Scanning radio stations on the way home, I stopped (on the lower end of the dial) to listen to one of those story songs, some crusty raconteur reliving some nutty story, with musical accompaniment to nudge the story along. There was probably a character missing a tooth, an eye or a leg. Probably booze was involved. I waited for the punch line, and it was delivered.

Then I found out about X-treme Folk.

Which, apart from the moniker, is a pretty cool concept for a Friday night radio program.

I've often wondered why the good public radio stations don't broadcast more adventurous overnight programming. The generous blue hairs wouldn't cut them out of their wills because someone played an edgy song at 3am. God knows Merck wouldn't mind.

Radio needs more late night raconteurs. (But thanks for the effort, Jack White).