My favorite radio station is gone. Or, at least, it kind of is. I'm not very happy.

Not that I was that huge of a die-hard, never switch away listener, but KSJO is my favorite station. Basically, any station that plays Rush's "Working Man" on a regular basis is okay in my book. Yeah, they had a tendency to kill certain songs by overplaying them and most of their DJ's are complete, total unfunny morons, but they were still a good station. Unlike most stations, they didn't have that set of a niche. They basically played anything that rawked and I liked the fact they wouldn't be afraid to follow up a Zepp tune with a Korn tune. Not that I'm that down with Korn, but I just kind of appreciate that the station would play some old skool hard-rock along with the new kids. Not many stations have the guts to actually try and mix it up like that. They helped me get in touch with my inner headbanger and for that, I give it my props.

But now it's kinda gone. See, they're a San Jose station and their signal originates from there. For awhile, they had a signal up here, at 92.7, which made it easy to listen to, but no longer. I went for a walk last Saturday, put my walkman on, tuned into KSJO and got……

…..techno.

Yep. Instead of getting some Van Halen or some Judas Priest I got the oh so familiar boom-ts-boom-ts-boom of techno. Which, if you're expecting Van Halen or something rockin', is probably the last, worst thing you'd want to hear. It's like opening up your Hanukah presents, hoping to get a video game only to discover the only thing you got is underwear. And not just underwear, but like colored grundel's or underoo's or something totally lame and annoying and something that definitely doesn't rawk.

For whatever reason (I'm not sure of what went down), KSJO had to give up their 92.7 beam and give it to another station. All some sort of federal regulation or something like that, which surprises me because I thought all the radio people had long ago bought off every politician. Or, they just decided that they wanted to start a techno station at 92.7 and tone down KSJO. They, of course, being the one of two companies that owns every radio station in the country. I never understand why they change formats all the time considering they own all the stations. It's like having a Rotissierrie League all by yourself and trading players between one team and the other. But that's besides the point.

Now, I can barely, barely get KSJO. Sometimes it comes in clearly, sometimes not at all. Even more annoying, sometimes it comes in, but the signal gets all combined with the techno station so I'll be listening to a few seconds of like "War Pigs" and all of a sudden, I'd hear the techno beats overlayed on top of it. Can you say ick?

So now what do I do? What can I listen to while taking my walks or doing data entry eight hours a day? What am I stuck with?

Here in SF I have to now choose between-

1)The Bone "classic rock that rocks"- The Bone occasionally plays some great stuff and even throws down an occasional song that I haven't heard in a long, long time and kind of enjoy. On the other hand, any station that still thinks a triple-shot of Styx is still the coolest thing in the world has problems. Besides, I don't fit into it's main target audience- people who are currently wearing, or at some point in their lives worn, a mullet.

2)Live 105, the Modern Rock Station- Live 105's much better than it was a year ago in that it's song list has gone from ten songs to fifteen, but most of the stuff they play mainly consists of bands that everyone in the entire world, including probably the band themselves, knows are destined for either VH1's "Best of One Hit Wonders" or "Where Are they Now?" shows. And, yes, Nickleback, Hoobastank, Puddle of Mudd, the Calling I'm looking at you.

3)KFOG, World Class Rock n'Roll (whatever that is)- I want to like KFOG. They do have the widest selection of songs they play and the most eclectic. Plus, I'm over 30 and I'm supposed to have mellowed out and started to listening to them instead of listening to music geared for 18 year olds. The station, however, puts me to sleep within a few minutes. Memo to KFOG Radio Programmers- white boy blues, never good. Bluesy rockers haven't been interesting since Clapton sobered up.

4)Alice, the Women's Station- Like a hipper KFOG, but as I'm not someone who cranks Alanis Morrissette tunes and sings out loud to them, getting down with the ya-ya sisterhood of it all, the station's not realy for me. Besides, is Jewel really all that or is it just because she's got huge breasts?

5)KUSF, the College Radio Station- I should also listen to them. You can't get anymore eclectic than College Radio. Plus, they're not owned by evil corporate entity. Unfortunately, the songs they play are either way cool or way bad and it's a total crapshoot as to whether or not it'll one or the other. I've long since passed the point in my life where people's record collections really impress me.

Which means, of course, that the obvious answer, is to download more tunes off the net, get a job and buy an iPod.