Radio Etiquette

There was this "Jarhead" (Marine) who was listening
to a book on tape. It was some Military story. I thought
I was going to gag.

When I drive, I tend to listen to a station that plays traffic reports regularly, because that is useful information. I would prefer to have my music, but just anything on the radio helps me enjoy the commute more. I do keep the volume down in the back and adjust the volume as the traffic noise level increases and decreases.

But when I ride, I have no expectation of what I will be listening to, as it is not my car. I figure whatever makes the driver less stressed in an often stressful commute is fine by me. Whether it is annoying music (completely subjective), a preacher (the worst!) or a book-on-tape (pretty bad) that I am privvy to only the 30-40 minutes I hear while in the car, I don't really care. I sort of figure that that can be my "stress", since I don't have to deal with defensive driving, traffic laws, or sitting in traffic and having to pay attention. If I ws overly concerned with my driver's music, I would then bring a CD player and listen with headphones quietly (so others in the car cannot hear it) as I see others do.

I'm waiting for someone NOT to turn on the radio. Everyone seems to think the radio has to be on, no matter what. How about just complete silence an the nice road noise.

I usually put on 104.1 in the morning. They have a morning drive show that is amusing and clean and every once in a while they play a song. I find it a comical alternative to the WTOP monotony.

When I was in the military and had to live in an Open Squad bay (barracks) I learned to tolerate and even enjoy all types of music.
So it is no problem for me listening to different stations in someone's car. Volumn is my only issue, for example, when I got into one car, the woman decided to crank up the gospel music much louder. I guess she felt I needed Jesus through song and the increased volumn would help.