L.A. firms helping subway create hoagie hit parade.

CUSTOMERS will be able to groove to Subway Radio tunes while they decide whether to go with roast beef or the tuna, thanks to partnerships the giant sandwich chain has struck with two L.A. media companies.

Subway has contracted with Pasadena-based Private Label Radio (PLR), a division of DMI Music & Media Solutions, to provide in-store radio programming. The station will feature adult contemporary music, with some regional preferences (country music in the Southeast, for example), interspersed with Subway commercials. "Between songs you might hear a message about a new chicken sandwich, but the idea is that it's one continuous program," said Rob Walker, general manager of PLR.

PLR also handles in-flight radio programming for Air Force One, Air Force Two, and United Airlines.

Subway tested the program in February in Los Angeles, the chain's largest market with 350 stores, and recently announced it will roll out the program nationwide.

"The folks in the L.A. market were the visionaries," Walker said. "There are those people who just grab a sandwich and run, but this is a reinforcement of their brand. It's about increasing traffic." A Subway customer spends an average of 17 to 20 minutes in the store.

PLR's staff musicologists pick the music and program the shows, which update nightly. The "radio" box, a hard drive that dials into a main server each night to pick up the next days' content, is produced by Torrance-based Antex Electronics. PLR's initial order was for "a few thousand" boxes, according to Antex President Dave Antrim. He's hoping Subway decides to wire its entire chain of 25,000 stores nationwide. "That would bring them into the stratosphere with my largest accounts," Antrim said.