Which Charleston was that?

This week, "The Today Show" did a feature on five housing markets that are "ripe for recovery" -- places where prices are stable, foreclosures are rare and the future is so bright, you generally gotta wear shades.

As Al Roker chatted with real estate expert Barbara Corcoran, the screen was filled with beautiful aerial footage of Charleston Harbor and The Battery, horse-drawn carriages along the City Market and the antebellum mansions of East Bay Street.

The only problem was, Al and Barbara were talking about Charleston, WEST VIRGINIA.

Oops.

Now, there are a couple of ways to look at this. Maybe some producer just grabbed the first B-roll he found that was marked "Charleston."

Or perhaps some NBC employee is just a little geographically challenged. After all, it's easy to confuse the lovely mountains of Charleston, W.Va., (elevation 597 feet) with the coastal environs of Charleston, S.C. (elevation 20 feet -- if you stand on that funky manhole cover on Meeting Street).

Well, maybe not.

Maybe the truth is, all us mid-size towns just look alike to big-city TV Yankees.

Not the first time

The folks in West Virginia took this case of mistaken identity in stride. Deputy Mayor Rod Blackstone says it was generally good publicity.

"At least the message was correct verbally," Blackstone says. "Our housing market is doing well."

Better than well. The median home price in Charleston, W.Va., is $100,000 less than ours, and their unemployment is about half of what it is here.

As for confusing the two cities, Blackstone is not really surprised: " 'The Today Show' is not the first to do that."

Don't we know it. There is the recent tale of the Wall Street guys who booked a Lowcountry hotel for a bachelor party and bought their plane tickets. But when they stepped off the plane, they found themselves in Appalachia. Seems they bought tickets to the wrong Charleston.

Blackstone can top that. A while back, he got a letter from a woman who was hopping mad about something the mayor's office had done. He was confused, as he didn't recognize the street name.

And then he noticed the letter was addressed to Joe Riley.

Sign language

Anybody who has lived in this Charleston for any amount of time can certainly understand the dilemma of our sister city. Talk to someone from out of state, and chances are they will ask how things are going in North Carolina.

Read additional columns by Brian Hicks

Some of us have even had frantic calls from pending house guests, reporting that they are in Columbia, have just reached the signs that say "I-77 to Charlotte" and "I-26 to Charleston," and need to know "Which one do we take?"

No respect.

The tourism folks in Charleston, W.Va., alerted "The Today Show" to the mix-up. They got an apology, an assurance it was just an honest mistake. It's great that the folks at NBC were so gracious.

It helps shatter all those stereotypes about rude people up there in New Jersey.

Or is it New York?