AFTER YEARS OF SEEING favorite radio stations die from low ratings, what should happen but I get my very own one-week Arbitron diary. For $2 cash, I was to faithfully record every station I heard, whether at home, in car, at work, or blaring out the neighbors’ apt. at 2 a.m.

To carefully choose which stations deserved my temporarily-important endorsement, I kept the dial moving all week. Herewith, selected results:

• KXPA-AM (1540): The first big find of my search: Spanish-language music all day! (Except in some early-evening and weekend hours, when they’ve got programming in other languages.) It’s on the onetime “Rock of the ’80s” frequency where I first heard (among countless other 1979-81 alterna-greats) Wall of Voodoo’s “(I’m On A) Mexican Radio.”
• KGY-FM (96.9): The second find: From Olympia, it’s Real Country! The classics, plus those few recent Nashville hits that don’t sound too wimpy alongside the classics.
• KMPS-FM (94.1): “Hot Country” is formerly-country music for people who live in the former countryside, drivin’ SUVs from the new subdivision to the new strip mall and imagining they’ve gotten back to the land. It’s also less popular than it was last year. A Media Inc. article claims it’s due to a glut of mediocre new acts, and also claims “country listeners don’t want to hear failed rock ‘n’ roll garage bands that have turned to playing `hot’ country.” The normally-astute Media Inc.‘s wrong: Those garage-rockers all want to be the next Hank Snow, not the next Billy Ray Cyrus.
• KKDZ-AM (1250): The former KidStar, now Radio Disney and airing in 24 U.S. cities, still plays a mix of novelty oldies, children’s-CD tracks, contests, and phoned-in jokes. The main differences: More Disney-movie songs, and the Disney marketing muscle.
• KIRO-AM (710): The grande dame of Northwest news-talk plows along at or near the top of the Arbitrons year after year. To indigenous Seattleites, the voices of Dave Ross and Bill Yeend are as familiar as Dave Niehaus’s “Fly away!” News listeners like a voice of stability telling them about global chaos.
• KIXI-AM (880): The Little Nostalgia Station That Could is now Seattle’s #3 AM station (ahead of the higher-budgeted KJR, KOMO, and KNWX). Proof that there’s occasionally justice in the world, even in the Arbitron world.
• KBKS-FM (106.1): “The Kiss 106 Music Mix” is essentially the MTV playlist with fewer black acts, or the KNDD playlist without all the Pearl Jam copy bands. An adequate office choice if your cubicle-mates are too square to appreciate KIXI.
• KUBE-FM (93.3): Black music played for (and by) white people; currently Seattle’s #1 station. Its success means tuff luck for those who’ve pleaded for it to play some local hip-hop.
• KYIZ-AM (1620): Not much local hip-hop on the black-owned “Z Twins” stations either. But at least they’ve got DJs who insert some heart into their soul.
• KVI-AM (570): Times columnist Michele Malkin, noting KVI’s steady ratings drop in recent years, said it needed a dose of Viagra. I’d say its problems weren’t due to medical deficiencies (or, alas, to shifting political tastes) but simply to the laws of entertainment. Rush Limbaugh’s “unguested confrontation” schtick has about run its course as an audience attractor; as he goes, so go the scores of Limbaugh-clone hosts around the country. Stations built around Limbaugh wannabes will stay in their ratings funk ’til the next talker fad (Dr. Laura clones? Personal-finance advice?) heats up. Until then, expect hosts to keep spending ten minutes reading one newspaper story, acting angry about it, and goading listeners to call in.

  It’s also an opportunity for those who’ve been yearning for a real progressive community station. There’s several low-rated, probably unprofitable conserva-talk stations in the 1200-1600 AM neighborhood (plus new frequencies now being allocated in the 1600-1700 range). The progs should get together, hit up some friendly moneybags in the music and tech bizzes, and buy one of these.