In an echo chamber you yell and only hear your own voice bouncing back, much like the Internet. And when you see the outside world, you stand in wonder and agape when your slanted view of common understanding backfires. Why doesn’t everyone get my joke about Andy Kaufman joining the UFC? Sure, it’s tremendously convenient to hop on that internet-movie-net-web-flicks dot what-what and watch exactly what you want when you want to, but you’ve robbed yourself of surprise from the universe.
I don’t mean the universe jumping out of the closet and saying “boo” – I mean giving the universe and all its infinite facets a chance to make you learn something new, be it pleasant or upsetting – and I think both are important. Growth is living. Do not let an echo chamber suck your life away. Suck your life away. Your life away. Life away. Away.
I suggest to you – a broadcast schedule is the perfect answer to tired creative circles. I’m not talking about television – does that thing even still plug in? I’m talking about the original broadcast, radio. Specifically: Trent Radio, 92.7 fm, and the fact that we have a wild and weird broadcast schedule filled with all-new shows that just started.
Sure, podcasts and downloads are an interesting extension of radio content, but they can get you in the same entertainment loops that trap you into thinking your celebrity gossip is on everyone’s minds. No! People are different! Break out of your habit, and turn on the radio.
You may find something here on 92.7 fm that flagrantly reinforces your own bias, and since you came by it honestly, you can feel vindicated by the universe. (In such case it will jump out of a closet and vindicate you personally.) However, behold a broadcast schedule’s wondrously sequential order – after that show you may hear another with which you profoundly disagree, which makes you appalled and disgusted by humanity, human choices, and language use. Fantastic! Be upset!
Perhaps there are just too many things to be upset about these days, the passion of it is dulled, but I think it’s really important to get nice and angry about things now and again.
Anger means challenge, and all ideas should be strong enough to withstand challenge. You don’t get that in an echo chamber; the challenging of ideas. Challenging of ideas. -Enging of ideas. Ing of ideas. Ideas. Eas.
Of course, within these two extreme reactions to Trent Radio – feeling you’ve found your people and feeling the need to burn humanity to the ground – is a more common spectrum of response. You will probably oscillate up and down the scale over the course of several hours of programming, running the gambit between: “That’s weird but I kinda like it. (Might grow to love it, but probably not.)”, “What is this weirdo doing? (My brain is trying to decide if you’re an idiot or my new intellectual crush.)”, and, “Blek. (Turn it off.)” These are all perfectly reasonable responses, and none of them echo.
That is the advantage of a broadcast schedule. It can be all these things, all of them challenging your creative pallet. Music. Chatting. Strange music. Upsetting chatting. New music. A smoothly told story. Alienating music. A lively debate. Student news. Community news. Rocking tunes of a new-age-too-new-for-knowing. Laughter. Gardening. Flirting. Sharing. Being.
See? No echo chamber anywhere – anywhere. Anywhere around here. 92.7 fm, listen with frequency.
