It's World Radio Day. La-Di-Freakin'-Da.

By Jef With One F Mon., Feb. 13 2012 at 7:00 AM

Categories: We Want the Airwaves

Pin It

Duncan Rawlinson

Normally, Rocks Off gets all giddy when we get to put together a playlist to celebrate an obscure holiday. However, today is World Radio Day, as declared by last year by the United Nations (the best source of obscure holidays), and it's put us in a foul mood.

The reason is that recent automotive mishaps have left us driving a '97 Ford Escort with no MP3 input, so no Internet radio, no podcasts, and none of our own music library since we went 100 percent digital. We're stuck with regular, awful Houston FM radio, and since KPFT's Sound Awake and RadioACTIVE aren't on during our drive, that means we're more or less without good musical accompaniment while experiencing 290's ever more astounding displays of rubbernecking slowdowns.

So World Radio Day can kiss us where the poop comes out. Maybe if someone had focused on radio sooner we wouldn't be stuck in the miasma we are now. Here's five songs that agree with us.

Dead Kennedys, "Pull My Strings": Not just about radio, but mainstream music in general. The Dead Kennedys pulled one of the most punk rock things ever at the 1980 Bay Area Music Awards, when they were nominated for best New Wave act. Rather than playing "California Uber Alles," they dropped their one and only performance of "Pull My Strings," a bitter, profanity-laden dig at the entire music industry.

They also parodied the Knacks' "My Sharona" in the song, changing the chorus to "Drool drool drool drool drool drool/ My payola," referring to labels' illegal practice of bribing radio stations to push songs. But seriously, are the Dead Kennedys ever not relevant to a situation?

Leftover Crack, "Clear Channel (Fuck Off)": "The same old song of compromise went platinum yesterday." Preach on, brothers. Don't get us wrong, though. It's at least halfway our fault that the airwaves are full of crap. We're the ones who listen to it, and demand determines supply. We're not going to blame ClearChannel if they open a manure store somewhere that buys manure like Zebra Cakes.

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.