The Mountain's Rising

I got me a copy of Jim Rising’s book “But Then Again I Could Be Wrong: The Book of Rants.”

I could tell you how this book came to be in my possession, but you probably wouldn’t believe it.

While I knew the name--Jim Rising--I had to do a slight bit of research before going, “Oh, that dude.”

According to the credits attached to his book, he is the Program Director of 102.3 The Mountain, which I found to be interesting for a number of reasons.

Firstly, I was raised on Rock 107. Going all the way back to when I made my much-deserved escape from high school, I was listening to Rock 107. If guitars plugged into arrays of distortion pedals was your thing, that was the FM place for you. And for me, it remained that way for thirty years.

But somewhere along the way, during my trucking days I suppose, I happened to get myself addicted to talk radio thanks almost entirely to that AM blowtorch station in NYC--WABC, and locally, thanks to Fred Williams, formerly of WILK.

There were those times when talk radio was all but insufferable for me. For instance, when Kevin Lynn, or Sean Hannity were droning on and on with banality after painful banality. Or when Steve Corbett does his level best to swallow his zircon-encrusted microphone. And, it goes without saying that WILK’s weekend programming needs to be avoided at all costs. And when the talk format did not work for me, I’d switch over to Rock 107.

The only thing is, Rock 107 had become as stale and predictable as Rush Limbaugh has. Please, Radar Love? Are you people kidding me? Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Tom Petty and that’s it? That’s it? Over and over and over again, that’s it?

C’mon. I love ole "Fumble Fingers" as much as the next aging and fading diehard rock fan. But if I hear Whole Lotta Love again any time soon, I'm gonna peel and eat my Strat.

But when WILK started using this fill-in host, this rock jock turned talk, albeit sporadically, I started following her home. And this wild and meandering temporary host, Cathy Donnelly, somehow led me to The Mountain.

And since happening upon The Mountain, I have found myself listening to less and less and less of my former musical haunt, Rock 107.

For one thing, 102.3 is more of an AOR (album oriented rock) station, and it’s programming is far less predictable and far less formulaic than Rock 107’s is.

But what really put the hook into me was when I kept saying to Wifey, “Wow! I haven’t heard that song in ages.” That realization, that The Mountain would play practically anything at any given hour was what got me to changing the pre-sets on my FM radio dial.

So, if Jim Rising is really the driving force behind this sometimes off-the-wall play list, then it’s become obvious to me that he and I are kindred souls to some degree.

And when the Flaming Groovies finally meet Flo & Eddie, we’re going to have to get together and rant over some Blues Magoos.

I have a paperback to read.

Later