Putrid Gainesville Radio Reeks

I like variety on my radio. But, unfortunately, my radio doesn't agree:

The one FM station I could get that had sports programming late at night just recently decided to abandon that format in favor of being just another loony bird right wing extremist talk show station around the clock. Making two stations of this type, right next to each other on the radio dial. Whoopee! All of the hate, derision, and conspiracy talk you care to listen to!

I used to be able to listen to an alternative rock station, but a year ago it decided to copy another mainstream/hard rock station, leaving those two right next to each other on the radio dial. Whoopee!

There used to be a station that played hits from the 70's, 80's, and 90's. But it recently decided to change its programming to today's Top Forty, just like another station--you guessed it-- right next to it on the radio dial. Whoopee!

Now we come to 89.1/WUFT Public Radio, the ONLY FM station that makes a concerted effort to offer diverse programming. It plays classical music, jazz, blues, new age, African music, 70's soul, Celtic music, news and analysis, interviews, local news, old time radio broadcasts, alternative political radio, summaries of the week in the Florida legislature, and The Prairie Home Companion Saturday evening show. And I'm leaving other stuff out, too. Naturally, it's THIS station that my increasingly despicable local newspaper The Gainesville Sun is scrutinizing as an ongoing debate topic in its editorial section.

I think it is sad that the public at large seems to feel that they can only hold Public Radio accountable for its programming. They seem to have bought into the notion promoted by the political right that commercial radio stations, although they are licensed to broadcast over the public airwaves, have little or no responsibility to offer diverse programming any more.

Recently, I discovered a few good independent/alternative musical acts on the Internet: Sufjan Stevens, Andrew Bird, Iron and Wine, Beirut, and Broken Social Scene, to name a few. They produce really good, high quality material. But I have never heard ANYTHING of theirs on my radio, and probably never will. To say that Gainesville radio is of poor quality is to make a gross understatement: it reeks!