The graph above represents my music library and rock & roll radio in Dallas - Ft. Worth. The purple bars reflect how the collection is rationed. The colored strips illustrate which radio stations I was listening to at the time.

I started listening to radio (and rock music) in 1964. I basically wasted the first five years of my life. KLIF 1190 AM was (as far as I can remember) the only place to hear rock & roll music in the area. This is where I heard all the golden oldies of the 50's and 60's and the beginnings of rock & roll. Enter 1972. AM radio (as far as music was concerned) was dead with the arrival of FM. Although a bit advanced for me, I began listening to KZEW in 1974 (after a short stop at KNUS and KVIL). The summer between 9th and 10th grade, a friend of mine named Frank Lopez shamed me out of the top 40 era that had bridged the gap between the 1960's and 1970's. Rock & Roll had made it's mark on an impressionable young mind. KZEW (the green stripe above) definitely represented the heart of rock & roll radio in Dallas, Texas. The format was known as album rock.

Rock and Roll radio came to a screeching halt in December of 1989. Going to work one day, I tuned my radio to 97.9 KZEW just as I had for the past 13 years and what do I hear? Christmas music. Constant, non-stop Christmas music. Someone told me that day that the station was sold or changed format or something and they were going to play Christmas music until Christmas and then the whole things would be changed up. Rock as we knew it was gone forever. I thought it might return some day, but it hasn't.

You can see that my tastes are largely concentrated around the 1970's. My early years were spent listening to the soundtrack of the 1960's and right before I got my driver's license, I had pre-tuned the pushbuttons of my 1966 Mustang to bring in all the sound of the 70's. The music you listen to in your early driving years will probably become very important in your musical make-up. Combined with the fact that the Nixon, Ford, and Carter years saw the maturing of rock & roll to it's peak (in my opinion and that's all that counts now isn't it?), a new found freedom on the road, and more disposable income than I would probably have for the rest of my life and you can see why this musical era made such an impression.

In 2006 something wonderful happened. Radioio. Internet radio has saved (the listening of) rock and roll. I listen to Radioio 70's Rock. Other things that change how I listen to rock are XM Radio (Channels 7 & 59) and iPod.

Dallas - Ft. Worth radio
KLIF - Golden Oldies, Beginnings of Rock
KNUS - Top 40
KVIL - Bubblegum
The Zoo - Album Rock
Q-102 - Commercial Album Rock
92.5 - Classic Rock
Radioio - Every Kind of Rock

Want to listen to internet radio? Get Apple iTunes - Mac or Windows. Then click here to see & listen to my favorite love songs! Go ahead, try it dude!