I'm in Copenhagen attending the Radio Assembly of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). I was invited because MPR/APM is a new member of the EBU and we were asked to send a delegate to present our organization to the representatives from other nations. I am the only American here and it is an extremely interesting meeting. Yesterday morning was the big presentation, which went just fine, thanks for asking. Then, the afternoon was dedicated to reports on the progress of three interesting radio stations that have goals similar to The Current's. The stations were Eins Live, in Germany, 03 in Austria, and P3 in Denmark. All of them have a big relationship with their country's music community and have the same commitment to news and public affairs programming within the music stream that we have. I especially liked the Danish station report because P3 makes a huge commitment to live music, and they are out in the community a lot. All these stations also have some very interesting new media applications -- I'm going to be full of ideas when I come home.

As a gift to delegates each of us was given a digital radio. Last night I cranked mine up in the hotel room and sampled Danish Radio's 15 channels. Digital is coming to the U.S. later this year but many European countries are way out in front of us. Some of the things they are doing are niche-casting, time-shifting, and providing outlets for experimental formats. Right now, Danish Radio has an entire channel devoted to the works of Hans Christiansen Anderson. It's the 200th anniversary of his birth, and all of Copenhagen is celebrating.