New Order

So, contrary to what you learned in arithmetic... 97.1 > 102.7

FM, that is.

I am, of course, talking about the state of the terrestrial radio waves in Los Angeles.

In the wake of Indie 103.1's tragic demise and somewhat comforting online reincarnation, there's been a great deal of flux in the programming of the remaining stations.

Star 98.7 now plays bands signed by labels out of Silver Lake. It has also incorporated an hour-long session of new music from 9-10PM on Sunday nights. It may be that I have just never noticed this before, but from what I can tell from the last 3 minutes of this hour ("Broken Connection" from Eulogies), they've indied it up a bit. And I like it!

89.9 KCRW (of "Morning Becomes Eclectic" fame; or, Everyone's Favorite Event Sponsor) seems to still be going strong. Today I was totally amused and absolutely LOVING Peter Gabriel's cover of Vampire Weekend's "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa." "This feels so unnatural....to sing your own name."

-->Newsflash: OMG ..... Peter Gabriel with HOT CHIP?! That explains it! :)

To continue the state of the air waves, big news on the pop front - new Amp 97.1 (you may recall these are the same call numbers as Howard Stern's show back before Sirius) is blatanly challenging Ryan Seacrest and uber-pop station KIIS FM. Good old 102.7 has long pummeled listeners with relentless poppage and is pretty much the radio version of TMZ. But now new kid on the block Amp ups the ante by promising some unfathomable number of songs in a row without commercials. Not only that, but its advertising has a soundbite of a caller dis-ing Seacrest. Wow. Ballsy.