We have 2 local radio stations. One is a preprogrammed SAM station & cannot be relied on for school closings & traffic issues.It does announce closings in the morning, but does not announce early dismissals. It has no idea what the roads are like. I like SAM. If I must listen to the radio I prefer SAM. However, when there is snow on the ground I am forced by circumstances to listen to the other station. It has actual live human beings in the DJ booth and they more or less keep on top of the traffic situation. They also announce all closings, dismissals & even tell you when these things are being considered.
But they play country music. I really don't like country music. All that depressing wailing about wasted lives & broken love affairs & how sad it is that daughters become women and date men who will want to have sex with them. A real downer on an already gray day.
Fortunately, if I am home, I can just check the school website from time to time & see if they have put up an announcement - no wailing guitars required. If I am in the car though, I must listen to the country station. I need to know about road conditions and I need to know if I have to cut my shopping short & go pick the boys up.
Yesterday it snowed about an inch. We don't get that much snow in the winter and we rarely see it before January so I knew the roads & the schools would be caught unprepared by this. Surprisingly there was no delay announced. I passed 2 accidents on my way south to school. No mention of them on the radio. I drop the kids off & head north to town to get new tires on my car (so it can pass inspection). In between the depressing songs about mamas & their babies growing up there is an announcement of an accident on one of the main roads in from the north of town. Later there is an announcement of a different one, also on a road coming from the north of town. Everyone drive slowly, only one lane is open on each of these roads. My husband calls me & says one of his employees, coming into town from the south, turned onto the northbound road I am on, just south of town and there was no traffic whatsoever on it. It appeared the road had been shut down somewhere further south on it. As he says this I come upon 2 lanes of stalled traffic. Nothing is moving. Not a word about this on the radio. I sit there for 15 minutes before enough other cars have decided to cross to the southbound side, drive back a couple miles and take a back road into town or just give up & go home. About the time I get to the turn the traffic starts moving on the northbound road and I decide to stick with it. Then the radio finally announces there is an accident on this road. A full 20 minutes after I heard about it and have sat at a stand still for 15. And it was not new news when I heard it. No mention of the road being closed, of course it isn't any longer, so why would they? but still. An announcement 20 minutes earlier would have removed at least some of the mile of traffic I had to sit in to get to the turn, not to mention the mile of back up that formed behind me.
Later the school called my cell to tell me they were closing 2 hours early before the radio announced it.
So I have to listen to music I hate on the off chance they will tell me something I don't want to hear.
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