I may have mentioned before that when it comes to the radio, we basically have three choices. There's the top hits station, the Samoan hits station, and the religious station. Despite the claim to be "the only station you'll ever need", we rarely like anything playing.
And then there's 90.1. A mystery.
Why is it bizarre?
1. It doesn't broadcast all the time. And we can't figure out its schedule.
2. It has no DJ and no commercials.
3. It plays RadioFree (talk radio guys ranting about stuff) and VOA news
4. And the music it plays? Like, B-side tracks of Steely Dan, Queen, and Frank Zappa! Whoever sets the playlist is obsessed with obscure classic rock.
My questions: What listener pool in American Samoa is being targeted? Who besides us likes this stuff? You never see a 90.1 bumper sticker around the island. In a society where many people haven't even heard of the BEATLES, I'm wondering who is playing Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix? What's the deal?
We DO have a curiously covert collection of skinny old white guys with graying ponytails and funky aloha shirts quietly going about their business on the island. I bet they're all in on it. A 90.1 Club, organized to help ex-pats keep hold their teetering sanity using the comforting chords of hard rock.
I'm gonna get some answers, and I'm not leaving here til I do...even if it takes another 4 years.
In the meantime, keep on rockin', Mystery Rock'n'Roll Radio Man.
3 comments:
Good luck with your quest. Remember that necessity (and Frank Zappa) is the mother of invention.
Good post. You need to find the guys and get in on the action. You could do crazy stuff like play the whole thing of Adam Heart Mother during a time when the station is ordinarily not on air. You could load your i-pod with old Bob Marley and stuff like that and just leave it on shuffle for a few hours.
That is freaking awesome. Like the short lived station in Hawaii that was all Rap Replinger and reggae, all the time. By reggae, it was was basically just Bob Marley's Legend album on constant replay. On our latest cross country tour it was sometimes hard to find anything decent. But 90.1 sounds great.
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