Where has all the music gone....

The local NPR station here in Chicago recently caused waves of distress across the ranks of the liberal intelligentsia with the announcement that they were cancelling all music shows in favor of a strictly news format. (I suspect that this doesn't prohibit the frequent sound clip that enhances every news broadcast--in case you didn't know what a hopping street scene in New Delhi sounds like, well, never fear, NPR is on the case.) I thought the whole idea was nuts--how could I live without the one Friday a month that I remember to tune in to Afro-pop Worldwide half-way through the show? But as I sit here at work with my computer tuned in to the station, I suddenly have become aware of a yowling coming from my speakers that is undoubtedly the station's latest attempt to put their finger on the pulse of The Latest In The Rock Music Scene. Seriously, who handed a guitar to a cat in heat and put it on the radio? I'll probably still donate to NPR again this year, because my guilty concience just eats away at me through the pledge drive until I just can't take it any more, but I might be willing to pay more to keep those cats off the radio.