The Experiment.

I am conducting an experiment with one of my local radio stations. This particular station plays mostly pop and "light rock" music. They are also owned by Clear Channel, who was behind many country music stations banning the Dixie Chicks (because Clear Channel is based in Texas, etc., and owns some 1,000 radio stations).

This radio station plays many "crossover" country artists, so I wanted to determine if they would play the Dixie Chicks, specifically their newer songs.

During their request hours, I requested "Not Ready to Make Nice" by the Dixie Chicks from one e-mail address; five minutes later, I requested "Thunder Road" by Bruce Springsteen from another e-mail address (I had to make the song distinctive enough, so I would know it wasn't requested by someone else).

My logic is that if they played Springsteen’s song and not the Dixie Chicks’ song, obviously the Dixie Chicks must be banned from this station, too (I actually think they do play the Dixie Chicks on a local country music station, as I’m sure I’ve heard "Wide Open Spaces" lately; again, though, would they play "Not Ready to Make Nice"? That’s an experiment for another time).

Unfortunately, neither request was played today. Possibly I made the requests too late—maybe too many were already ahead of me.

I am going to make two song requests every day until I determine for one way or another if they will play the Dixie Chicks.

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Bush-gems from today’s press conference:

"Money trumps peace."

"I don't know what's going in Iraq because I'm in this beautiful White House."