While driving home from La Puente last night at about midnight, I had the opportunity to spend about an hour in the car listening to what purported to be Los Angeles' most wide-in-scope programming, both on KLON and KCRW. KLON was hard bopping itself into a frenzy, with detours through established Latin bands with post-Trane tenor solos and a couple of tiptoes through "new" jazz artists (more hard bop). And a couple of Bill Holman-type modern big band things (please kill me). KCRW's "progressive and eclectic" pop offerings were no less provincial. No offense to any Beck fans, but anything that occupies the Top 40 as much as Beck is hardly an alternative to commercial radio. In short, I didn't exactly hear anything that made me curious about what I was listening to. Taking a page from the Book Of Biafra (Jello, that is), I have decided, rather than to Hate The Media, to Become The Media. Here's the deal -- and, unfortunately, I can only open it to United States Zorn listers: Forty minutes of stuff people need to hear -- in print, out of print, whatever. The only rules: 1. None of the content is allowed to be from the pop top forty anytime after 1966. This includes cuts from albums that have made it to the pop top forty, so VESPERTINE and the last three Tom Waits albums don't qualify. 2. You make two copies and pass 'em along to your pals. 3. No more than one cut per artist. 4. Ellery Eskelin cannot be present on any of the cuts. 5. Don't include your own music. You send me your disc and .60 in postage, and I'll send you my disc. Contact me off-list for snail mail info. Money's too tight for people to drop $18 on records we've heard or read about. I want to be inspired to go into a record store because I've HEARD something compelling. No use cursing the available media. It's time to tap each other. We are as a group an informed consumership, but we're a pretty divergent group. Let's really put that to tangible cmmonity benefit.