Voices of America: Patriotism, anger flood US airwaves

In recent days, DJs Chad Bowar and D. Ray Knight have done the unthinkable - they've voluntarily played a country music song.

Messrs. Bowar and Knight are, after all, irreverent hosts of Top 40 station KRCS's morning show here - more likely to lampoon the twang of Dwight Yoakam than to give him airtime. Yet, after the terror of Sept. 11, they were only too eager to play Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA."

From this remote hill town of farmers and Air Force pilots to the dust-encrusted streets of New York, Britney Spears is taking a back seat to the Boss, as titles like "Born in the USA" make a comeback. The shift is but one part of the nation's resurgent patriotism, as Americans respond to the worst act of terrorism in the nation's history with reams of red, white, and blue ribbon and millions of dollars of aid.

Indeed, for many younger citizens, the attacks of Sept. 11 have aroused a love of country previously felt only faintly through snippets of grandparents' stories or films about World War II.

With a renewed national pride, however, has come a demand for retribution. Few have an answer as to what should be done. But in this crucible of American patriotism - bracketed by Mount Rushmore to the south and Ellsworth Air Force Base to the east - the overwhelming sadness of the past two weeks is gradually giving way to a new resolve to act, increasingly evident on street corners and over the airwaves.

"We've seen people go from grief to anger," says Knight, whose size lends him more the appearance of a linebacker than a small-town radio "shock jock." "People are really mad right now."

Throughout the past few weeks, radio stations have been barometers of this public mood. Immediately after the attacks, requests led DJs to play anything that had an American theme.

Eric Andrews of KIQK country in Rapid City says the huge volume of requests for "God Bless the USA" prompted him to play it three times during his five-hour Tuesday show. He plays only the most popular songs twice, at most.

In addition, many stations are overlaying news clips on older songs with poignant titles - like Kid Rock's "Only God Knows Why" and Jewel's "Hands." Some have even gone so far as to nix songs that could be considered inappropriate.

Clear Channel Communications in Houston sent a list of 150 songs to its affiliates, suggesting that they might not want to play tunes such as R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It," the Dave Matthews Band's "Crash," and, oddly, Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

Here in Rapid City, an unassuming city of 50,000 swaddled in the first gentle folds of South Dakota's Black Hills, the changes have been welcome.

"Stations are playing a lot more patriotic music, and it really moves you," says Rick Ewing, a young Wal-Mart employee pinned with a red, white, and blue ribbon, who conscientiously walks as he talks, because he's "on the clock."

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