New York (originally, he still has the accent) who gives free legal advice, from 1-2 there's Dr. Dean Edell, who gives free medical advice. Unfortunately, we just lost our beloved Pete Wilson (not the former governor) who was a voice of reason in our land of stark division between left and right who would talk current events, local, national or world; interview authors, actors, and every Christmas season would have Mondrian the elf and Mrs. Claus take calls from young children. Pete died at 59 of complications from hip replacement surgery. One day he's on the air, the next he's gone.

Maybe it's different here, but everyone I know listens to KGO nearly every day.

Chaddog,
I read that the guy from the sopranos is supposed to be playing some sort of mathematician. can you say The Numbers?
Read that on TVGuide.com somewhere.

@blackirishpride,

The latest on Ken Leung (according to Michael Ausiello over on TV Guide) is that its unknown who he will be playing. Reports initially had him as a brilliant mathematician, but Ausiello's latest report indicated that the role might be top secret (a.k.a. only Cuse and Lindelhof know what he is playing, and they're not telling).

Still, if we get a mathematician, I think you're right - the Numbers get addressed in some way or fashion, to explain some of the strange things going on with the Island.

Lance Reddick's role, though, is even more interesting to me - is this a "flashback" character, who recruits people to the island? Does he play in the future? Is he on Naomi's boat with "new recruits" to repopulate (or perhaps, retake) the island?

(How I will last until Season 4 stars, I do not know...)