I try not to be a "grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" person. Really I don't.

Especially when it comes to radio.

I'll be out of town listening to a station and wish it was something that I could hear regularly in the Quad-Cities, but eventually realize that it's more the packaging of the station (industry types call it "imaging") than the music, most of which I can hear on area outlets.

I'm intrigued by stations such as "The Bus" (100.3 FM in Des Moines), "The Brew" (96.1 FM in Omaha, Neb.) and "The Big O" (101.9 FM, also in Omaha). Still, the songs they play are the about same as the ones that can be heard here.

But I found an exception in Des Moines. In the near-decade that I've been passing through our state's largest city, I've never been overwhelmed by its radio offerings. But that changed on my most recent trip when I latched onto "Capital 106.3."

There I heard such acts as Ray Lamontagne, Missy Higgins, Mat Kearney, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Matt Nathanson and The Script.

If any of those are played on area radio stations, it sure hasn't been while I'm tuned in.

Its tagline is "Quality music from then and now," and the station occasionally will dip into what it calls "Reagan-era rock," with select '80s oldies. The station changed its name to Capital 106.3 three years ago last month, and its format is called Triple A, or Adult Album Alternative. I haven't heard anything like it, even in larger markets. (In the most recent radio ratings, it's No. 14 among 23 stations in the Des Moines market, so it's not like it's setting the city on fire.)

Praising the station - owned by Clear Channel, which also runs the Quad-City Radio Group - is not meant to bash our area broadcasters. The ownership of both local radio clusters has had a very tough time of it the past several years, as has the entire industry, and I don't necessarily want to second-guess their format choices now.

This is not the time for the schlub from the area newspaper to whine, "Why can't weeee have a station like that?"

Discovering a stockpile of new music like that - just the right tempo, good lyrics, nicely produced - is like a gold mine for some of us in our late 30s or 40s who don't really mind the music from our youth but still want to hear something new once in awhile.

Ideally, media of any kind should make you feel better informed, entertained and current with what's going on.

And that's exactly how I felt for a few hours in the middle of Iowa several weeks ago.