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A lifetime
supply of American stations, including New Orleans' WWOZ,
is on tap at http://www.broadcast.
com.
Jersey
City, N.J.'s, WFMU, one of the most radical free-form stations
in the country, can be found at http://www.wfmu.org.
Alongside
traditional broadcasters, the proliferation of online-only
stations is leaving the FCC in the dust. The all-indie rock
http://www.spank
radio.com and the technophilic
http://
www.groovetech.com/ are two promising examples.
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It's a beautiful
morning in Vladivostok (I mean, probably--isn't the sun always
shining on the Czar's Eastern lands?). On the radio dials
of the city wedged so neatly between China, Korea, Siberia
and the sea, it's time for a wake-up call, and as Vladi's
citizens scrub sleep from their eyes, Radio VBC serves
it up.
First, there's manic Russian vaudeville music, a sort of
addled hurdy-gurdy powered by accordion and caterwauling
vocals. Then, a quick round of call-in action that would
be familiar to prize-hunting American FM-heads. Despite
three years' worth of college Russian that's rusting faster
than the Soviet Pacific Fleet, I can't quite make out what
lucky caller No. 7 is going to win--probably not tickets
to Summer Jam '99, that's for sure. After blazing through
the contest at blitz speed, the DJ unveils his trump card,
the secret weapon sure to hot-wire another day in the heart
of the Russian Far East:
"Riiiiicky Martin!"
The ubiquitous thump of the ex-Menudo icon's smash "Livin'
La Vida Loca" crackles through half a world of static and
out of my computer's tiny speakers. As the youth of Vladivostok
rock to the Latino beat, I point and click my way to the
other end of Eurasia, tuning in Munich, Germany's sausage-eating
heartland.
Last week at EJ's, I heard Portland band God Hates Computers
rip through a song called "You Can't Outrun the Radio."
The song is a scorching get-away epic, but after a week
of corralling broadcasts from four different continents,
I sort of feel like the radio can't run from me. I've heard
dulcet love songs from Argentina, hard techno madness from
Japan, loping jazz from New Orleans, skronky improv piano
from New Jersey. With mondo radio brought close at hand
by the superhighway, why ever endure tepid song selection,
over-wacky drive-time dorks or psychosis-inducing used-car
commercials again?
La vida loca--we're certainly living it now, brothers and
sisters. The Internet, ever faster and more inescapable,
has placed all manner of earthly delights within our reach.
For word addicts, it's the best of times and the worst of
times. The newfound ability to trip from Swedish sleaze
to snotty English sports journalism to the front pages of
South African newspapers in just a few seconds is a compelling
time-killing option. And now, improvements in technology
along with stations' head-long rush to get online have brought
the revolution to the radio. As it becomes easier to move
sound signal over the line, the AM/FM dials we rely on to
rock our rides look downright pathetic.
Virtual dial scanning is not yet an exact science. The
Net is a crowded non-place, bustling with day-trading housewives,
porn-surfing office drones and earnest students looking
for plagiarism-ready term papers. Even with a reasonably
fast connection, a spry little iMac and the free version
of RealAudio's G2 player, my week-long tour of world radio
suffered hazy sound quality, gritty electronic noise and
the occasional complete disconnect. All told, though, it
wasn't much worse than trying to land a clear AM signal
on the outskirts of town, and I got a lot more for my efforts
than golden oldies.
WWOZ
broadcasts molasses jazz from the town the station's DJ
calls "the city where it's so very pleasant to be, the Big
Easy of New Orleans." NovaPlanet,
the online home of 101.5 FM Paris, is too cool for school
with its Eurodisco, old Jamaican rock-steady and other Frenchy
strangeness. The Blade Runner-esque vibe of Moscow,
most surreal of cities, comes through loud and clear on
Silver
Rain and Echo
of Moscow.
From Japan, Zip
FM's site announces, "We deliver youthful and active
soundwaves 24 hours a day!" while J-Wave brags up
"the best music on the planet." (Unfortunately, neither
statement seems true.) I don't know if I feel very good
about it, but Rádio
Cidade reveals that the listeners of Fortaleza,
Brazil are deep into the Crash Test Dummies. Buenos
Aires' Radio
Mitre mixes ancient American jazz with Argentina's
native tangos for a hot-blooded cocktail. Late one night,
the talking heads of Ireland's national station, RTE,
pondered an eternal question: Why do the Irish love beer
so well? No decision was reached. For those who, for some
reason, want to stick closer to home, Portland stations
like KXL, KGON, KNRK and KMHD are all available
online.
Of course, Y2K may send us back to growing potatoes in
our front yards, fighting with sticks and actually lining
up at the bank to get cash from a human teller. In the meantime,
though, it's a radio planet from Dublin to Durban. We should
enjoy it while it lasts.
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Willamette Week | originally
published August 25,
1999
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