After Silent Hill ended, my mother and I picked up a Toshiba DVD player as the old one conked out, sound-wise. It seems the thing kept emitting a loud buzz through our sound system whenever we'd turn it on. The damn thing wasn't even a year old yet! So much for SONY being top-shelf. Then after Bill Maher's show ended we watched...



I've had this for almost a week from Netflix. Suffice it to say I love Franka Potente (she will be mine...oh yes) but all in all this was a two-star affair. It started out promising but then after the characters start behaving like toddlers halfway through it undermined the entire rest of the film for me. It's a shame too as the film was well-made and well-directed with great cinematography inside London's Underground.

I just finished Dan Brown's novel Angels and Demons and am currently reading...



in advance of the film's release on May 19th. I need to start reading again. TiVo has bewitched me as we all know and I think I should dive right back into the frothy cool waters of the printed page as I'd not done so, until recently, in quite some time.

In the land of radio buyouts and format changes, steady constants are always cool and delicious.

First a bit of Savannah radio history...

In the mid '90s Savannah had a really cool alternative station - WZAT-FM Z102 - Savannah's Rock and Roll Radio. The DJs were *always* live and you truly had the feeling that if you turned the dial you'd miss something. Hell, my freshman year of high school I attempted to do my four hours of community service (all Georgia high school students must complete four hours of community service, in addition to maintaining their grades, to pass) interning at Z102. I did so under the tutelage of the amazing, awesome Tripp West, who's now at WSTR-FM, Star 94, in Atlanta (and has been for quite some time). It was an experience I'll never forget. Pulling commercials (this was *before* the automated computerized stuff), watching the behind-the-scenes stuff - it was fascinating.

Then, Cumulus flashed their cash and bought the station in 1998, flipping it to Top 40 as "Z102 - Savannah's Hit Music Station". And for a while it did extremely well. Then Clear Channel flipped their Hot Adult Contemporary station WAEV-FM - Mix 97.3 - to Top 40, relaunching the station under their national Top 40 banner as "97.3 KISS FM". And then Z102 began its slow descent to the bottom of the ratings pile, where it still lingers today, as a weird Top 40/Hot AC hybrid. Z102 continually winds up being beaten while WAEV towers in the market.

As for the alternative rock scenario now in Savannah? Well, none to speak of. We do have a rather kick-ass Adult Album Alternative station, Wave 104.9, - http://www.wave1049.com - but nothing along the lines of WZAT. Triad Broadcasting, which owns Wave, also owns the boring-as-hell WFXH-FM (Rock 106.1). If you like hearing Chevelle and Nickelback three thousand times a day, be my guest. It's horrible. Their standard operating procedure must be - nothing melodic -- EVER! Tama Broadcasting might be launching a new rock station -- The Hawk 104.7 http://www.thehawk1047.com but only time will tell as they're still simulcasting their Variety Hits station, Freedom 92.3.

So suffice it to say, there's nothing here for those of us who like a diverse menu of alt-rock goodness. For more than ten years, WAVF-FM has shone like a beacon of hope from Charleston, South Carolina. If you love great alternative music, look no further than this gem of a radio station. If someone could bring a station like this to Savannah, it'd clean Rock 106.1's clock -- no doubt about it. Ah, if only I had the money...click the 96 Wave logo to hear aural brilliance.