Mid-dawn.

I like to listen to the radio -- I much prefer it to CDs -- and usually have the stereo on all the time at home or in the car. I've always had a radio with me, too, when traveling, and have found some incredible music in unlikely places. The persistent reggaeton found across the dial in Panama enlivened a lot of already-fun bus rides there. And few stations can compare to Radio One in Dar es Salaam, which played a heady mix of East African pop, Lingala, and soukous.

(Mid-dawn, Missoula, July 20)

Topping all of those, however, was Triple J, an arm of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the down under equivalent to PBS or NPR. Triple J has two channels, one of which is heard in most of Australia's bigger cities and towns, and focuses on alternative, independent, local, and unsigned music. As they do with a lot of things, the Australians have music figured out pretty well, and this shows on Triple J; perhaps it's because, unlike most American radio stations, they play music that sounds good, not music that comes from a person who is socially popular at the moment. Even an hour of Triple J, after days of commercial radio, can be revelatory.

(Mid-morning, Cleveland Mountain, Sapphire Mountains, July 21)

Anyway, because of the time change I listen mostly to a show called Mid-Dawn, which I like for a lot of reasons. You can have a listen at http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/ (though the main station will not broadcast internationally during the Olympics, I see, we may still be able to listen to Triple J Unearthed which, by the way, makes all the music they play available for free download).

(Mid-afternoon from Bird Island, Flathead Lake, July 22)