One of my best radio moments of the last few weeks involved Hip-Hop/R&B KMEL San Francisco and its top 6 at 6 p.m. countdown. There at No. 1 for that evening was “Play” by Goapele, the female vocalist who has been a consistent hitmaker in the Bay Area for nearly a decade without breaking nationally. (Its other airplay is on Urban AC rival KBLX.)

“Play” is a very contemporary change-of-pace record for its artist. It’s of a piece with what’s on the radio, but not so much that it wouldn’t stand out on the radio elsewhere. But hearing it at No. 1 was exactly the reason that you’d stream a radio station from somewhere other than your own market. And it’s nice that KMEL has several local records on the air now, since that’s such a part of the station’s legacy.

If you’re a regular ROR reader, you know that stories like this are pretty rare in this era where PD heroics usually take some form other than finding left-field records. But it’s nice to have a few of them to report at the same time. The other comes from New Orleans, where V.I.C.’s three-year old “Wobble” has resurfaced as a power on Top 40 WEZB (B97), as the dance that goes with it continues to have a life of its own.

B97 PD Tom “Jammer” Naylor says “Wobble” kept generating a reaction in N.O.’s bars and daiquiri shops. It went in as a night record, came back in the first round of testing, and has now sold as many sold as many singles in the market as “Moves Like Jagger.”

New Orleans, of course, has a long and proud history of local hits. Naylor was APD at KHOM (Mix 104.1), the mid-’90s CHR that made an art of the left-field reaction record. B97 has never gone as far as KHOM, which once tried to bring back “Suedehead” by Morrissey. But there’s still been local flavor in recent years from area pop/punk band the Vettes and a lot of Saints-related records, including U2 & Green Day’s “The Saints are Coming” and Ying-Yang Twins’ “Touchdown.”

TURBO-POP GETS SERIOUS

In spring ’79, as disco’s detractors were picking up steam, I remember a Billboard Magazine article about how the genre was starting to offer more serious lyrics. The two examples it offered were Machine’s “There But For The Grace Of God Go I” and Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?”

The Machine song, about prejudice and over-protective parenting, did indeed pack a lyrical wallop. “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy,” on the other hand, was gravitas-free. It was a more elaborate lyric than, say, Wings’ “Goodnight Tonight” or Cher’s “Take Me Home” or any of the other celebrity pop-star bandwagon jumping that gave disco a bad name at the time, but it was still an easy target when Chicago rock jock Steve Dahl switched to blowing up disco records figuratively (with “Do Ya Think I’m Disco”) instead of literally.

So consider now the No. 1 and No. 2 Mainstream CHR records of the moment. Rihanna’s “We Found Love” and David Guetta f/Usher’s “Without You.” Both start with the sonic-boom of “Turbo-Pop” (and a lot of sonic boom, in Rihanna’s case). Both are vehicles for real songs, especially “Without You,” which deserves credit for accommodating both “I am vain” and “we’re estranged” in a pop/dance song. (The other magic of “Without You” is in its Coldplay-like piano surge, proving that “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall” wasn’t quite such a wacky idea.)

A giant move forward for dance/pop? Or proof that we’re once again at the twilight of the genre? It is worth noting that at a time when “Turbo-Pop” seemed to be losing its “shock of the new” that it is responsible for three undeniable hits (the third being “Sexy And I Know It”) at the top of the charts.

RANDOMIZED HOOKS

Toby Keith, “Red Solo Cup” – It’s on “Glee” this week. Stations are starting to do promotions around it. It’s the No. 7 song on iTunes. And its airplay outside the Country format is still less than 10 spins so far. Interesting to note that of that handful of spins, the bulk of them are at various stripes of Rock radio.

Katy Perry, “The One That Got Away” – There was some grumbling about it at the outset. One PD told me that it prompted a jock to ask, “Are we just going to play anything by her now?” But it’s entering the top five now and is +1131 spins at this writing. So maybe it’s Janet Jackson’s “When I Think Of You,” the more straightforward song that followed the two reaction records.

Breathe Carolina, “Blackout” – At this writing, it’s 25-24 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart and +402 spins—not unstoppable yet, but with good momentum for a scrappy indie record. And last Saturday, I drove somewhere in the afternoon and heard WHTZ (Z100) New York playing it, then drove home and heard it again. And it sounded great both times.