Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out

By chance I found myself listening to a different radio station in the morning. It was the station I listened to when I first moved to the Bay Area: KITS, Live One Oh Five to its friends. Sometimes the kids who are supposed to be standing quietly in line in my class reach over and fiddle with the knobs because somehow "keep your hands to yourself" does not include the knobs on Mister Caven's radio. It was an opportunity, anyway, and as I busied myself about the business of getting my room ready for the day, I reflected on all that has changed since I came to California twenty years ago.
Alex Bennett was the morning personality with whom I used to start my mornings. That ended in 1994, though Alex stuck around for another few years. I moved down the dial to One Oh Four Point Five, where I heard the familiar sounds of Peter Finch, the news voice of KFOG. He provided me an echo from my past. I learned to relax into world domination strategy of "World Class Rock." I stuck around even with the terrible mishandling of the retirement of Dave Morey. And somewhere in there, my son's radio found its way to Live 105. Now a fully-formed teenager, it is his go-to for punk-kid-music. He's got his favorites: songs, DJs, special features.
And it just so happened that the morning I was listening to that blast from my past, there was a new guy holding down the morning show on KITS. Not that there hasn't been a little bit of a revolving door policy over there since I parted ways with them way back when, but the "Modern Rock" station seems to have every bit as difficult a time keeping a voice behind the mike as the "World Class" folks just a notch or so down the dial.
I wondered how my son was taking the news. I wondered if he'd noticed. I wonder if Jay Leno was listening.