...So, there's been a little bit of a shakeup on Bay Area radio these days. Stations have switched hand, stations have switched formats. And then there's the easy listening station that went to all Christmas music all the time the day before Thanksgiving (ugh). It's always disconcerting when the radio landscape changes. Especially when there's something that's old, yet new. There's a new station in town that's dedicated to talk radio.

FM talk radio. No, not Air America or anything like that (that still lives on AM radio). It's called Free FM. And they're edgy. Very edgy - knife sharp and willing to draw blood. And they've got some of the most successful (and most notorious) DJs from the history of San Francisco Bay Area radio. Folks who've been fired. Folks who have left in disgrace (or other unexplained phenomena). People who were dropped when formats changed on them.

And they can talk about whatever they feel like. It's interesting. I'm hooked, only because they have the original Rebel Redhead - the Ovaries With Attitude DJ from the early days of 107.7 The Bone (which was originally positioned to compete against another local classic rock station, but changed to be more classic rock with an attitude a couple of years later) - Darian O'Toole.

LOVE Darian O'Toole. Absolutely hysterical woman who isn't afraid to speak her mind. Moreso than I. That's right folks, someone who is more outspoken than I am. And not afraid to do it on the airwaves as her career! Constantly. Every 5 minutes. Anyway, I digress.

I love Free FM. FM talk radio that's definitely aimed at the 20 - 39 demographic. And I'm being generous when I say they're aiming at the older 30s. They seem to be aiming more at men (oh yeah, with a couple of thier DJs that's pretty obvious they're looking for the young and stupid male demographic). They rock - without the music. But there's something that's really bothering me about the station, and when it happened there, that's when I realized that it's happening everywhere. People in the studio while the show is live have their cell phone ringers set to ON. Or LOUD. Or on the So Annoyingly Loud That You Can Hear It In Church And Everyone Stares At You setting.

I kid you not. I've been hearing cell phones ring on live radio. And it's not my phone. And since I'm usually alone in the car when I'm listening, I can tell you that it's definitely not the phone of any of my passengers, unless ghosts with telecommunication devices are hitching rides with me.

Cell phones. On the radio. I was just listening to a recap of the infamous John London, and *his* cell phone rang. He's the jock du-jour for the afternoon drive, and his cell phone rang. And he ANSWERED it. He did tell whomever it was who called him that he was on the air, and afterwards that he didn't care that he answered it on air because of the cavalier attitude that the owners of the station had towards the fact that their #1 property was moving to satellite radio in a much talked about deal and had a 20 minute segment about it on that owners own television property. (I'm sure if you think about it, you can probably figure out which megarich, megaobnoxious shock jock I'm talking about.) But honestly... a cell phone? ON AIR?

What is this world coming to? It's bad enough that you've got to deal with cell phones and crackberries in the workplace, in meetings, at restaurants, in bathrooms (a particular peeve of mine that I go out of my way to reveal to the person on the other end of the call by flushing the toilet repeatedly)... but on the RADIO?

When's it gonna end people? Would you call and complain to a station manager if you heard an on air talent answering a cell phone? Or even *hearing* a cell phone ringing in the background? I once caught a mike open on a station (you know, when you hear people talking behind the music that's playing because they *forgot* to close the mike), and a cell phone was ringing. You couldn't hear anything else, which made me briefly believe that it was part of the song, but apparently the folks had moved away from the mikes. After the break it was a listener who called in and called them on it. Since when has that become acceptable practice in radio-land?

No, this isn't a cell phone rant - it's a radio rant. Radio is one of those places where people have certain standards that they have to uphold (or they should) and is one of those places that people come to depend on. We don't hear about someone's personal crap on the radio unless that's the makeup of the show. We don't hear someone's peronal cell phone ring, unless they make it part of the stunt of the day. We're not supposed to hear someone's phone ringing and they actually answering it... whether or not they're the on-air talent or the producer, or engineer, or other supporting role of the team that's on-air. It's radio. It's supposed to be quiet back there folks. Or is this supposed to be some new acceptable behavior for on-air talent...

...if so, then I can't wait for the anchor on the evening news to take a call on-air from his mom on his cell phone.