Zip it.

I just read Wendi Aarons' insightful post, "Why Austin," recently posted at the super funny blog, Motherhood in NYC. In "Why Austin," Wendi Aarons addresses her momentary loss of love for her transplant city after moving there three years prior from Los Angeles. I recently moved to a little city in the Inland Empire and am firmly stationed in the honeymoon period. We moved here from Denver about 18 months ago and I am still walking around with bluebirds over my head, singing "Zippity do da" about this little gem of a place that offers me an old fashioned county fair (complete with mutton bustin') and the hippest little jewelry store I've ever known to satisfy my addiction for cheap baubles.

The "Why Austin" post took my breath away for a second. It made me think that all may soon be lost. I may become disillusioned. My fears about my purpose in life (beyond motherhood) will seep to infect my impressions of home and this smart, smart decision we made to move away from all that we knew, all that we built (not much). I'll look for the negative stuff. Like the one that has burned me up since November 26th.

On the day before Thanksgiving, I casually pushed stereo Button #4 in my minivan to get to 96.9, the one remaining "FM1" station that serves up hip hop and R&B. I'll never be as edgy as I'd like to be, and I can't even lean on a colorful past. But I like Missy Elliot, Ciara, Rihanna, Kanye West, Chris Brown, Estelle, Mariah Carey, Nelly and others. In any event, this form of expression is apparently too colorful for my new home. A beautiful station - 105.something - or my Button #6, was a family truckster regular a summer ago as I tried with all my might to beat Amanda Perez' "Candy Kisses" into my head ("...like a kid in a candy store, always want to come back for more...")

Then one day last year, 105.something simply disappeared. Silence. Gone. Fortunately, my second favorite station, 96.9, was at the ready. Until the almost advent of this Christmas season. That day, Button #4 rudely transformed into an annoying, subdued, and ad-laden station that belts out Christmas music by white folks 24/7. Frank Sinatra now informs me of "Granny's pies," Burl Ives is hearing bells, and the nameless DJ's boast about the station's broad play list, from "Bing Crosby to the Beach Boys."

So I keep checking Button #4 to see if it's all a dream (it's not), I throw up a little, and I wonder who does this? The people who own the stations, I suppose. But anyway (humor me for a moment), who kills music diversity in my neighborhood? Is it the same folks who successfully pushed Prop8 in CA? And what will my kids be left with for "comfort" music when they're forced to hum a tune without accompaniment? Will they be whistling Dixie like me, to a Disney standard, or will they have the good fortune to rely on the broadest play list the world can provide?

(I know, I can intervene with ipods and the like, but I want some of this stuff for free - free for all - and without too much fumbling with technology and its darned cords and dropped wireless connections).