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WTF, Portland.
Jul. 24th, 2009 03:01 pmSo, it's summertime and I'm a little slow on the uptake, and I don't drive nearly as much as I do during the school year. But for the past 7 years, every school day, I drove Hannah to school and every morning of every school day, we listened to the radio. When she was wee the morning station of choice was KINK-FM, which is the "adult" contemporary station. They play lots of Jack Johnson and Tom Petty and things along those lines, which aren't bad but the station's a little on the mellow side. Some mornings I just need something to wake me up instead of put me back to sleep, you know? So about four years ago Hannah and I discovered an alternative radio station that played a lot of stuff I loved, from my wild rock-and-roll-filled past (ask my daughter; in fourth grade when she did a family biography, one of the items was my mom is... and she filled it in with punk rocker) and that was cool. It gave my daughter a wider scope of appreciation for some of the 80s and 90s stuff, and it was way more fun. So KNRK became our station of choice, and has stayed that way for years.
The morning DJ on the station is pretty good. He's a cat lover and has the cutest grandma this side of anywhere and does this little themed set at 8am for a half hour, and that worked out perfectly with our drive. But my guilty pleasure was never the morning show: it was the show that came on after. First of all, the DJ was a kick-ass lady named Tara with a great voice and a great love for so much of the same music I love. Second, like me, she's a little older than some of the kids out there trying to make a name for themselves, so I started to consider her something of a peer. Third, she's a mom. Fourth, she's an east coast transplant like I am. And finally, she always seemed to be a fan of the same TV shows as me and would talk about them. Not a lot, but just enough, and she'd blog about them too, and that was always fun to read. I never commented to her blog and I don't have a Facebook account so I didn't follow her there. I never called her show because I was always listening while driving, but damn, I liked her show. I told Hannah, too, and said that the morning and evening DJs were all right, but the best show by far on KNRK was Tara's.
At the end of the school year this year we were always in a hurry and didn't pay much attention to the radio. As the summer progressed, I'd turn it on every now and then, but since I didn't have to drive Hannah to school every day I often didn't notice. And then one day I thought "let's see what Tara has on for her 90s-at-noon show" and she wasn't there. The next day I tuned in a little earlier, around 10am, and the morning guy was still on. Weird, weird. So finally I looked at the station's web site and saw that Tara wasn't listed as a host any more.
WTF, Portland? A little digging told me that as of May 24, she'd been let go, purportedly as a cost-saving measure.
People, I understand how it is to need to save money. I get it. But to do it by silencing a strong and talented woman's voice without warning, and to deprive the station's listeners of the one (excellent) female role model they had, not to mention a kick-ass DJ who was about the only DJ on the airwaves in PDX worth listening to any more anyway? That's a really bad move.
Sitting here making journal posts about it isn't going to bring Tara back to KNRK. The station still plays the same stuff, but it seems diminished to me now, like I'm listening to it behind a wall of disfavor. I don't know Tara. I'm no longer involved in the rock scene in any way, shape, or form other than as a consumer of goods: I buy music (yes, legally) and go to the very occasional show. My focus is on my family and the other things I do, and I'm just a massage therapist, no one important, no big deal. I can't listen to the radio at work or anything like that, but man, I'm annoyed as anything at the station. Apparently emails to the station about this are going right into the trash without being passed along. So in a very big and very real way, it's not just Tara's voice that got silenced on May 24.
Bah. There goes my local home on the radio. I'm not boycotting, I'm just... not listening any more, because now it's really boring. I'll burn some mix CDs for the car and when those bore me I'll scan the airwaves for something interesting, and I'll probably settle again on a mix between NPR and some of the other music stations, but...
You can join me in supporting Tara. You can read her blog (which is excellent, if a bit angry -- and rightfully so -- just now), and you can follow her on Twitter @taradublinrocks if you're so inclined. I'm all about showing support for the midday voice I miss, and am off to put my money where my mouth is by dropping her a line right now.
The morning DJ on the station is pretty good. He's a cat lover and has the cutest grandma this side of anywhere and does this little themed set at 8am for a half hour, and that worked out perfectly with our drive. But my guilty pleasure was never the morning show: it was the show that came on after. First of all, the DJ was a kick-ass lady named Tara with a great voice and a great love for so much of the same music I love. Second, like me, she's a little older than some of the kids out there trying to make a name for themselves, so I started to consider her something of a peer. Third, she's a mom. Fourth, she's an east coast transplant like I am. And finally, she always seemed to be a fan of the same TV shows as me and would talk about them. Not a lot, but just enough, and she'd blog about them too, and that was always fun to read. I never commented to her blog and I don't have a Facebook account so I didn't follow her there. I never called her show because I was always listening while driving, but damn, I liked her show. I told Hannah, too, and said that the morning and evening DJs were all right, but the best show by far on KNRK was Tara's.
At the end of the school year this year we were always in a hurry and didn't pay much attention to the radio. As the summer progressed, I'd turn it on every now and then, but since I didn't have to drive Hannah to school every day I often didn't notice. And then one day I thought "let's see what Tara has on for her 90s-at-noon show" and she wasn't there. The next day I tuned in a little earlier, around 10am, and the morning guy was still on. Weird, weird. So finally I looked at the station's web site and saw that Tara wasn't listed as a host any more.
WTF, Portland? A little digging told me that as of May 24, she'd been let go, purportedly as a cost-saving measure.
People, I understand how it is to need to save money. I get it. But to do it by silencing a strong and talented woman's voice without warning, and to deprive the station's listeners of the one (excellent) female role model they had, not to mention a kick-ass DJ who was about the only DJ on the airwaves in PDX worth listening to any more anyway? That's a really bad move.
Sitting here making journal posts about it isn't going to bring Tara back to KNRK. The station still plays the same stuff, but it seems diminished to me now, like I'm listening to it behind a wall of disfavor. I don't know Tara. I'm no longer involved in the rock scene in any way, shape, or form other than as a consumer of goods: I buy music (yes, legally) and go to the very occasional show. My focus is on my family and the other things I do, and I'm just a massage therapist, no one important, no big deal. I can't listen to the radio at work or anything like that, but man, I'm annoyed as anything at the station. Apparently emails to the station about this are going right into the trash without being passed along. So in a very big and very real way, it's not just Tara's voice that got silenced on May 24.
Bah. There goes my local home on the radio. I'm not boycotting, I'm just... not listening any more, because now it's really boring. I'll burn some mix CDs for the car and when those bore me I'll scan the airwaves for something interesting, and I'll probably settle again on a mix between NPR and some of the other music stations, but...
You can join me in supporting Tara. You can read her blog (which is excellent, if a bit angry -- and rightfully so -- just now), and you can follow her on Twitter @taradublinrocks if you're so inclined. I'm all about showing support for the midday voice I miss, and am off to put my money where my mouth is by dropping her a line right now.
