So, today I discover that the local Adult Album Alternative station is still playing Shawn Mullins's "Lullaby."

Anyhow, WXRT for me seems to epitomize a certain milieu in Chicago and its suburbs. It has a welcoming and genually liberal (one might almost say democratic) vibe compared to other formats. Unlike the Classic Rock stations, it doesn't need to announce that it doesn't play hip-hop or R&B, and neither does it have some nebulous credo like "Music that rawks!!" or "The music you love"--most of which seem to have sinister undertones. At the same time it has its definite, severe (unspoken) limits, and in its bleached-white with token-black programming it resembles all too well the sort of polite segregation to be found on Chicago's North Side.

NB I find no redeeming qualities in "Lullaby."

XRT is the kind of station that hip parents listen to. They're also Cubs fans, drink Goose Island, and see shows exclusively at Schuba's and the Old Town School.

I wasn't actually trying to put down XRT through my demographic analysis -- just making some associations. (Uh-oh, I'm turning into Momus.) And anyway, I'd consider my dad one of those "hip parents."

That Shawn Mullins tune makes me want to kill.

What for whatever it's worth, they introduced me to the Velvet Underground when I heard Sweet Jane for the first time on XRT many moons ago. Everything bad that's been said is true, however.

I think another thing people like about it how respectful they are of their audience and how they try to forge genuine relationships between the on-air talent and the audience. As retarded as it sounds, I remember really liking Tom Marker as a person when I listened to the station.

"...In addition, Grandaddy have been added as headliners for this year's WXRT Boogeyman's Ball on Halloween night in Chicago. Now, I know, you must be thinking "Whoa! Grandaddy's headlining an Infinity-approved, Miller Lite-sponsored radio station concert event!" but it's not too hard to claw your way to the top when your only competitors are the North Mississippi Allstars and Rusted Root.

We're not sure which is more comical -- that the event is sponsored in part by a nut company (Fisher Nuts), or that the station will have shuttle buses poised to divert concertgoers to yuptastic sports bar She-nnanigans. We'll be pondering how Grandaddy ended up shilling for a station that somehow hits every cliche in the book, from Breakfast With The Beatles and a seemingly endless Deadhead hour on Sunday nights to the truly unbearable grab-bag that is the Friday Feature (case in point: next Friday's programming will be all Tom Petty and Natalie Merchant, all day) for quite some time. We have, however, caught Pitchfork editor-in-chief Ryan Schreiber grooving along to Wendy Rice's Saturday Morning Flashback on his clock radio. Steppenwolf is so much easier to take when you can snooze-button them away just in time to latch on to catch the next carpet with Creem."