Radio is alive and well in Vancouver.

I had the opportunity to attend the Virgin 953 launch party last night at the Watermark. Virgin 953 is the former 95 Crave, which was my old favourite Z95.3. You can listen to Virgin 953 streaming live here.

Virgin 953 will continue to feature Nat & Drew in the mornings, and local tech star Buzz Bishop on The Rush from 3-6pm weekdays. The big news is the addition of Ryan Seacrest’s show weekdays from 6-9pm and then again on Sundays at 4pm for the American Top 40.

The party was a good time. Who doesn’t enjoy free drinks and people dressed as quasi-circus-freaks… or better, wearing nothing at all? Note to self: invite naked guy to all parties. Great conversation piece. I especially enjoyed watching women have conversations with him and trying desperately not to look down while chatting. That was good entertainment value right there.

I got to meet the fabulous Buzz Bishop, whose tweets I love even if we sit on two ends of the political teeter totter. That was a treat. Hi Buzz Other party highlights included something about a guy being set on fire and running into the ocean, a tattoo artist doing real tattoos right there at the party… who just happened to be an old friend and the guy who designed and tattooed my arm band (Hi Jay!), a chick in lingerie with an enormous snake and, apparently, another lovely lady in very little providing some additional scenery in the men’s room.

I wasn’t going to go, to be honest. Social situations, particularly when I don’t know a soul there, make me very nervous. And  being in marketing there is no shortage of people who would like to help me find ways to spend my advertising dollars, so sometimes I find going to industry events just sends me home with another list of people trying to sell me stuff.

Radio, however, is one medium I seem to have a lingering curiosity about. I still listen to radio. A little. And Virgin is a super cool brand.

While I’m not sold on the value of paid on-air advertising alone, I still think there’s an edginess (is that a word?!) and authenticity to radio that isn’t found elsewhere. Radio still has the benefit of being real people running real shows and talking about real stuff. I know to some, the talking and the shows are the detriment. To others like me, it’s part of the experience and part of what makes radio entertaining.

Sometimes I’ll just listen to a playlist on my computer, but there are times – especially while I’m driving – I like to have the other personalities there. I like the insights and banter; it’s like having someone else in the room. I know the line between advertising and promo gets blurry, but regular radio listeners love and trust the personalities they are loyal to. Their opinions matter. In fact, radio personalities sort of parallel bloggers and social media on many levels.

If a reporter provides raw news and iTunes provides raw music, bloggers provide editorial insight and radio hosts provide musical insight. Truth be told, I’m not cool enough to know what’s trendy, so I need someone to tell me. What would I do without radio?

So while I’m currently not doing any radio advertising, I am curious to see what Virgin is going to do in Vancouver. Maybe there’s room for more radio advertising yet.