Station to station...

When I was a kid growing up in the Bay Area, the radio was great. We had real DeeJays with real personalities who played good music because it was good and not because corporate handed them a playlist.

The station of choice for us during our High School years was KQAK (the quake). They were the first station to really embrace the Punk and New Wave format in the city and we absolutely loved them for it. For weird kids like us, it was like having an audio clubhouse that we could go to and revel in our own weirdness. It was comforting to know that there were other weirdos out there and that, maybe, everything was going to be alright. Of course, as it always goes, the Quake was bought out and changed formats at the end of our senior year. Kind of fitting really, but it was a sad transition for us to make. The last night the station was on the air we all sat around and listened as they played two hours of station Ids that rock stars had done during their studio appearances on the station. ”This is Peter Gabriel and you’re listening to the Quake”, “This is Joe Strummer and you’re tuned to K-Q-A-K, the Quake!”, “This is Elvis Costello and You’ve been Quaked.”, etc, etc. It was like standing on the sidewalk and watching your home being demolished by a wrecking ball. Some people even cried. O.k., we all did. That station was the soundtrack of our high school experience. Now it was gone. And with it, a little bit of our youth.