Call me late to the party.
So I have had internet access at my house for almost a year. After years of dial up, hot-spotting off of my phone, and stealing access from neighbors that didn’t use a password, I finally can work on the web whenever I need to at my computer.
So sitting around a few days ago, I realized that I can now listen to an internet radio station to my choosing 24/7. After quitting Sirius/XM years back due to cost vs. selection, my bluegrass listening was limited to four hours on Sunday through CJAM-FM out of Windsor, Ontario, or digging through my CD collection if I wasn’t that lazy.
So I did a quick search for “bluegrass internet radio station” and Live365 had a list of Bluegrass stations. I sampled a bunch, but most seemed to mix a bluegrass song in with some classic country music. Two that I have been spending time with are “Catgut ‘n Jugs Bluegrass Show” (which leans toward the modern popular bluegrass charting songs) and “Rideout’s Bluegrass Farm” (heavy on Tony Rice, Billy Strings, and Garcia/Grisman).
It is nice to have a dose of bluegrass at the touch of a button on the keyboard, and it does run 24/7 on my computer (since I am paying for internet by the month). Howver, I am noticing that both stations tend to program the same way as SiriusXM’s “Bluegrass Junchtion” channel, which is why I unsubscribed from it. One will hear very little variety, sometimes the same song by the same artist will play two hours later than the first play.
There is so much material out there, so if it is because some computer is doing the programming, then perhaps someone at one of these stations needs to be a lot more attentive and put some personality. This is just like the old days (for me, still exists) with the car radio of twisting the dial or pushing buttons to change a station to get something different.
Yes, it is nice to hear bluegrass first thing when I wake up (“Bill Monroe for Breakfast,” or some reasonable facsimile), as well as when I walk into the house after a hard day at work. Right now, I need to check out other stations, hopefully one with more variety.
Chew on it and comment.
Luegra 