10 candles for Radio Disney

The guest of honor at Saturday’s birthday bash in Anaheim had about as much fun as any 10-year-old could expect, but during the grand-scale party you had to wonder what the kid’s parents were thinking. Or if they were even in the house.

The candles, the music and the revelry at the Arrowhead Pond were all about Radio Disney, commemorating its 10th year with a youth-pop blowout topped by Jesse McCartney and including brief sets from such Disney franchise favorites as the Cheetah Girls, Aly & AJ, Bowling for Soup, Everlife and “Hannah Montana” star Miley Cyrus.

Each delivered 15 or 20 minutes’ worth of hits -- songs that have been hammered home through every strata of Disney media -- to the overwhelmingly female audience that nearly packed the Pond.

The curious part was that a concert ostensibly serving as a showcase for a radio network featured so much of the very thing that violates the first commandment of radio: Thou shalt have no dead air.

Yet long, dull stretches unfolded between the short musical sets. Some Disney Channel series and movie personalities popped onstage long enough to introduce performers, but there was no overall emcee and no apparent interest in sustaining fans’ attention between sets.

There were shout-outs to viewers experiencing the “virtual concert” at home over the Internet, and there was much about the actual show that felt more virtual than the real deal.

The Cheetah Girls and Cyrus, both of whom performed to recorded backing, had moments where their lips didn’t quite sync with what came out of the P.A. system. But the Cheetahs’ energetic dancing and Cyrus’ winning smile seemed sufficient compensation for the kids in the house. The Cheetahs’ songs, like Aly & AJ’s and the female trio-fronted Everlife, hit on themes of self-reliance and empowerment that went over as well with the young girls in attendance as with the moms who brought them to the show.

Most of the other acts used live bands, creating something more closely resembling a bona fide concert experience. Bowling for Soup has become the new Smash Mouth in bringing unthreateningly edgy alt-rock to the elementary-school set. The Texas quartet demonstrated that it knows its target demographic with “1985,” a wittily nostalgic hit for the parents of these fledgling pop music consumers.

An irrefutably cute McCartney for a new generation was the breakout star of the evening’s lineup, a singer who mustered some real electricity with moves that recall an R&B-pop; wunderkind from another era. As the 10-year-old sitting next to me shouted out during his first song, “He’s like Michael Jackson!”

Now 19, the former Dream Street boy has an impressively elastic voice and exhibits a musician’s nimble phrasing along with an affinity for sharp choreography that comes across as a natural extension of his funk-rooted music. The next Justin Timberlake? Stay tuned.

But when McCartney finished his breakthrough hit, “Beautiful Soul,” and walked offstage, that was it.

No final appearance by any of the night’s stars, or even a canned announcement of Radio Disney’s gratitude. You’d think a parent as otherwise savvy as the Walt Disney Co. would teach its offspring the importance of delivering thank-yous to birthday guests after the party.