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I speak to this sign. I tell it “this is WNUR FM Evanston Chicago, Chicago’s Sound Experiment,” “you are listening to the rock show” and “we have a lot of great music to play for you tonight.”

The radio, increasingly overshadowed by its younger siblings television and the internet, still remains the most intimate media medium. Limited to a single sense, listeners must rely on their imaginations and the voice on the other side of the dial. Unfortunately for radio DJs, this intimacy is only a one way street. Sitting alone, hosting my first rock show of winter quarter, I spoke to a sign on the wall. Outside of calls, I have no way of knowing if people are listening. DJs exist in a bubble of isolation.

Fortunately, WNUR has listeners. The station, blessed with a signal range that reaches well into Chicago, has one of the country’s largest listenerships for a college radio station. Additionally, WNUR fans are notoriously vocal and dedicated, paying half of the station’s operating budget through donations. But WNUR is ironically a college radio station that is more popular off campus.

While sports broadcasts attract some collegiate listeners, the station’s biggest student demographic are Wildcats already affiliated with the station. The station’s eccentric, albeit award-winning, programming schedule strives to accomplish WNUR’s mission statement of broadcasting underrepresented music but is often considered alienating by casual listeners expecting a more streamlined Clear Channel experience. Is it any surprise that a station that refuses to play popular music isn’t that popular?

The following week when my co-host and WNUR general manager Doug Kaplan joins me in the station, I ask him the same question. “Our music is better than popular,” Doug laughs. “It’s good!” He returns to nonchalantly flipping through a stack of a dozen CDs improperly left on the counter instead of returned to the station’s extensive library.

“Besides, if we were just playing the stuff people already have in their iTunes, they wouldn’t listen to us for that either.” Deciding the stack did not contain any albums worth keeping, Doug disappears into the library to presumably file the misplaced CDs before momentarily returning. “And who says we aren’t popular?”

He has a point. WNUR has been around since May 8th, 1950, but radio is significantly different today. With iPods, file sharing, Youtube and satellite radio, it has never been easier for a music lover to control what they listen to and where they can listen to it.

There is no longer a need to trust music listening to a stranger. Even more adventurous listeners can still ensure an enjoyable “radio” experience by visiting sites like Pandora that broadcast music catered to user style preferences. The mighty iPod can now surf the web and cook toast but fails to broadcast radio. With cell phones rapidly replacing clock radios as the preferred alarm of choice for students, radio fans better hope Steve Jobs reveals an iPhone app soon to save the medium. Add radio to the list of things the internet has ruined, right next to newspapers and my attention span.

It seems that for our generation, a lack of alternatives is the only scenario that compels radio use. Our culture of personalization enabled by recent advances in technology has left us more interested in our own musical preferences than a random radio DJ’s tastes. The trend is isolating and self-reinforcing — two common side effects of modern technological comforts — but perhaps worst of all, prevents students from exposure to underrepresented artists, a music liberal arts education.

“I listen to the radio when I’m bored of my music and want to hear something new and fun and exciting. [WNUR is] at least all of that,” shouts Doug over the shards of post-punk guitar broadcasting from the studio. The phone lights up with a call from a Chicago listener requesting a recent song title from his car.

For our purposes, the major three systems will be judged on the basis of price, established game library, longevity and their appeal in a college environment.

Microsoft Xbox 360

Price: B+
Ranging from the $270 Arcade Pack to the $450 Elite version, you get what you pay for with the 360. Without a hard drive or wireless controller, the Arcade Pack should be avoided, but the $350 Pro version with a holiday bundle includes two games (Forza Motorsport 2 and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance) as well as a wireless controller and a 20GB hard drive, providing the best return on your investment.

Library: A
Released a year before its competitors, the Xbox 360 easily has the largest, and arguably best, library of games. With huge console-exclusive hits like Halo 3, Gears of War, Mass Effect, Dead Rising and BioShock, and nearly unanimous third-party support with titles like Madden, Guitar Hero III, Call of Duty 4 and Rock Band, there is plenty to play. The current trend is to develop games initially for the 360 and then port them to the PS3, meaning that 360 games are out sooner and of higher quality.

Longevity: B-
The average console lifespan is five years, and the 360 is on its second. People looking to purchase a 360 this holiday probably won’t need to worry about Microsoft announcing the Xbox 720 anytime soon, but the console likely only has another three to four years left in it.

College Factor: A
On college campuses across America, five games reign supreme: Guitar Hero, Madden, Halo, Grand Theft Auto and Super Smash Bros. Sure, other games are popular, but they aren’t even in the same ballpark. Although Super Smash Bros is not available on the 360, the Halo series is exclusive to the platform. Frat houses also love EA Sports games, and Microsoft’s box is definitely the system for that.

Overall: B+

Sony Playstation 3

Price: C+
Dropping the price to $400 for the new 40GB system and $500 for the 80GB version was a good call by Sony, though the consequent lack of backwards compatibility hurts the console’s value. If you have an HDTV, then you can raise the score an entire letter grade because it’s a fantastic price for a Blu-Ray player. However, seeing as how we’re all paying tuition at Northwestern University, I can’t imagine too many of us own high-end television sets in our dorm rooms.

Library: C+
The Playstation 3’s library is the system’s greatest weakness. Platform-exclusive games like Resistance: Fall of Man, Ratchet & Clank Future, Heavenly Sword, Motorstorm and Lair range from decently good to disappointingly mediocre. With Final Fantasy XIII and Metal Gear Solid 4 not being released until 2008 at the earliest, it’s no secret that the PS3 has yet to have its “killer app.” And of course, no backwards compatibility means fewer games to play. With few compelling exclusives and inferior multiplatform releases, the Playstation 3 hurts where it matters the most: the games.

Longevity: B+
Sony has made a big deal about “future-proofing” the PS3, and the system’s 10-year lifespan. While nobody usually believes this PR bullshit, the PS2 still receives ample support in its senior years. If Sony’s track record is any indication, they’ll be supporting the PS3 for a long time to come. However, if the PS3 fails to pick up some steam and start selling consoles, it isn’t out of the question for Sony to prematurely kill the console and get an early start on the PS4.

College Factor: B
Unlike the 360 or Wii, the Playstation 3 has few exclusives that have a large appeal to college crowds. Resistance may be a good game, but college students prefer the Halo and Call of Duty series. Most importantly, tell sports fans that the PS3’s version of Madden ‘08 has a significantly slower frame rate than the 360’s version, and then watch how fast Xbox 360s will sell.

Overall: B-

Nintendo Wii

Price: B+
At $250, you can’t complain much about the Wii’s price tag. However, the quirky Nintendo console is also the least feature-rich of the three. While the Xbox 360 can stream media from your computer and the PS3 can play Blu-Ray movies, the Wii can’t even play DVDs, a function the PS2 mastered seven years ago.

Library: C+
If you’ve never owned a video game console before, or are a 6-year-old girl, add a letter grade to this score. If you’ve been a fan of video games in the past, don’t feel bad—Nintendo just doesn’t care about you anymore. They’re more interested in targeting the casual market with “games” like Wii Fit or various mini-game collections. There are a few beacons of light for the Nintendo faithful, such as Super Paper Mario, Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which is coming out Feb. 10. However, most titles released are sloppy PS2 and PSP ports and mediocre casual games targeted at soccer moms and elementary school students. The only thing keeping the Wii’s library from a worse grade is the robust line-up of classic games on the Virtual Console.

Longevity: B-
Sure, it’s more popular than God, but the Wii’s technology is already dated. Hardly more powerful than its predecessor that came out six years ago, the Wii is technologically underwhelming. Also, Nintendo knows how to make a quick buck with hardware reiterations every few years (e.g. DS Lite, GBA SP). While I wouldn’t expect the Wii 2 to come out for several years, I would not be surprised to see a sexier, more feature-rich Wii released, or at least announced, by the end of next year.

College Factor: A-
While it may feature technologically inferior versions of Madden and Guitar Hero, nobody can deny the party potential of the Wii as the most social console of all time. All of those shitty mini-game collections become the life of the party once you get a large enough group of your drunken friends together. It even comes with Wii Sports, so everyone on your floor can instantly start having fun. The casual nature of the Wii appeals to a wider audience than any console since the original NES, so everybody can play instead of just hardcore gamers. Not to mention, there are people on this campus who still routinely play the last Smash Bros. game that came out six years ago, and the release of that little game Super Smash Bros. Brawl is not too far off.

Overall: B

By no means has this article solved your console purchase dilemma. All three consoles are different from one another, and what’s right for one person isn’t necessary right for everybody. However, by following these guidelines, you’ll have a better idea about what you’re purchasing come Black Friday. There are enough great games on each system to be thankful for regardless of whatever console you end up with at the end of the holiday season.

Don’t let these poor fools get you down about purchasing Guitar Hero III (that’s EA’s job when Rock Band comes out this month). Here’s why learning to play real guitar just isn’t a viable alternative.

Playing guitar is HARD. I don’t know if you’re ever tried playing a guitar, but it’s not as easy as five colorful buttons and a single switch. Between six strings and more finger positions than the Kama Sutra, you won’t even have figured out how to play “Smoke on the Water” before you would’ve reached the final song in Guitar Hero. While some people spend a large amount of time playing Guitar Hero, the same time invested in the real instrument wouldn’t translate into equivalent shredding skills.

Learning guitar doesn’t guarantee rocking. Even if you did invest your time into mastering the guitar, it still doesn’t grant you the same experiences as Guitar Hero. To shred through the solo of “Bark at the Moon,” you would need to find talented musicians willing to form a band and indulge in playing guitar-heavy cover songs. Playing a video game for a few hours for a vaguely similar experience is sounding better all the time.

Guitar Hero is different from playing real guitar. Despite imitating its real-life counterpart, Guitar Hero appeals to gamers in a different way. Whereas a real guitar requires the player to remember finger positions, chords, strings and rhythms, people playing Guitar Hero just press colorful buttons in time with on-screen indications. This is why the game is so appealing: It simplifies playing a guitar into a fun and approachable formula that’s easy for everybody to pick up.

Learning to play guitar may be an easy comparison for those who have never tried Guitar Hero before, but don’t let their snide comments discourage you from enjoying your status as a virtual rock star. Not all of us want to spend the months required to master the instrument, form a band and learn the 40 or so songs from the game’s set list just to have a similar experience. The reason the Guitar Hero series has been so wildly popular is precisely because it’s simple, allowing gamers to feel the rush of being a rock star without the tedious bits of, you know, actually doing it. So slam your bright green and red frets proudly, and don’t let anybody make you feel like a lesser human being for it.