RESEARCH.

Ran into a guy on the bus yesterday; second time we've met. Windbreaker, Nikes, big glasses, shoulder bag, unhip baseball cap, single earphone in right ear. "This is the first time I've allowed myself to appear in public with an earphone in my ear," he said, right at the top of the conversation. "But I wanted to listen to National Public Radio." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a little silver box that looked for all the world like, well, like an Ipod Nano.

Except it was a radio-only radio. Sony. Very cool. The earbud reeled into the case and snuggled into its own niche at the top of the set. A digital clock readout blinked "12:00," though it was 11:20 AM.

He went on, during our twenty-minute Metro ride into downtown Seattle, to sketch out his life story, and quite a life it is--raised in Japan, traveled to Silicon Valley last week, photojournalist, actor--dubbed English in dozens of movies, etc., etc. Fascinating guy; we traded email addresses. I hope he sees this.

Not in the demos, of course, and neither am I. Just two guys with disposable income, time on our hands, all our faculties and then some--totally out of touch with Adam Carolla, Newsradio 710, KOMO1000News, The Wolf, T-Man, FunkyMonkey, Tom Leykis, Rush and the rest of the red faces on HotTalk 570, The New Movin92.5, whatever.

But hey, you got your 3.0 share of women 25-49, your fifty-minute no-commercials music sweeps humming away in their cubicles, so you're in good shape, right?

This may shock you, radio guys, but it's a big world.