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BACH, BBC, AND MYANMAR

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Contributed by: Dave Hughes on 2/6/2008

BACH, BBC, AND MYANMAR

We in Colorado Springs are blessed with more sources than television, newspapers and the Internet to get real news and tolerable music.

It is all coincidental, of course, that we have two complimentary FM radio stations KCME and KRCC that, at particular times of day and night, fill the void other media do not.

As I grew older, like many people, I started turning on my bedside radio at night to either listen to music of my taste while falling asleep.

As I have gotten really old I now have a listening routine that delivers what nothing else does. And I could not do one without the other.

For starters I listen, and happily contribute to, KCME 88.7 FM for the quality of music it has provided me for over 25 years now. Classical music with very little talk 24 hours a day. From Bach to Beethoven. And for variety for all of us old guys in Colorado Springs who grew up during World War II, 40s and 50s music on Saturday mornings - the last real music written and played before the Beatles ruined everything.

So I have in the background all day long our FM radio tuned to 88.7. Occasionally such as Saturday afternoon, I turn its volume up and listen to loud live opera. I am also comforted to know I could live anywhere in the world where I had an Internet connection and I could listen to that little, nonprofit, and un-government supported gem of a local radio station managed by Jeanna Wearing. Even Denver listens to it from down here.

That 'soothes my savage breast' as the saying goes. From the antics of fools and knaves that comes to my attention from all sources during the rest of the day.

But that is not enough. For I also want to know what is going on in the world in ways in-your-face advertising-dominated television tube just doesn't. Nor do ad-fat newspapers.

So I have gotten into the habit of listening - at very particular times - the Colorado College public-radio supported FM Station KCME 91.5 FM. I say 'at particular times' because there are other times, such as starting at 9 AM, I can't stand its modern 'music.'

And I can't stand the AM talk shows and all night jabber about either UFOs or sports jocks.

In the middle of the night, starting at 2a.m. I tune to a really valuable and unique source of world news I can't get anywhere else. Its international BBC on from, most nights, 2 to 5 a.m. BBC for all its faults and biases, has more ability to get live, patched-from-phone-to-radio, interesting reporting from 'reporters' and knowledgeable commentators in every corner of the world. From the countryside of Myanmar (once named Burma - aha gotcha!) when monks marched in protest, to the rebel firing in clashes around the palace in Ndjamena, Chad.

Then between 4 and 5a.m. as often as not it has really in-depth interviews with noted people - not just skin deep 'celebrities' from other nations, or a good roundtable discussion by experts on the state of the world economy, or science, foreign politics or about ongoing wars. Interesting, intellectual, and by articulate (even though with foreign accents while speaking English that sometimes I can't decipher with my bad hearing) locals one would never encounter in mass media in print or by television. And seldom again on BBC. Great variety and insight into the 'rest of the world' outside the US.

Now I only need about 4 hours sleep a night at my age, and whether I turn in at 10p.m. and sleep only until 2 a.m., or go to bed late, wake up to my inevitable trips to the bathroom, and then listen from 2 to 4, then sleep a couple hours, its always there.

Then at 5 a.m.National Public Radio - NPR - comes on from which I can get, without opening my eyes and before I get up - pretty rounded reports about domestic US events by familiar American voices.

So KCME anytime and KRCC sometimes, are my daily fare, even though I read the Gazette every morning, usually for the business section and monitor the editorial page for amusement. And I grab some news off television periodically, along with football in season. While choosing only the History and History International channels, the National Geographic and Military Channel, or the occasional good PBS programs the rest of the time or during 'prime time.'

I reserve the Internet for the really obscure and technical stuff, voice chats via Skype with people around the world, and email.

Dunno about you, but that is how I stay sane and calm, while the world goes to hell around me.

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CONTRIBUTOR INFO

Dave Hughes

Colorado Springs , CO

Dave Hughes has posted 83 stories and 87 comments since joining on 3/1/2007. Dave Hughes 's average story rating is 4.9.

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