The Infinite Dial

When I'm headed to a convention, I try to do some of my local market listening ahead of time on the Internet. After all, one's listening time at the actual convention is limited to the hotel room at 6 a.m. and 1 a.m., as well as the cab ride in from the airport. And somehow, having heard the market makes me feel a little more acclimated when I get there.

So in preparation for NAB and R&R this week, I'm spending today with Charlotte radio, in honor of the newly annointed Arbitron market No. 25.

One of the highest compliments I can already give the market is that I've listened to four stations so far this morning and I've actually heard what sounds like local spots inserted in all of their stopsets. Nobody has had flawless web breaks--I've still heard a few truncated fill songs on most stations. But it does sound like some care went into what I heard. It wasn't until I got to my fifth station of the morning that I encountered McGruff the crime dog, whose PSAs are usually ubiquitous on such streams.

And now a few individual notes:

* It was interesting to hear AC WKQC (K104.7) appropriating the "always bright, always positive" liner that is more often used by Christian AC radio. And lest you think that was accidental, the song it was used over was LeAnn Rimes' Christian AC crossover song, "I Need You."

* There was another interesting piece of programming theory at rival AC WLYT (Lite 102.9) where the midday host began the Retro Lunch by asking, over the ID bed, "So when you hear a fun song [from your high school years] does it make you feel old or young? The key is not telling you what year it's from." That's a pretty key tenet of programming theory for most people, but hearing somebody announce it on the air is something else entirely.

* WKQC is one of those ACs that uses the call letters in some form between every song. WLYT, like many of its Clear Channel brethern, was doing a lot of cold segues. Which sounded better depends on where you fall on that issue, but one certainly hears the difference.

* Charlotte may be Market No. 25 now, but the promo for morning stars Ace & T.J. on WNKS (Kiss 95.1) was a phone call from a listener talking about driving behind a poultry truck when a chicken "splatted" into her windshield. Kiss, for its legendary musical conservatism--still very much in evidence here--was surprisingly edgy in some of its promos.

* On a far more serious topic, Clear Channel Urban AC WMKS (105.7 Kiss FM)--nominally a Greensboro station but with a signal halfway between the two markets--was inviting listeners to log on to its Website for pictures from last week's civil rights march in Jena, La. (WMKS had four galleries' worth of photos; sister WQUE New Orleans had many more.)