TFOMTBS

I'm sure that you are familiar with FOMO, the fear of missing out.  And you may know about FOBO, the fear of a better offer.  But have you ever heard of TFOMTBS, the fear of missing the best song?  I doubt it since I just made it up.  I say I made it up, but it's actually somewhat of a problem for me.

My first car was a 1950 Chevrolet Deluxe.  No I didn't buy it new. I was born a few years later. That luxury sedan that sported a powerful flathead six under the hood got me around town in style.  And "around town" is literal since I wasn't comfortable taking it very far out of the city limits of Enterprise, Alabama. The cabin amenities included an AM radio with one speaker in the dashboard.  The radio had six presets, but that was five too many since Enterprise only had one radio station, WIRB. At night, though, it could pick up WLS 89 out of Chicago.  Listening to WLS late at night had a magical quality to it, even through one cheap speaker. So during the day my music choices were simple, tune to WIRB and listen to whatever they played. At night I had two choices. I usually just listened to the music out of Chicago.

My listening choices in my Nissan Altima are nearly unlimited. Through the Bose surround sound system I can play the radio, and also Spotify playlists and radio stations. I can play CDs. With the radio I have Sirius/XM satellite radio or AM/FM stations. XM radio alone offers me 223 stations. You may say, "So, you pay for your radio music?"  We all pay for radio music.  You can pay a subscription and listen to music virtually commercial free. Or you can listen to commercial radio and listen to three commercials for every song you hear.  I choose to pay the subscription.

XM gives me four pages of six presets, three pages of XM stations and one for  AM/FM stations. Although I have chosen stations for all twenty four presets, I usually just listen to the six on the first page. Number One is Channel 116  CNN News.  Some call  it "fake news" I just call it news. But I don't listen to it often because of the commercials (which aren't fake either, just annoying). I also don't appreciate the often disturbing nature of the information. Number Two is Channel 34, Lithium. This station is Alternative 90s music.  This music was the music of my son's teenage years. I enjoyed it then and I still do.  Number 3 is Channel  6 the 60s station. Number 4 is Channel 18, the Beatles Channel. Number 5 Channel 32 is The Bridge, folk 70s music.  Number 6 is Channel 26, Classic Vinyl.

So when I was a teenager listening to music on the radio was very simple.  I turned on the radio and listened to music.  Now just on Page One of four my music choices are immense. Thus TFOMTBS is a reality. Now when I'm listening to the Beatles station, for example,  and  they're playing something I don't particularly like, I can keep listening or five more options are a finger poke away. More often than not I change stations. When I'm listening to my favorite XM station, Channel 32, The Bridge I let it play through several not-my-favorite songs before I bolt.  But if they play three or four songs I don't particularly enjoy,  I press another preset, usually the sixties station. My adolescence straddled both of those decades so I often hear something I remember and like.  Sometimes when I turn on the radio, if I don't particularly enjoy what's playing I will sequentially go through all the presets to see if they're playing one of my favorite songs. If that search doesn't yield positive results, I'll just go to preset 1 and listen to the news.  It usually doesn't take very long, however,  for me to choose another option. Besides the commercials, there's only so much news that  I can stomach. Even if  some of the news is fake, my reaction to it isn't.

In spite of my somewhat OCD issues with the radio choices, there are times I put the radio on one station and just listen to it for a while. When I force myself to do that, occasionally the music approaches that WLS magical quality of my teenage years. "Then if that's the case, why not do it all the time?" you ask.  TFOMTBS ! Changing stations is as easy as pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

Yesterday I  read about emerging technology that will allow someone to steer a drone with only his thoughts.  I hope they'll use that technology in our cars.  It would save me a lot of time and effort.  And would be a lot safer as well.