KXT Radio - Review

I couldn't have been more surprised. I didn't think I'd love it, I knew I would.

KXT has only been up a couple months or so...

When I heard about KERA's new radio station KXT, I remembered the old KERA Dallas from the 1990s, and I was pretty excited. For good reason. That was some seriously excellent music radio. Good times were returning.

This new venture has almost everything going for it. Great patrons, great equipment, great studios, great people, what more could it need? I even upped my financial commitment and made it a permanent monthly commitment before the launch. I was that stoked.

Er uh, it probably is great, at least to someone - and exactly like it is. How strange for me that I really don't like it. Almost not at all. And it's all my fault - because the station is probably great. I just got the wrong set of ears.

It tends to sound kind of like bubble gum - to my ears anyway.

That's what I get for turning 55. With no claim to better taste than anyone else, I must yield to the younger center of gravity. Apparently, my tastes in music have not migrated with the population, and so my tastes should be ignored. Such are the ways of a marketplace. Sigh.

Oh well, I still have probably hundreds of hours of old tapes and mini-discs from the days before the music I loved went dark - and then until later when the amazing DJ - David Cullen, lost his Sunday night show. It's great stuff to go back and listen to. Anybody remember Abbey Goldstein? Abbey and David both had an remarkably similar taste in music to my own. Magical.

Ah yes, those were the days.

What about the shows?

Yes, I'll grant you that I do try to remember to come back for some of the shows. American Routes, World Cafe and Mountain Stage might be much closer to my tastes than what feeds the transmitter during normal hours. But by then, I've usually turned to something else, so I don't always remember to come back and tune in when my favorite shows are on.