Curveball SITE of the WEEK: kcrw.com

click on the screenshot to vist kcrw.com

Is KCRW-FM in Santa Monica the world's coolest radio station? Hey, I don't know, ask someone who's cool. However, I have yet to encounter a better single source of great audio programming for my PC and my portable mp3 player. Actually, kcrw.com hosts three great audio streams. One is all music, the other is all news, and the third is a live stream of KCRW's local FM programming.

KCRW is a public radio station, but unlike most public radio stations, the musical programming that KCRW specializes in is not jazz, not classical, but popular music. Most of the music falls under what may be called "adult alternative", although as the name of the most popular music show, "Morning Becomes Eclectic" suggests, the "hand-picked" musical selections can come from anywhere on the popular music map. Once I heard a duet of Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer (of the Clash) singing a Bob Marley Song. How's that for eclectic?

I'm 48 years old. I grew up listening to what is now depressingly called "Classic Rock", but I find listening to the same music from thirty years ago to be generally boring and rather sad, the contemporary stuff that's available on the radio is even more so, and unlike when i was sixteen and an avid reader of Zoo World, I've gotten out of touch with the music scene. Hell, I don't even know what "Emo" means. KCRW is a godsend for me. It turns out that there's a lot of smart, cool, grown-up music being created by and for people like me, even if we're no longer the favored advertising demographic, and KCRW sorts through it. The music is fresh and lively, but not intense, just perfect for the kind of growing up that I intend to do.

There's also a fine stable of locally produced cultural and current affairs programs, most of which are which are available for download as podcasts. One of my favorites is Left, Right, and Center", a political discussion program that's sort of like the McLaughlin group without all that ego, and with a more balanced, less conservative-weighted approach... plus Arianna Huffington! My all-time favorite is Le Show, a weekly hour of news, music, and satire from Harry Shearer. One of Shearer's specialties is "News from outside the bubble"... stories that the US corporate media is neglecting that are being picked up by rest of the world. You might be surprised!