Crime may not pay, but sometimes it translates into airplay . . . and weirdness. The title and impetus for this track comes from the mugger of CBS anchorman Dan Rather, who jumped the newsman from behind on a Manhattan street and repeatedly hit him in the head, asking over and over "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" Rather took it in stride, even joining the band as a backup singer for a performance on Letterman. R.E.M.'s frontman Michael Stipe called it the "premiere unsolved American surrealist act of the 20th century. But it gets weirder. Years later, when the mugger was caught he reportedly blamed the news media for beaming signals into his head--he's currently serving time for killing an NBC stagehand.