Exile on Manning Street: Lessons learned from buzz 102.5
Jack Hittinger
Issue date: 11/29/07 Section: Arts
A true incident from last week: I get in my car at 7 p.m. The radio is on, and Quiet Riot's "Cum on Feel the Noize" blasts through my speakers.
"Alright," I think to myself. "I can rock to this."
I'm going to the gas station for coffee and cigarettes. By the time I pull into the PS Mart in the fog, Quiet Riot has ended and suddenly I hear the gentle mandolin strumming of "Losing My Religion."
I double take and swear at the radio.
Where else but Hillsdale, Mich., would you hear those two songs played on the same station, much less back-to-back?
My love for BUZZ 102.5 ("Hudson/ Hillsdale's Home of Classic Rock!") knows no bounds. This radio station has single-handedly caused me to stop listening to any of the thirty-some cassettes I own - and I own some damn good ones, including "License to Ill" and "Appetite for Destruction."
I even find myself listening to it in the background in my apartment, absent-mindedly turning the radio on just to hear what song they played after I got out of my car. What is it about that station that has me hooked?
Maybe it's the station's totally unnecessary names for different days of the week or months of the year.
Who can pass up "ZEPP-tember," "ROCK-tober" (let it be known that WBZV used said phrase way before the Colorado Rockies got good), or, my favorite, the "Friday Floyd Fix."
Before I came to Hillsdale, I fantasized about the college having a cool little college radio station where DJs would play eccentric and totally pretentious music that I would have savored - some obscure instrumental Sonic Youth B-sides perhaps?
Although my dreams were quickly shattered upon arrival, I've found the exact opposite kind of that mentality with 102.5. Sure, they play some dumb hair metal and prog rock stuff - I swear, if I have to hear Bon Jovi's "Bad Medicine" one more time, I'll probably shoot my radio.
But every once in a while, I'll find myself unexpectedly pleased. Who would have thought that they'd have a nightly program focusing on obscure '60s psych rock bands (called "Frank's Psychedelic Supper")? Or that enough people in this area are familiar enough with the Talking Heads that I happen to hear "Life During Wartime" (a live version at that) about once a week?
Even some of the crap they play can hit the spot. As much as I hate to admit it, sometimes I just need to hear Van Halen and AC/DC - who knew that I actually might kinda-sorta like some of this stuff?
I've been known, on various occasions, to enjoy a little Bon Scott in the morning, sitting in the car before German class listening to "Highway To Hell."
And if that's followed by R.E.M. and the Smashing Pumpkins, so much the better.
But I still draw the line at songs that take the "doctor" metaphor too far. So no Bon Jovi. Ever. Or Rush, but that's for "personal reasons."
Hillsdale College Collegian 2007
"Alright," I think to myself. "I can rock to this."
I'm going to the gas station for coffee and cigarettes. By the time I pull into the PS Mart in the fog, Quiet Riot has ended and suddenly I hear the gentle mandolin strumming of "Losing My Religion."
I double take and swear at the radio.
Where else but Hillsdale, Mich., would you hear those two songs played on the same station, much less back-to-back?
My love for BUZZ 102.5 ("Hudson/ Hillsdale's Home of Classic Rock!") knows no bounds. This radio station has single-handedly caused me to stop listening to any of the thirty-some cassettes I own - and I own some damn good ones, including "License to Ill" and "Appetite for Destruction."
I even find myself listening to it in the background in my apartment, absent-mindedly turning the radio on just to hear what song they played after I got out of my car. What is it about that station that has me hooked?
Maybe it's the station's totally unnecessary names for different days of the week or months of the year.
Who can pass up "ZEPP-tember," "ROCK-tober" (let it be known that WBZV used said phrase way before the Colorado Rockies got good), or, my favorite, the "Friday Floyd Fix."
Before I came to Hillsdale, I fantasized about the college having a cool little college radio station where DJs would play eccentric and totally pretentious music that I would have savored - some obscure instrumental Sonic Youth B-sides perhaps?
Although my dreams were quickly shattered upon arrival, I've found the exact opposite kind of that mentality with 102.5. Sure, they play some dumb hair metal and prog rock stuff - I swear, if I have to hear Bon Jovi's "Bad Medicine" one more time, I'll probably shoot my radio.
But every once in a while, I'll find myself unexpectedly pleased. Who would have thought that they'd have a nightly program focusing on obscure '60s psych rock bands (called "Frank's Psychedelic Supper")? Or that enough people in this area are familiar enough with the Talking Heads that I happen to hear "Life During Wartime" (a live version at that) about once a week?
Even some of the crap they play can hit the spot. As much as I hate to admit it, sometimes I just need to hear Van Halen and AC/DC - who knew that I actually might kinda-sorta like some of this stuff?
I've been known, on various occasions, to enjoy a little Bon Scott in the morning, sitting in the car before German class listening to "Highway To Hell."
And if that's followed by R.E.M. and the Smashing Pumpkins, so much the better.
But I still draw the line at songs that take the "doctor" metaphor too far. So no Bon Jovi. Ever. Or Rush, but that's for "personal reasons."
Hillsdale College Collegian 2007
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