The Infinite Dial

It is perhaps a sign of the times, but the station I've seen advertised most since I arrived here on Thursday is KCMP (the Current), the non-commercial indie rock/Triple-A outlet, which has advertising in a lot of downtown buildings/walkways. Then I saw Christian AC KTIS' transit advertising. Finally, from my hotel window I saw billboards for Country KEEY (K102) and Oldies KQQL (Kool 108), the latter of which advised that it was "kool to listen again" (in keeping with its back-to-oldies stance of the last year).

I thought I was going to get to hear Ron Gerber's eclectic Friday night oldies show "Crap From The Past" on the radio in real time this week with WCNR Charlottesville, Va., PD Brad Savage as a special guest. Instead, community outlet KFAI's block was hit by a freak power failure that lasted until the last five minutes of the show. And, as Gerber notes, in the digital age, it takes a lot longer to reboot a radio station once you get the power back. So I had to make due with going to the archive.