The Lex Files

Video killed the radio star

Two summers ago, while I was in sunny California, I had a problem. More specifically, my car — which I had driven across the country — had the problem. And the problem was this: The tape player tied.


Okay, no big deal.


The radio worked fine; fun tunes could still pump into my car. That was the way it was for a long time. Then, near the end of 2001 (remember that year?), I went home to Arizona for Thanksgiving. Upon my return — the radio didn’t work. The clock didn’t work either. Nothing. No time displayed, no radio, no nothing.


So, on the advice of a friend, I bought a replacement fuse for the radio. The clock immediately lit up when I changed the fuse — and froze. The time didn’t change. I took the fuse out and put it in again and turned on the radio. It worked. Then… it too froze. Couldn’t change the volume. Or the station.


Then, it petered out. After a few minutes of hard work, the radio and clock both quit. They stopped working completely again.


I decided the solution would be to go home to Arizona again, come back, and see what happened. I figured either the radio would work again or the steering wheel would have fallen off.


You guessed it, the car picked Option 3: The radio still didn’t work.


So I was driving around, cursing my radio-less luck last week… when the radio went on. And the clock started ticking off minutes again. It was incredible.


And then, sadly, it froze. The time stops, the station can’t be changed.


Over the past few days, I got used to the radio being as intermittent as the wipers. Off and on, entirely at whim. Just not my whim.


But the saga continues. And today, believe it or not, I entered a new chapter of Wacky Radio Living: My car radio randomly turns on to a station (in this case, 104.1 WBCN Boston), stays for a bit, and then gracefully segues through a period of light static before settling on the delightful audio of… UPN Channel 38.


Yes, you read correctly: My car radio now picks up television broadcasts of a channel that doesn’t broadcast its sound over radiowaves. So, driving to campus today, I listened to the Price is Right and heard a woman win an RV on the Showcase Showdown. Later, I heard an amorous, cheating couple whisper and kiss during some soap opera; and still later, I got to hear the new syndicated version of “The Weakest Link.”


That, my friends, is the Spirit of Radio.