Mountain Stage

I have been listening to NPR since middle school, when Dad and I would turn on Garrison Keillor on our way to the cabin after church. It is one of our nation's greatest assets and completely and the source of some of the funniest smart humor around. Of course, there is also the music.

One of my favorite shows, especially when I'm drivin', is, was, and shall remain Mountain Stage, which turns 25 this year, is (usually) out of Charleston, West-by-God-Virginia, and its one of the best damn music shows around for just about anything you'd want, be it folk, Celtic, bluegrass, rock, jazz . . . heck, just check out the musician list, you'll hear what I mean.

Let me hit the downside - the website, well, it kinda' ain't good. The "about" page says the show is 20 years old, if that says how behind it is (even if you discount the spotty first three years, yeah, that's still two years behind). I say it kinda' ain't good for one key reason - you can only access the most recent show on the site - that's right, no online archives. Not only that, at the time I'm writing this I don't even see a way for you to purchase old shows. Alas.

What that means, in other words, is the badness of the website is a product of the fact that it gives us inadequate access to a great show. I hope that changes soon, but in the meantime we'll have to content ourselves with the available, um, content.

Two additional things I just thought were cool:

1) Dig these stats:

A few demographic facts about the audience of Mountain Stage:

Program audience median age is 46.6
54% of the audience are male, 46% are female
56% of the audience have a college or advanced degree
37% of the audience have incomes of $75,000 or more

and 2) dig this festival (and its online jukebox - c'mon guys, this is the idea. . . ).