I want to buy things at the HIGHEST PRICE EVER!

I've recently gone in a direction in my listening habits that I never thought I would: I've pretty much given up on listening to the radio. Way back in the days of high school, before iPods and even before CD burners, I would sit in my bedroom for hours with the radio on so I could hit record when that one song FINALLY came on. Even with the dawn of the CD burner and making mix CDs being far easier than creating mix tapes, I still listened to the radio all the time. How could I find new music without it? Even several years later, when mp3 players came into being, I still listened to the radio regularly. The last six months or so have changed this, though.

I always thought that I'd be hip to the popular music even in my old age. I still am, to an extent. I dig Lady Gaga. I love Taylor Swift. I've even developed an appreciate for Bruno Mars. But, the vast majority of what's playing on the radio nowadays sucks and it all sounds the same. I will listen to rap music, but to me, when rap is bad, it's downright horrific and lately, most of it falls into the horrific category.

Surprisingly, even the lack of good music is not the reason why I've given up the radio. There's a local station that plays really good music from the 80s, 90s, and today. However, there is one problem that every single station (at least in this area) shares.

Not a single commercial break goes by without me having to listen to at least two of those god-awful cash for gold commercials. I'm really not exaggerating about this. On the way to work I decided to give radio another chance. I turn it on, it's in the midst of one of these damn ads. I hit the preset button to go to the next preset station and the EXACT SAME ad is on only 2 seconds behind the first one. What is really mind boggling though is that the vast majority of them come from one particular local establishment and they play on every freakin station around. The few that are different establishments still sound exactly the same:

"Do you have old, broken, or unwanted jewelery? Bring it in to Crooks and Crannies Jewelers. The price of gold is at an all-time high, and we want to by your unwanted jewelry. Blah blah blah. Hardy har har. We're ripping you off and you probably don't realize it."

Something like that. It's that last part that makes me so sad. In normal life who goes, "I want to buy this stuff now that its price is more expensive than ever!!! Please come sell me your stuff!!!!"? The reason why these soul-sucking ads are on ALL THE TIME is because they work. People are desperate. They need money, so they sell their "unwanted" jewelry thinking they're getting a deal because the price of gold is "at an all time high." No...they're getting shafted. The jewelry crook buys the gold at a super ripped off discounted rate and then rips off sells to others at a more realistic exorbitant price. I once tried to help someone sell a diamond ring that cost more than $2000. They got one offer for it, and it was for $500. They took it because they needed the money. (Yes, I am aware of the incorrect grammatical usage of "they" here, but I think doing the whole his or her thing is stupid and will only do it when required.)

I'm not sure what my point is with all this except to say that the damn Cash For Gold places are ruining radio. If I had my own radio station, and a Cash For Gold place came to me for an ad spot, I'd tell them to piss off.