Remember the radio? Remember when you couldn't just download anything you wanted exactly when you wanted it? There was a time when you had to wait to hear a song and it was special when you heard it. Everything is constantly evolving. My grade seven teacher used to call my generation the "microwave" generation meaning everything had to be instant. This was of course true, we had Nintendo and microwaves and always wanted things to be done that instant however, we still had a few things you had to wait for. You had to wait for a movie to come out on video, you had to wait for a music video to come on Much Music and you had wait to hear a song on the radio. You couldn't just download it and if you wanted that song you had to spend $18.00 and buy the whole CD. I had a lot of CDs when I was young for the soul function song.
The same went for discovering music, you had to subscribe to fan zines, research record labels and belong to fan and CD of the month clubs to find new music. Now you can find and preview anything instantly on the net.
There was a station called Z ROCK that was syndicated out of Austin Texas in Watertown NY and we could receive it an hour away in Kingston. This station would serve as a pre-Internet source for new music. Music like Weezer, Beck, Hole, Bush, Silverchair, Bad Religion, Korn, Type O Negative, Hum, The Nixons, The Toadies, Rage Against the Machine, Marilyn Manson and many more. Basically the entire DGC Records roster which housed the most pop
ular bands of the moment. Every once in while you could even hear Love Buzz by Nirvana. But, just as soon as we had got a taste for new alternative rock it was taken away from us and the station was replaced by a country station. This was Christmas of grade 11. 
Hearing a gem on the radio is still as rewarding as getting a letter in the mail. Everyone still loves getting mail and everyone still likes it when Eruption and You Really Got Me by Van Halen are played back to back on the radio. Or failing that Walk On The Wild Side by Lou Reed. And if it's a parallel universe you may catch Black Number One by Type O Negative.
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