A City With a Soundtrack

One of the editing elements hailed as a good move by the editors of last spring's Treme HBO miniseries was that the soundtrack cut through different scenes - the characters, in different places doing different things, could often be found listening to the same song on the same radio station.

Not a lot of people believe this could be true, but it is in New Orleans. I listen to WWOZ all day at work. My home radio is tuned to 90.5 FM. It is usually the station I listen to first and last in my truck on my way around town.

And there's the rub. I can't tell you how many times I've turned off the car radio and walked into a friend's house, or a store, or a restaurant, to hear the same music playing on the same radio station. Or sitting on my porch listening to the OZ from inside my own house and from a neighbor's window.

Thing is - it happens so often, I barely notice anymore, I just accept that music lives in the air around here. WWOZ is one of the reasons that happens.

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