WFMUish.

ish, but really not. More "adult alternative" without the mandated playlist.

I listen to public radio

WXPN IS public radio. Ditto KCRW and KEXP (nee KCMU).

OK. Did I not already ask this question? What kind of music do those stations generally play? What does "adult alternative" mean?

I think it means "the least offensive tracks from college radio circa 1989."

I think it means the soundtrack from Garden State.

Bwah!

Tom wins!

Here's a link for jazzbos: Forty lives in the bebop business: mental health in a group of eminent jazz musicians, GEOFFREY I. WILLS, PhD.

Are you people listening to Nellie McKay? She's so kickass.

She's another artist I missed the boat on, I'm afraid -- her CD did nothing for me. I mean, I admire the cleverness of her lyrics, but that doesn't make me want to listen to her.

(I think she's just not noisy enough for me.)

I think it means the soundtrack from Garden State.

Nah, that would be too edgy for them. More like the soundtrack to Singles.

And I think I'm one of the only ones here who listens to music on the radio, because (as I have said before) I have the attention span of a chipmunk and get easily bored by NPR, and am too lazy to make a different mix CD every week.

What does "adult alternative" mean?

Wikipedia comes through! [link]

Adult album alternative (also Adult Alternative, AAA or Triple-A) is a radio format which has a broader, more diverse playlist than most formats and tends to appeal more to adults than to teenagers. Less played tracks are also common. Musical selection tends to be on the fringe of mainstream popular music and rock music as well as many other music genres such as alternative rock, alternative country, jazz, folk music, world music and blues. The musical selections tend to shy away from hard rock and rap music.

So, it's music for the 25-49 white yuppie crowd. Lots of singer-songwriter and vocal types in the mix, so Ani and Norah dance in harmony. You can see why Nellie McKay would fit well on a station like this and the Fiery Furnaces wouldn't.

The first successful station with this format was KBCO in Boulder, and KFOG in San Fran is built on the KBCO template. Unfortunately, KBCO was gobbled up by ClearChannel a number of years ago (it originally was a local operation) and quickly descended into a self-parody of white yuppie music, pushing some really bad sincere-white-guy-with-guitar crap.

WXPN is different from KBCO in that it remains a public station and has a pretty diverse playlist (though light-years from WFMU's eccentricities, much less KEXP's breadth). It still skews older -- average listener, IIRC, is 40.

Just a pop in to squee over two things:

1. U2 will be on Conan O'Brien Thursday night ... for the FULL HOUR!

2. Monday night, I will be in New York City. At Madison Square Garden. Seeing U2!!!

:does happy dance until feet fall off:

The Clash to reunite with the Rancid lead singer standing in for Joe Strummer?

NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!