I spent some time listening to 92.3-2, 94.7-2, 97.1-2, 99.5-2 and 105.1-2, while I was in Portland over the weekend. I was especially impressed with 97.1-2's "Love Train" Urban AC format! Does Entercom program these stations, locally?

To answer your question, No, they are not programmed locally.

are they programmed at all? Who is doing it then?

Various Entercom programming people from several Entercom clusters.

105.1-2 doesn't seem to have any liners or station ID's, while the other 3 have generic-sounding liners with no mention of the station's frequency! Couldn't they add "97.1 HD2" into the Love Train's liners?

While there apparently is some ammount of programming of the HD-2's going on there certainly is not much branding or imaging.

I thought the idea of saving radio was to make it LESS like an IPOD?

I found some info on these HD2 formats at CustomChannels.net.

Me too notalent.

Right now, those streams are essentially risk-free test beds. Putting some tunes on them, is nice and quiet, but it's not gonna do anything but improperly manage expectations where radio as a whole is concerned.

Bizzare...

Essentially, this programming says to me: "We have these extra channels, but have no idea what should be filling them."

Surely somebody has something they want to try... Now's the time!