After dark

Late last night I was driving home from Cleveland and in need of something over the airwaves that would help me stay awake. With my brain pretty much wiped clean from 23 films in four days and not a lot of sleep in that time, making a decision as to what to listen to on the iPod was too much. (So it doesn't sound like I was in any danger of dozing off behind the wheel, I can say that I felt plenty alert.)

I scanned through AM stations hoping to find sports talk or a ballgame, but all I seemed to come across were religious stations and conservative political talk. I was briefly mesmerized by a traffic update station that repeated the same detour information ad infinitum. Eventually I stumbled upon a station playing an old song. The DJ backsell indicated that the songs prior were from Peggy Lee and a Bryan Ferry track from the 9 1/2 Weeks soundtrack. I thought these were unusual things to hear--a music station on AM isn't common either--so I decided to stick around as long as I could pick up the signal.

As the day changed a show called "Midnight Blue" began. The first couple songs sounded like they could have been played off of 78s. Then the host introduced herself and the program, uttered double entendres, and spun Isaac Hayes "Moonlight Lovin' (Ménage à Trois)". This was certainly different.

I felt like I'd come across a station for lonely hearts and insomniacs, the kind of place where Tom Waits' deejay character in Mystery Train worked. The music consisted of bawdy early rock and roll, suggestive old blues tunes ("Banana in Your Fruit Basket"), funky R&B, and anything else that might sound a forlorn siren call late at night.

I could hardly believe my ears. Where in the world was this strange broadcast coming from? The station identified itself as AM740, but I had to listen for twenty minutes before an ID placed its origin in Toronto. Maybe a city that large can accommodate something as weird as this station?

The ads weren't plentiful, but they did break the illusion that the show cast, although one spot sounded like it was for a "massage parlor" or escort service, which would have fit the tone of the show. Some static interfered with my reception, so maybe I misheard.

I was able to keep fairly good reception all the way home. By that time "The All Night Juke Box"--their spelling, not mine--was cranking out an atypical selection of tunes. The drive definitely went faster because of listening to this fresh (if old) mix of music. For awhile it was like I'd picked up some decades-old broadcast that had been lost and just now bounced back to earth or been transported into an alternative movie universe.