Radio love affair

There is something special about listening to the radio. On days when you just want to drive to music, the commercials and deejay banters can be very annoying. Not to mention the alternative tastes of some deejays, who play music that I can barely stand for 10 seconds. Which is why the CD players in the car are one of my favourite and most important gadgets in life- they let me listen to the music I want to when I’m driving.

I also make it a personal priority to regularly change the CDs in the car player. To recycle the 10 CDs Player 2 can hold, and make sure that all my CDs get their fair share of play time. To carefully alternate secular and Christian albums, so that a track that might fit my mood at that time would just be one album a way. And when I got new CDs, to ensure that they remain in the car until every single track gets their debut in the priority CD Player 1.

So for a very long time, radio has just been about 93.8 and BBC for me- business news, world news, traffic news, sports news, etc. The teenage me would have never thought there would be such a day. When dad and mum were driving me around then, this backseat passenger would always insist on switching to radio channels whenever a deejay started talking. Oh and she would kick a tantrum if she had to, when dad and mum wanted to listen to the latest news on 95.8.
Back to what I was saying… So radio= news and talk talk talk for me now. When I want music, I just switch to the CD player.

But over the long weekend, I was made to fall in love with music on the radio all over again. Class 95’s Music Marathon the culprit, and I the helpless victim. 95 minutes worth of non-stop music was playing.

“Oh I haven heard this song for so long,” commented Arthur, and he turned up the volume.
“This is a great song!” Two songs later, and it was very affirming to know that we stayed on the right frequency.
“Hmm.. this sounds like Britney Spears.” “No, her voice is higher. I think its Lady Gaga.” “Maybe it is.” And a conversation about Britney, and how quickly she “cleaned up” followed.

The radio brings you surprises- I was reminded after the drive.
It is able to make you break into a bright smile when you like the song that is being played.
It introduces you to songs that you would otherwise have not heard before. Sometimes you fall in love with them, and you try hard to remember a phrase and you-tube it later.
It makes you frown when the deejay did not repeat the song title again!
When the deejay mentions that a song you like is coming up, you would stay on, bear with the 1001 commercials, and feel that satisfaction come over you when you survived the agony of waiting for that song….
And oh… the nostalgia it stirs up when it reminds you of your history. Music Marathon kept me company when I was on my study marathons during the school days.

The radio makes me smile. It makes me feel a myriad of emotions that I can never engage with the CD player. Because on the CD Player, I know exactly what the next track is coming up. And because I know exactly what I am going to get, and I make special plans to ensure that I get what I want to listen to… It just brings me the satisfaction of getting what I want, and there is no additional kick of being surprised.

It does not take very much psycho-analyzing to see that perhaps “I like surprises” is the logical conclusion here for this radio love affair. Though I must say- that is not entirely true all the time… But that is for another day. Meanwhile, let me just relish the romance of the radio.

“When I was young I listened to the radio, playing all my favourite songs.. When they played I sing a long it made me smile…”