Hang the DJ

At work I am forced to persevere through the auditory onslaught that is commercial radio.

And no, we are not talking "good" commercial radio. We are talking syndicated radio in rural NSW, complete with the "no repeat workdays" and chuckling, deep-voiced jocks paired with bubbly lasses.

Okay, they haven't done the "no repeat workday" thing for years, but gosh, I'd almost love for it to come back, because the nausea-inducing cycle of Top 40 trash has me struggling to listen to the voice on the phone who I'm supposed to be quoting.

At the office, we all have our own pet hate pop anthem. One hates the Black Eyed Peas, another anything Nickelback (well, everybody should hate them, like these Portugese people), the person nearest myself detests Eminem and I cannot stand the monotony of the monosyllabic colour, Pink.

But my point. Last week, for about three days in a row, the Gin Blossoms' Hey Jealousy was on. That didn't worry me, I mean it's a good song.

It did get me thinking though, who chose to play that? And for three days in a row?

Commercial radio is usually programmed by some monster computer that carefully calculates demographics and your tax file number to play basically the same song.

Yet here was this track from a half-decent band (though I did always prefer 'Til I Hear It From You, but that's because I can recite the Empire Records script perfectly).

I liken it to myself at a pub when I'm in a silly mood. If there's a jukebox and no other music playing in the establishment, I latch onto it. I sort through, searching for some hidden gem of cool/actually listen-able music (usually Rock the Casbah to the chagrin of my associates, but it's the only Clash song on there) and mostly end up making them really embarrassed by putting on Foreigner. Yes, my debauchery extends to jukeboxes and I do really want to know what love is.

So perhaps there is some shining beacon out there, some final stand against repetitively painful pop, a programmer who tries to slip one cool song into the endless sea of Khe Sahn, AC/DC (all the songs are the same), resampled R&B and that most fiendish of all, Pink.

Oh, and if you didn't catch on, the title is a Smiths reference.