The Last of the Car Radios

Y'know, in this age, when everyone else has upgraded to satellite radio or hooked up their iPods to the car dash, I feel a bit like a rolling anachronism in my '93 Mazda Protege all pimped out with a cassette deck and 12 FM pre-sets.

This is why I'm hot

The awkward technological backwardness I feel is further compounded when, between 12 different pre-programmed radio stations I have carefully selected through literal days of driving between Salt Lake City and Magna, I can't find a single song I want to listen to.

The realization hit me the other day that, when I'm surfing the pre-sets, I'm actually looking for specific songs. Nowadays, it's one of these:

• Muse, "Resistance"
• Nine Inch Nails, "Hurt"
• Jason Derulo, "Ridin' Solo"
• Justin Timberlake, "My Love"
• Doobie Brothers, "What a Fool Believes"
• Beastie Boys, "Brass Monkey"
• Ram Jam, "Black Betty"
• Incubus, "Dig"
• Young MC, "Bust a Move"
• Avenged Sevenfold, "Bat Country"

I like a little bit of everything, I guess. Except Pitbull. Not a fan of that guy.

The nice thing about listening to the radio is that, every now and again, you get the nice surprise of hearing a song you'd forgotten about. It's almost like falling in love again - without all the requisite paperwork.

Still, it'd probably be easier to just invest in iTunes.