Listening to the World - Andorra

Before I commence with the latest installment, a question.

What is the word for those goofy sound effects that seem to be present on every single music radio station on the planet? The things that go:

Important Voice: "You are listening to Radio Example" Neeeeeeeee-- Yooooowwwwww Clud Clud Clud Clud "All Hit Radio."

Or:

Stern Female Voice: "It it two minutes past the hour." Bink-dink-a-dink diddly dink "Time for News Update." Bink-dink-a-dink diddly dink "With Chet Example." Bink-dink-a-dink diddly dink.

I'm curious about how these things have come to be so ubiquitous and so similar.

Anyway, to business.

The Principality of Andorra is a small pseudo-independent country (While it is an independent nation, the title of "Co-Prince" is given simultaneously to the current Prime Minister of France and the current Bishop of Urgell. I love crap like this! I want to go there now!) occupying a hunk of the Pyrenees between France and Spain.

The language spoken there is Catalan. I'd always presumed that Catalan was a close sub-dialect of Spanish. I was wrong. It seems to be more related to Portuguese than anything, but I do hear a bit of French rattling around in it.

I've been beating my head against this site for a while and had found loading the radio feed was impossible. But then I found my way to this site which has the correct feed.

You will notice that the station (94.2 FM) is listed as being "local music."

Local music in Andorra is nuts.

I'd put about 20 per cent tops as "local music" although for all I know the songs that seem local are from France and Spain. The rest is what I am forced to call "eclectic."

I hate to use the term "eclectic" because it has come to imply a sort of willful effort to go digging for rare and obscure nuggets that the presenter is delighted for the opportunity to share with an audience that will appreciate the musical nuances of the juxtapositions created when one track follows another of a seemingly unrelated style.

This station might be doing that. Or it might be just some guy in the control room throwing tapes in the machine at random. My favorite moment was when I heard Popcorn followed by the Fine Young Cannibals followed by someone covering The Crash Test Dummies on pan-pipes. Did someone sit down and come up with that, or was it just a fluke? I can't decide. I love that.