On my radio  By Sophie Best February 18, 2005 Matt Ward has
dedicated his new release to "the last of the independent radio
stations".  Photo: Supplied  M. Ward's new album harks back to
when freedom was on the airwaves. By Sophie Best.  Somewhere in
northern California, Matt Ward parted company with his childhood
transistor radio. "I lost it somewhere along the line in my
life," Ward says. "I don't remember when - but I somehow imagine
it sitting in this empty field, still playing the music that I
grew up with."  Such imaginings about the lost radio days of his
youth inspired Ward's new album, Transistor Radio, a love letter
to a vanishing era of American radio. It's the fourth full-
length release he has made under his abbreviated moniker, M
Ward, and he dedicates it to "the last of the remaining
independent radio stations".  "The idea of this record," Ward
explains, "was going back to a time in my life when I was
discovering radio and radio was really magical and mysterious,
and bigger than life."  Commerci