Steve and I are attending the AAA Non-COMMvention in Philadelphia. Triple-A stands for "Adult Album Alternative" and "Non-COMM" means "non-commercial." (So, basically, it's a conference for public radio stations that play music that is neither classical nor jazz - just about every other music format is represented.) There are a few hundred people here, including stations, labels, magazines, and artists. The meeting is being hosted by Philadelphia's big public radio music station, WXPN, and tonight we're going over to see their performance/restaurant space to hear some music (which will be broadcast live here in Philly).

Mike Lyons gave a "state of the format" talk after lunch and said nice things about the new 89.3, which garnered applause from the crowd. Nice.

This afternoon, the main conference session was conducted like a giant music meeting. About 20 not-yet-released songs were played for us, and then the mike was passed around for reactions from various program and music directors. They had to say whether they would play the song on their station, and why or why not. It was really interesting because a) we heard a bunch of new music, b) we got to compare our reactions to other stations', and c) we also got to listen to how well folks could state just what they liked (or didn't) about what they were hearing. (I am always interested in how people articulate their aesthetic judgements.)

Since I've been to the classical music public radio conferences in the past, it is also interesting to see the differences between this gathering and the recent classical conference in Las Vegas. This one has a lot more jeans and striped shirts, more beer, and many more labels, promoters, and press.

I'll tell you more about it next week. Have a great week-end.