Radio vs. iPod

I don't listen to the radio much anymore.  You see, I like a lot of variety in my music and the vast majority of radio stations (or at least the majority in the Dallas/Fort Worth area) are not all that into variety.  We definitely have a lot of stations of various ilks, but they tend to get into ruts as far as playlists are concerned.  The majority of stations in the area are owned by Clear Channel, an entity not known for taking chances, but even before they dominated the metroplex, D/FW radio was already loaded with repetitive radio stations that played the same songs every hour of every day until you were sick of them.  We do have Jack FM now, which does have a fairly large playlist and brags of not playing the same song twice on any given day, but they still stick to the hits for any artist they play.  Two years ago we were blessed with KXT - the public broadcasting's totally music station - which I do love whole bunches.  They play a variety of genres and they play a lot of obscure stuff by artists you know.  Also have a lot of local bands, and we've NEVER had that in D/FW.  But even with the one great station and the one good station, I still only listen to about an hour of radio a day and that's when I'm driving back and forth to work.

Now my iPod on the other hand...

My husband bought me my first one around 6 years ago.  It is the best present I've ever received.  I use it almost daily and when I'm not using it directly, I'm still playing iTunes over my PC.  I currently have 10,146 songs on my PC and 9,992 on my iPod (the Christmas music goes on the iPod the day after Thanksgiving and comes off the day after Christmas.  I like the stuff, but only in 30 day doses with a good 11 month break in between.)  Being anal retentive (helllooo Virgo!) I have 21 playlists on my iPod.  However, the majority of the time, I am happiest just putting the music on random and seeing what kind of ridiculous sets it makes.  So, you get AC/DC sandwiched between John Denver and Yoshida Brothers.  Celtic folk music up against goth music and bluegrass.  And because I like weird covers,  you may get a Metallica song played by a bluegrass band (They're called Iron Horse and they are geniuses.)  or a punk group playing traditional Irish folk music (Drop Kick Murphys, Flogging Molly or The Tossers). 

So, that's my music listening habits in a nutshell.  Or at least in a blog post.