The Infinite Dial

There's a little irony in almost any seminar that ends up sharing the hotel with a radio convention. (Remember Country Radio Seminar and the waste haulers?) And this year, my hotel for NAB/R&R is hosting a realtors' meeting. So I asked an elevator full of attendees, "How's the mood at your convention?" "It's very upbeat," asserted one. "I'm from Louisville and home sales are actually holding steady," said another. "I'm from Texas, which is always on its own cycle," one added. But then somebody brought up a recent consumer press story about the real estate bubble bursting. "They do that to us every year around this time," somebody responded. So it's hard to know if the real estate folks are more upbeat than radio people, or just more credible to an outsider in their defiance. But the part about those press stories sounded familiar.