the Dalaverse

As I was driving home from work today, I flipped on my classic rock station -- 94.7 The Arrow. And I heard...the Fray? WTF? It was an add for the new station, 94.7 The Globe, which is apparently a generic rock station. This is deeply upsetting to me. Since I've been in college, here's what has happened to my radio stations:

1. BIG Oldies 100.3 ("the greatest hits of the fifties, sixties, and seventies) --> BIG 100.3 ("the greatest rock and roll of all time"). In other words, from an oldies station that had been slowly slipping in later songs and phasing out older songs/styles, to a flat-out classic rock station, even though they refuse to say so; most of it is now '70s.
2. Oldies 106.9 --> Classic Rock
3. Oldies 102.7 --> JACK FM, generic mix
4. Z104.1, the least dorky of all the mix stations --> classical (just .4 away from another classical station)
5. Oldies 97.7 --> contemporary rock (a pretty decent rock station, I'll admit -- but it was an awesome oldies station)
6. "The legendary 99.1 HFS" --> Spanish-language (technically not the greatest loss since DC101 was always better, but definitely the most shocking: HFS was an institution)

I don't like change. I still miss my old radio stations. And I'm especially upset at the phasing out of oldies. I can see where it comes from, as the baby boomers age, but...I grew up listening to that music, too. Don't get me wrong, I love Springsteen and Rod Stewart and Jimi Hendrix and Billy Joel and Queen and good GOD U2. But I also love the Temptations and the Four Seasons and Herman's Hermits and Elvis and the Supremes and Buddy Holly and good lord, I would even welcome the original version of "Last Kiss" and I despise that song. And that kind of music, it seems, just isn't being played, and I want it back.

In the car, I was musing over all of this and scanning the stations, which I never do, because I suddenly didn't want to listen to anything but oldies (and not on my iPod, either -- I have an impressive collection but I'm not a fucking radio station). And it took me fifteen minutes, but I finally heard the sweet voice of James Taylor and paused. I was suspicious -- it could've been an easy listening station (which makes me want to kill myself) or even a particularly liberal classic rock station (the song was "Fire and Rain," after all).

Then they started "Carrie Anne" by the Hollies, and I knew I was home.

I listened to it all the way home, and the signal stayed strong (it's a Fredericksburg station, which makes me worry I won't get it at home, but I can't check that now). They played "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)" and "Lady Lady Lay," which is one of my favorite Dylan songs and NEVER gets played on the radio. They played "My Girl," and I cried. A bit later they played the Byrds' cover of "Mr. Tambourine Man," and I cried again.

There...isn't much point to this. I just hit some emotional lows and highs over the radio today. It was actually supposed to be a big long rant about Time and the Generation Gap and the State of the World Today, but then finding the station killed my ire.

Oh, and one other thing to throw out into the universe (generic you, not you guys specifically): I know you think you mean "I could care less," but you really, really don't. You actually mean "I couldn't care less," because whatever you are talking about is the thing you absolutely care least about in the ENTIRE WORLD, that's how much it doesn't concern you. Saying you could care less is actually the opposite of what you mean. Seriously. Think about the sentence construction for five seconds, and then get back to me.

ETA: Forgot to ask if this radio trend is happening in other places/areas? Just curious.