Random Thoughts: Oddballs at the TOP
One of the constants of life in the Washington area, along with death, taxes, and traffic, is WTOP radio. From its “glass-enclosed nerve center” near Capitol Hill, WTOP broadcasts its all-news/talk format on four radio frequencies and the Internet; it’s best-known for its traffic reports every ten minutes on the 8s, around the clock.
Compared to your average American news/talk station, though, WTOP is a bit odd. One of the first jarring features is the commercial distribution. Sure, you get the usual car dealers and department stores. But solidly in third place year-round (and occasionally moving up to second) are political-interest commercials targeted specifically at members of Congress. Yes, you read that right: the number-one radio station in the Washington area, with advertising rates that match its huge, high-end listenership, is a lobbying tool. From defense contractors ostentatiously mentioning how many jobs the latest fighter project will offer in Utah, Kansas or Georgia, to teachers’ unions sponsoring anti-No Child Left Behind ads, WTOP delivers enough politics on a day-to-day basis to, as Everything2.com writer Roninspoon once described his Army orders, “make a libertarian choke on his civil rights.” If Washington is really just a big company town, WTOP is the newsletter distributed on racks outside the office door, editorially independent, yet omnipresent and sometimes even officially acknowledged.
The second facet, which you only catch after listening to it regularly for weeks (as I have since I was reassigned to a project in Alexandria, requiring me to drive the Beltway every day), is the subtly bizarre/geeky — and sometimes off-color — humor. James Lileks once called Washington the Hollywood of the high-school debate set, and nowhere have I seen this characteristic more clearly than in the off-topic banter between the morning hosts on WTOP. All-news radio is usually a sharp, serious counterpoint to the scripted wackiness of the average mid-’00s FM morning show; WTOP takes that somber tone on first listen, until a few weeks later you’re driving along the Beltway, the anchors segue from one story to the next, and your jaw drops in wonder at what they just said in passing. Then you start noticing those happenings more regularly.
Washington is a curious place, something I’m noticing much more as I get better-experienced in the area. I suppose it only makes sense that its top radio station would reflect that quirkiness.
25 May 2005 / 0 Comments / Tags: media, nova