Dr. Know

What's the best FM frequency to use for those gizmos that broadcast your iPod music through your car radio? —Me, last week

Y'know, as I write this, some old guy is winning a Nobel Prize for bringing the first test-tube baby, little Louise Brown, into the world, thus prompting the ripped-from-the-headlines Elton John smash "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter (Even Though There's Something Wrong With Your Vagina)."

Me, I just wanted to use this column to find a consensus answer to the question above. I thought I'd set my sights pretty low.

Not low enough, it seems. Out of nine responses to last week's request, three nominated three different frequencies, three said (more or less) "those gizmos suck," two wanted to know why lower Belmont was suddenly lousy with goats, and one complained that people listen to too much music anyway. Andrew Kohut, I feel your pain.

Technically, this all means that the answer really should be "those gizmos suck." But that's not very satisfying. Luckily, my day job (international arms trader/male model) involves driving all over greater Portland, so I was able to test the nominees.

Observations: 1) They all work great when you're driving in circles somewhere outside of Estacada. 2) None of them work coming over Sylvan hill. Could be the radio/TV towers 40 feet away. 3) 88.7 works, but not that well. 4) 93.7 is a Jesus station, wiseguy. 5) 99.1 is pretty good. 6) 102.3, which no one nominated, is also pretty good.

A bust? Not entirely—assuming good faith (always iffy), each frequency was tested by me and one other person. Only 99.1 got good results from both, so I'm declaring it the winner.

Now—though God knows I hesitate to ask—does anybody know what's up with these damned goats?

WWeek 2015

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