Most people who live here agree . . . Los Angeles has one of the worst selection of radio stations. First, there’s a huge monopoly with many of the stations being owned by Clear Channel or Infinity Broadcasting. So you get cookie cutter stations — they’re all in the same buildings — synergy, the call it — boring radio I call it. Whiney song (not quite country, but let’s face it’s country), commercial, unfunny chat, commercial, weather (in L.A?), commercial, traffic (it’s slow, o.k.), commercial — that’s the drill.

I don’t really listen to NPR or Pacifica anymore — for the same reason Aaron McGruder blasted the folks at The Nation at a recent dinner . . . but I need something in the car . . . the traffic in L.A. moves like molasses . . . and rather than watching DVDs like many of the folks in their SUVs and minivans . . . I’m used to listening to the radio.

So my choice, of late has been KKBT — also known as The Beat.

I have bass in my car and I like to hear it. I like a little rhythm in my music. The question, I have, is why do I have to get the pseudo ignorant sounding, lyrics and between music chat with my music.

First, the lyrics . . .

“Rollin down the street, smokin indo, sippin on gin and juice
Laid back” — Snoop Dogg
“Everybody sing it now Pass the Courvoisier, Everybody sing it now Pass the Courvoisier” — Busta Rhymes
“everybody in the club gettin tipsy” — J Kwon

No liquor? Want sex?

“I want a lady in the street, but a freak in the bed, yeah, yeah”
“So tell me what u want, do u want it missionary with your feet crammed to the headboard?”

So, yeah, the music isn’t the best. The beat, is great, the message, not what I’d promote. What bothers me the most are the DJs. When you see these folks in other venues, they sound normal, talking like they have some familiarity with the English language. On the air — it’s like they have an out of body experience.

The broadcast is permeated with ‘yo, yo, yo” — every singer is ‘my girl, my brotha’ — And folks wonder why Bill Cosby spoke so honestly at the Howard University Brown celebration.

“Everybody knows it’s important to speak English except these knuckleheads. … You can’t be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth!” he said. Obviously DJs are not the intelligentsia of our society — but they could at least ratchet up the level of the conversation.

I like The Beat, because they feature black artists, but I don t want to have hear the glorification of drinking, getting drunk, and talking stupid to do it.

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