Okay. Every now and then I try to follow some calamity by streaming local radio from the place that’s being impacted. Frequently, I find the music stations being surprisingly business as normal. I can’t say that about the Northeastern radio I’ve heard since Hurricane Irene headed our way. Music radio stations that haven't done a non-Britney newscast in years were doing bulletins in the days before Irene,although not quite matching thenews stations in their posture of “we really don’t know how bad this will be, but we need to scare you enough to stay tuned,” a tone thatNew Yorkers havegotten used to any time more than an inch of snow is predicted.

I originally posted these notes on Saturday evening—figuring I’d better do it while I had power and Internet. (The former held, but not the latter.) What you’re reading now was revised slightly on Monday morning.

The first “there will be a hurricane” reportage I heard was Thursday morning on News/talk WPRO Providence, R.I., which was running ads from tree surgeons, urging you to take care of any spare limbs now. By contrast, Triple-A WEHM Eastern Long Island, N.Y., was sounding a much less alarmist tone, referring to the impending tropical storm. And although it hardly matters if your power is off or if there’s a fallen tree in your yard, they were technically correct. (And they were not trying to minimize the likelihood of either of those things happening.)

The storm did give the new WEMP New York, something to sink its teeth into after a few weeks of heavily publicized growing pains. I’ve come across one story of the sort that detractors would seize on: a health/fitness person talking about how not to put on weight as a result of the hurricane. (And now that they're not commercial-free for the storm, a lot of their space-filler light featurettes are back). For the most part, though, the lack of bombast and the people-helping-people tone was a nice alternative.

WKXW (New Jersey 101.5) flipped the script from its usual weekend Oldies programming—which lasted until midday Saturday when the station’s various hosts and anchors returned to duty. On Saturday morning, however, Bob Williams was rocking and rolling, and although I like NJ101.5’s weekend Oldies, that may have been the most I’ve ever enjoyed them. There were a lot of themed songs—“1999,” “Laughter In The Rain,” etc. But I appreciated Williams’ energy: it was (and this is a compliment) the ’70s-radio-styled Q-pocalypse.

Mid-afternoon Saturday,I threw on Country WQDR Raleigh, N.C. By then, Irene had passed the Triangle by, for the most part and while there was still plenty of encouragement to stay home, the on-air host announced he was having a “hurricane party” in the studio… by himself. WQDR is a very tight Country station and has the ratings to prove it, so it was a little surprising to hear “Copperhead Road” by Steve Earle in between the recurrents. (And since it wasn’t named on the streaming player I was using, I’m guessing it was an unplanned spike.)

By Saturday night, Philly was in the eye of the storm. I threw on Oldies WOGL Philadelphia, which was running the Saturday Night Dance Party—which would normally be from Atlantic City. Host Bob Pantano signed off at 11 p.m., and the music continued jockless (with weather updates). "After Dark" by Pattie Brooks came on—one of those songs that you can only expect to hear on a Philadelphia Oldies station's disco show—and it was a nice bit of abnormal normalcy.

I switched to WBLI Long Island, N.Y., after reading updates all day from promotions consultant Paige Nienaber about what a great job they’re doing, especially on their Website. The first song I came across was Britney Spears’ “Til The World Ends.” As PD J.J. Rice notes, the station's Facebook page has "taken on a life of its own."

On Sunday, we had power but no cable at home and we alternated between the all-news AMs. At that point, the biggest issue was trying to get information for our own NYC suburb when the damage was much worse everywhere else—as well as trying to figure out when the danger might have passed. (Was that sunshine around Sunday lunchtime just a lull or were we done?) My area is currently under a boiled water order—I did not hear that on the radio, but friends as far away as Nashville somehow did.

Ironically, with the cable service still spotty after three days (a minor problem compared to others), the next time the radio was really pressed into service was when the cable went out just as my father-in-law was turning on theGiants/Jets game and had to find it on Oldies WMTR Morristown, N.J.

Curious to hear your stories about radio and the storm. Please leave a comment.