The top three in Fort Wayne radio these days: 1. Oldies rock, 2. Country, 3. Talk, which is a change (hat tip to Nathan, whose noticing of it called my attention to it). But talk fatigue isn't just happening here. This is the one year in four in Indiana in which we have no elections at any level, and people are probably taking a needed break from politics. People here and in the rest of the nation will probably jump back in next year. Once upon a time, we had a pretty good mix of talk shows across the political spectrum in Fort Wayne. Now, it's hard to find anything but conservatives. I'm not particularly eager to hear Air America's liberal ranting, but a little diversity wouldn't hurt.
Our taste for rock music (at least one slice of it) seems to go against the national norm. Maybe it's true that rock 'n' roll will never die, but it's getting real sick on the radio. Programmers don't know quite what to do with it. It's kind of a scary thought, by the way, that one day there will be "oldies" stations playing all rap from the aging X and Y generations' pasts.
Another lack of Fort Wayne radio is a full-time Spanish-language station, which we'll probably have as soon as the Hispanic population reaches a critical mass. I listen to one from Indianapolis -- Radio Latina, 107.1 FM -- when I visit my mother and sister there. I listen to the Fort on the Saturday morning drive out of town (highlights of the week from Bob and Tom), then pick up an old-timey country station in Marion when that fades out, then to Radio Latino for the last part of the trip. It makes for an interesting two and a half hours.
