Radio Rituals

Something reminded me of the song Alice’s Restaurant Massacree today, so I listened to it for probably the first time since 2008, the last time I did Thanksgiving with my parents.* We used to listen to it at my grandparents’ house every Thanksgiving because it played at noon on KFOG, the family’s favorite radio station. *(Since then I have refused to travel for Thanksgiving, the most nightmarish travel holiday. There are also a number of reasons I have mixed feelings about Thanksgiving.) I was reflecting how KFOG gave my family several ‘traditions’, simply by committing to broadcasting specific songs at specific times: radio as cultural infrastructure. (I’ve been reading about how communal rituals are something we’ve lost much of during modernity.) Along with Alice’s Restaurant on Thanksgiving, KFOG also played Smoke Two Joints every Friday at 5pm (“The Five O’clock Salute”), which we’d always put on if we were at home or in the car. We also started most Saturdays by listening to “10…

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