I’ve found an interesting radio station since staying here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The station KHYI-FM, The Range, is a meeting of Americana-Roots music with Country-Western. And it is in many cases good Country-Western as opposed to crap. I refer to the crap you often hear today that is passed off as Country-Western but is merely pop music with a redneck theme.
On The Range you might hear Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys one minute, then John Prine or Ray Wylie Hubbard the next.
I’ve not heard many radio stations that purport to play strictly Americana-Roots music with the exception of a couple on the Internet. KGSR-FM, Radio Austin, comes somewhat close, playing many Austin-based artists such as Lucinda Williams. But you’re as likely to also hear Bob Marley and the Wailers or some other performers less toward what I consider the folk spectrum. Not that I have anything against Bob Marley or KGSR. It’s one of the best radio stations I’ve listened to within the last 20 years. As a matter of fact, I always tune into KGSR when I am close enough to pick it up outside Austin.
I was supremely starved for a good radio station during my seven years in Waco. I mostly listened to 92.5 KZPS-FM, the classic rock station out of Dallas. That is because, as I once explained to my daughter: “The radio in Waco pretty much sucks.” But the problem with classic rock formats like KZPS is that you hear the same thing over and over and over. It seems as if not a day has gone by since I graduated from high school 31 years ago that I have not heard something by Led Zepplin or Pink Floyd every day on the radio. But hey, a day without Pink Floyd is like a day without sunshine. Kind of the same as a day with Pink Floyd.
What I do find very unusual about The Range is that it seems to be more geared toward guys. The country music they play includes a lot of truck-driving songs and you might find such ditties as I heard the other day like: “It’s hard to kiss the lips at night that chew your ass out all day long.” But you also hear a lot of the Americana-Roots-Folk that you won’t be hearing on many of your hometown radio stations. Personally, I like truck-driving songs.
That isn’t to say each and every song this station plays personally strikes every right chord with me. And sometimes, they play songs that are just downright depressing at times when that’s the last type of music I like to hear. But if I feel I’ve got to hear some Led Zepplin, then classic rock is only a button away.
I probably will listen to The Range from time to time after I move from here because where I plan to move also has pretty crappy radio and you can listen to The Range online. Once again, as I find myself doing so many times a day, I just thank the moon and stars that Al Gore invented the Internet.