The Infinite Dial

It almost proved to be harder to listen to Charlotte, N.C., radio in Charlotte than on the Internet.

When I got in the cab at the airport, I asked the driver to turn on the radio. "Why would you want to do that?" he asked, clearly a little annoyed. Then he insisted there was no radio in the cab. "You don't need it; we'll be downtown in 15 minutes." I explained--as if I needed to--that listening to the radio was part of what I did for a living. Finally, he grudgingly turned on the radio, but warned that he didn't want to lose the station he was currently tuned to, which turned out to be NPR affiliate WFAE, which was running PRI's syndicated "Here And Now."

Also heard today, in between the NAB registration and the opening reception:

* Classic Rock WRFX (the Fox) -- At a time when many Classic Rock stations have gotten older and softer, they were relatively crunchy in middays: a Don Henley here or an Elton John/"Rocket Man" there, but also AC/DC/"Shoot To Thrill" into Styx/"Renegade," as well as the Southern Rock that you'd expect--Allman Brothers, ZZ Top, and a Charlie Daniels Band threefer!

* WIBT (the Beat) -- This Rhythmic Top 40 was doing a few interesting things. Although this market in particular has been doing a good job of filling the online stopsets, they were the first station to run promos welcoming Web listeners and/or soliciting Web advertisers. They ran a "new music" stager that read "96.1 The Beat, excited about ..." instead of "new music from." And their Website invites listeners to submit pictures of their cat under the headline, "Show us your big ol' kitties."

But here's something else interesting about the Beat: I also heard night jock Jojo do a crossplug for the morning show in which he mentioned that the morning show would be stunting from a soon-to-be unveiled (and seemingly polarizing) local sculpture. In doing so, it was the first mention I'd heard of any local news event in two days of market listening.

To be fair, I've been concentrating on music radio so far--and outside morning drive. I've heard plenty about local sponsors and upcoming station events. But I don't feel like I've heard a lot about the city yet. It's a safe bet that my three days at NAB/R&R will include a lot of speeches about the importance of localism. But will it include local content, too?