The Mountain, 103.7

So,  Friday amid all the unrelenting dire news re. the buildup to yet another war came some local news that, while trivial in comparison, actually has impact on my daily life: our favorite local radio station is shutting down, effective immediately. 'The Mountain' (FM 103.7) played a good mix of rock classics and more recent music in the same mode. Too many commercials at times, but a good station: one we found soon after our arrival out here (in September 1997: sixteen years ago as of about this time). Lately it's lost ground to 96.5 ('Jack FM'), supplemented by 102.5 (whose motto isn't, but ought to be, 'all Led Zeppelin, all the time') and 95.7 (the best of all the local oldies stations).* But for all that The Mountain has stayed as the first preset button on our radio ever since;** we even have one of the 'unplugged' albums they put out.*** I'll miss it, all the more since what's replacing it -- billed as music for women -- turns out to be synthesized voice songs of the sort I associate with ads for Barbie movies.

According to the announcement The Mountain will carry on online as a streaming radio station. I'm not much on the streaming, but will have to give it a try. I fear it'll be like the Seattle P-I, the better of the two local papers, once a major print paper but since imploded to just a website. Alas.


Here's the announcement (thanks to Janice for sharing the news), followed by a link to the streaming site.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2013/08/30/the-mountain-103-7-goes-off-air-after-22-years/

http://www.themountainseattle.com/

--JDR.

P.S.: It occurred to me that non-Seattleites might not get the station's name: in these parts, any time you refer to THE mountain, it means Mount Rainier, which dominates the landscape for miles and miles and miles. 

*until recently this list of favorite stations wd have included 101.5, but they changed format recently, away from rock and into recent very light pop (pseudo disco) and lost me.

**in the cars, that is; inside they're all set to NPR.

***esp. for the songs "Spooky" as covered by Joan Osbourne and "Little Heaven" by Cesar Rosas (never heard of the song or group before getting the cd, making this quite the discovery); the accoustic cover of "Overkill" by Colin Hay and Shawn Mullins' "Lullabye" also keep us coming back to this one from time to time.