A lost form of communication

Back in the early 80s there was a static station on our newly installed cable television, it was station 6, no one ever watched it, they ran times new roman ads for things like the Knights of Columbus, the schools, the DARE program. It was an early electronic community bulletin board of sorts. They played music in the background, people could call in for requests and dedications. And I did. Oh boy I did. I remember calling them and asking them to play Material Girl over and over. There were also repeated requests/demands for U2 and Duran Duran. I absolutely remember getting pissed when the line was busy.

I also remember once a boy who liked me got thru and dedicated Shooting Star by Bad Company to me. I swooned. I can still think back to that tingly OMH HE LIKES ME, ME! OMG.

Remember when people put songs in the background to the recorded message on an answering machine? A friend of mine had It Takes Two by Kris Kross on his for the LONGEST time.

I remember loves and mistakes of my unwritten past, laying next to them listening to David Allan Boucher from Mix 106.7, those late night love song ballards. Those songs spoke everything we were longing to say to each other and multidudes more. The anticipation of the next song was something fun to look forward to. Hot sweaty summer nights on a deck and nothing but the music and sounds of sweet words and soft lullabies. Listening to the dedications, the DJ's side note editorials about life and love in that deep sexy Barry White voice that was made for radio.

I don't listen to the radio much anymore. I lost my love with radio when I moved to SD, there was one morning talk show I liked and little else. For so long it's my ipod or sirius. The island has some pretty decent stations; so far they are a million times better than anything I heard in SD. I wonder if there is something still live on air here that will bring me back to that time? When a simple song dedication was the clearest and easiest way to send a message with a song. What a lost and lovely art.