Every two months or so, I have been driving from Indy to my ancestral home in Wisconsin and back. Usually I drive through Chicago because the route is direct, and I love driving in the city. Occasionally, because of weather or traffic, I take the longer, boring route through Bloomington IL. My Luddite confession is that I don't have an ipod (and I only have one song on my iphone--it took me 45 minutes figure out how to download it), or satellite radio. Instead I listen to the car radio. Primitive, I know. And increasingly more generic. Same narrow list of songs, and if the station even has live DJs, the patter is all the same.
I had a vague recollection that when I drove between Leroy and Bloomington I heard some good radio--I assumed that it was a ephemeral student station.
There were no DJs, just a couple of farm market reports, and commercials for a local harley dealer, Farm Credit Bureau and a bbq joint called Porgy's. It's a throwback to a more idiosyncratic time in radio.
Their website says:
"Somewhere between Memphis and Chicago. . the Whip
Playing the best in blues, bluegrass, alternative and traditional country, rock, gospel and American Roots music"
Lots of Levon Helm, Steve Earle and a lot of stuff I wasn't familiar with but loved. Angry political screeds, plaintive wails and just for the hell of it songs. And the coolest thing is the station ID--call letters followed by the sound of whip cracking!! I wanted to stop the car, find out what I listening and get some of that music for myself. I haven't been that excited about a radio station since I was in high school listening to progressive FM stations. The playlists were huge and they rarely repeated songs. Once I got past Bloomington, the Whip started getting staticky, so I switched to WXRT-one of my favorite stations, but a big corporate player with lots repeats in the relatively narrow playlist.
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