It took me eight months of having this here website before I mentioned Mary Lucia, which may not seem significant. But you gotta remember that was back in 2001 and, well, I don’t know Mary Lucia outside of being a friendly, often sardonic voice on the radio.

When I was a young twenty-something working at a gas station, Mary Lucia & REV-105 got me through many, many shifts where I was filled with ennui and cigarette smoke.

When I was a later twenty-something Mary Lucia & DRIVE-105 got me through the first years of my career. She and Brian Oake did a morning show that I listened to every day on my way commute to work.

Then of course there was The Current, which I chronicled with giddy abandon.

So yeah, Mary Lucia has been someone I’ve been listening to for the most part of twenty years, and yesterday her voice was temporarily silenced by a stalker. It is heartbreaking and infuriating and scary and makes me want to pound obscenities out on my keyboard.

I hope Mary Lucia finds solace and justice during her leave of absence from the airwaves.

Her absence along with Barb Abney’s firing and Jacquie Fuller’s departure means that a station I once applauded for having so many women on air is going disappointingly dude-centric for awhile.

It’s disappointing because obviously The Current’s bench of female on-air talent is not as deep as the male one. It’s disappointing because if you really are committed to having women on the radio then you do it. It’s disappointing because it’s really very easy to find a dude talking about rock & roll anywhere on the planet, but it takes effort and diligence and perseverance to find the female voices and when you do find them to elevate them.

And really, I’m fucking pissed because I’m forty-two years old and it shouldn’t be this fucking hard to find women like me talking about, writing about, and being part of the discussion about something we’re passionate about. And it is. And damnit. I’m tired of it.