Highlights from the author’s week of (always decidedly random) listening and the week’s radio headlines, ending July 7, 2011. Stations I’ve worked with recently in my Edison Research (or another) capacity are asterisked.*

Stations (Online)

AARP Internet Radio – Any well-known consumer brand could do it, and many have. But the streaming radio venture that teams AARP, Concord Music Group, and Slacker was a consumer and industry press bonanza in a way that few of the others have been. The suite of 18 channels includes a Hot AC and a new music discovery channel that takes it into NPR Music territory, but it also contains Classical, First-Generation Oldies, Smooth Jazz, Adult Standards—the upper-demo formats that have found themselves exiled from the radio, now together in one place. All sorts of fascinating questions are raised. How will the generation that may or may not like the word Oldies feel about hearing them on the AARP site? Which channels will get traction—the ones that represent the “new AARP” or the ones that skew older musically?

Best Holiday Special Weekend

WMMR Philadelphia’s “Long Songs Weekend” – The Active Rocker celebrates July 4 weekend with not just the obvious “long songs” such as “Paradise By The Dashboard Light,” “American Pie,” “Layla,” “Do You Feel Like We Do,” etc., but also Genesis’ “Supper’s Ready” and “Home By The Sea,” Pink Floyd’s “Echoes” and Prince’s “Purple Rain”! It doesn’t quite resolve the much-discussed question about longer songs’ role in PPM-era regular rotation.

Best Streaming Radio Innovation

Clear Channel’s Easier Streaming – Sometimes the best innovations are the simplest. It’s now possible to listen to a Clear Channel station by clicking a widget on the homepage, without having to open or wait for the iHeart Radio player (which you can still find on the top left of the site). It would be nice now if it was possible to get to Clear Channel stations through the various mobile stream aggregators as well.

Best First Amendment Appreciation

The Special Red, White & Blue Station Logo that ran next to a banner ad for Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club on an Alternative station’s Website. Makes a statement about American freedoms, if perhaps not the one intended.

Best Promotion Name

“Incu-Bus To Las Vegas” – Self-explanatory from Alternative KYSR Los Angeles.

Ad Copy

Johnson Insurance’s Personal Representative – An Edmonton, Alberta, insurance company imagines the client representative so helpful that they’ll have your root canal for you or get rid of that creep your daughter is dating.

“Where a guy can run naked through the store and there’ll be almost no one to see you.” – An Edmonton optometrist suggests you come by during the summer when it’s easier to get an appointment. Perhaps I was just in a good mood from the previous spot.

Worst I-Score

Mike Douglas, “The Men In My Little Girl’s Life” – One of the best parts of hearing Don Tandler’s new Pop Gold Radio play back WABC’s Top 1,000 of the ’60s was the occasional references to which songs were making streamers tune out, like this MOR recitation. (Also Bobby Goldsboro’s “Honey,” Anita Bryant's "Paper Roses," and Lawrence Welk’s “Calcutta.” But not, Tandler notes, Connie Francis' hits.) Pop Gold Radio got its shout-out in these pages last week, before it even launched. But having heard it, it was more together and like “real radio” than many of the stations in its category during its first few days.

Most Devoted Listener

Pittsburgh Radio Veteran Terry Lee, meanwhile, can see where his listeners are. And last week, he found somebody streaming here. Brings new meaning to “golden grooveyard.”

Worst Concert News

WRXP Gets Coldplay, Loses Format? – WRXP (Rock 101.9) New York had no sooner announced Coldplay as the headliner of its TakLiberty Music Festival than the station was sold and the format change rumors kicked in. A week ago, the show was cancelled with a tersely worded announcement about “unforeseen circumstances.” And, as we all know, with NTR involved these days, the format change announcement usually comes one day after the station show.