It's all the same stuff here: Rush, Jimmy Buffet, Tom Petty, Steve Miller, Motley Crue, etc. 50-60 years olds seem to dominate the concert world. I'm 44 this summer and most of the concerts here are too old for me, I don't know what the youth does.

After spending a week out in small-town USA, I have to say I was shocked at how every radio station out there sounded like it was 1974. I mean, Atlanta radio is awful (and has recently gotten worse, with a couple of the better stations changing formats to play exactly what the other guys play), but at least here you can occasionally hear music from people who are still alive.

I don't know what the youth does.

Much, much smaller venues. It's actually sort of awesome. I saw The Fiery Furnaces at a tiny club with a floor-level stage

Also, festivals.

Mud, I meant "what do young people watch in Pittsburgh" specifically 'cause it's such an old-fogey burgh. Groups like the Fiery Furnaces don't usually bother to play here because there are so few small clubs. Most of the clubs have closed in the last fifteen years, I don't think that there's a single music club in the university neighborhood where there used to be a dozen.

Oh, never mind me, then.

No problem, I'm just jealous.

There are country music fans in California?

And BeeP radio here sucks ass, too. It's npr or a cd or nothing. And I ain't ponying up for sirius yet.

It's npr or a cd or nothing. And I ain't ponying up for sirius yet.

Yup yup... same here on all counts.

Sirius is great but I only seem to listen to NPR on it. Radio has always sucked here. I was sad when they replaced Cool 105.9 (oldies) with top 40.

Most of the local 18-24 population here is busy with finals at Cal Poly and will not be around for June, July and August, so the Fair promoters know they're not the demographic to go for. But for a county with population under 300K spread over 3300 square miles (for a population density about 2/5 of the California average), and a not-all-that-convenient location tween LA and SF, we get a LOT of B-Listers.

Radiowise here, (where a bunch of Clear Channel stations were recently sold to two kinda-more-local radio groups) the #1 station is Spanish Language but two other stations in Espanol are at the bottom of the heap.

#2 is self-proclaimed "New Rock" (current #1: Ashes Divide "The Stone" - should I know who they are?).

#3 is Classic-Rock but not all Dinosaur (website poll: Who are you most excited to see at the California Mid State Fair? Steely Dan / Stone Temple Pilots / Rod Stewart / Matchbox 20).

#4 is K-PIG (if you don't know it, it's hard to explain).

#5 is "K-JUG" Country (I have a regrettable connection there from my 1970's radio days - details MUCH later). Yes, country is big in the non-LA/SF areas, but not that big here: but you'd expect folks going to The Fair to be more likely fans of Country (or showtunes from "Oklahoma").

#6 is a Rushbo Talk station (and a second station airing Limbaugh 25 miles away is farther down the list but still doing better than our AirAmerica station).

#7 and dropping is Adult/Softrock.
#8 is Classic Rock that's older than #3.
#9 is soft-core Hip Hop.
#10 is Oldies.

The student station at Cal Poly (where Weird Al once Dj'ed) is solidly College/NewMusic with "specialty music" shows from Classical to Punk in the evenings, and there's a separate semi-thriving NPR station here.

If you want to see what the most popular broadcast radio in your town is, go here.

There's a local station in southern Ohio that George used to have on in the car. Every day they'd have this thing called the Sellathon where people phoned in with stuff they had to sell, usually second-hand household goods.

One day this guy called in and said "Hey, you remember those miniature horses I was selling last week? There were no takers, so this week I'm selling miniature horse steak, $9.99 a pound ..."

Noooooo!!!!