Radio stations and Cinco de Mayo

I have a very high tolerance for bad pop music. Love my top 40 over-played "hits." If it's over-produced, over-exposed, over-advertised and otherwise over-anything, you can bet it's playing loudly in my car. I love the self-indulgent, likewise over-produced morning shows that play the bad pop music, occassionally even listen through a commercial break if I think there's a ridiculously, embarassingly catchy Destiny's Child or Ashlee Simpson song on the other side. But what pushes me over the edge (or, what inevitably drives me straight back to the loving arms of NPR) is the ridiculous excuses they find to inflict their DJ's on the innocent radio-listening public. Case in point: Cinco de Mayo. I think my locally affiliated arm of the Infinity Broadcasting behemoth is managing to be at no fewer than 1,746 places simultaneously this Friday, interrupting our peaceful salsa-slurping, margarita-imbibing, and "Arriba!-"declaring...

Thing is, it's not just Cinco de Mayo...it's President's Day, it's Halloween, it's Valentine's day, (ooh, definitely can't forget St Patty's day....one of their favorites. If they can invade every local Irish pub in the greater Seattle Area in their "party vans" that makes them that much better than the other radio stations managing only to invade 97%)...no occassion to set up a tent and let teenagers give a "shout out" to their friends (inevitably with names like Chelsea, Jenny, Brittany, Lindsay, Carlie...always ending in "eee" sounds) is too small an occassion.

But here's my complaint: as a basically materialistic, more-or-less shopping-addicted, generally fashion-magazine-purchasing 20-something, I'm right in their target zone...I'm supposed to be responding to the "Get on the VIP List" invitations like tabloids to Teri Hatcher...I'm supposed to be spending my weekends at the same clubs and malls and car dealerships they're camped out, looking forward to weekends spent amped up on any combination of Red Bull and liquor I can get my hands on -I'm supposed to be on the edge of my seat waiting for the "By Invitation Only" Halloween Party, or that "Come get a free tank of gas and a bumper sticker" President's Day extravaganza...problem is...I don't do any of that. I just like bad top 40 music. I don't flock to the strip mall with my four Seven-jeans-wearing best friends hoping that "cute" DJ will be there and put me on the radio for three seconds so I can giggle and then text message the rest of my friends to find out if they heard me...

I just like bad music.

Surely I'm not alone...?