Totally Clueless Survey on Radio Over the Phone

[IceCube]

I got this phone call recently and the person on the other end of the line said that she's directing this survey to the 40 year-olds and under. Of course, I easily fall under this category. Since this was about radio and general music, I was willing to have a little fun with this one - possibly bring fourth a message of some sort even though that is completely unlikely.

After the first few questions, I thought this was just a nice general survey like how often I listen to the radio and what age range I fall under. Then things went right to the good stuff.

She told me a new radio station was coming to town. I thought, 'hey, that's fantastic! Maybe get a little variety for a change on the airwaves!' *buzz!* wrong! She gave me the first choice of hard rock music. She even gave me a sampling of the music they offered - all RIAA mainstream acts. Then asked me if I'd be interested in tuning into that station. So I flat out reject it.

Then the second "station" was going to play softer rock music. All RIAA mainstream acts. So I say no as usual. Then the third choice was "classic" rock, all RIAA music - all rejected. The final choice was a radio station which - get this - "features new acts such as Metallica and Kiss with a variety of different kinds of rock" - flat out rejected as usual, but the thought that crossed my mind was, 'since when the hell was Metallica a new artist???' I then asked if there was going to be something other than rock for a choice and she told me that there were no other stations being offered.

But hey, I still got a little fun out of this one because when she asked what station I think is the best station, I just plugged my own radio station. She then asked me, "Uhm... what's the frequency?" so I told her what it was. Then she continued, "What station would you tune in to go downtown?", I answer with the radio station I'm on. There was more questions that were more reasonable, but those were the funniest.

Then, when I thought the survey couldn't get any more clueless, she then asks me, "What kind of music do you listen to on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being mellowed out music to 10 being more faster and energetic?" I had to ask, "What kind of idiot thought of this question anyway? Doesn't that depend on mood in the first place???"

Before she hung up on me, I asked if she would be willing to make a note that this listener wants more independent acts on the radio. She gave me the usual BS comment of "yeah, I'll make a note of that, bye!" knowing full well that wouldn't get past her (if it would, then I would have heard a pause, little did she know I was a telemarketer at one point and know the ropes of this sort of thing too)

Could a survey get any more clueless then that? This is clearly push polling probably brought on by an existing station (I heard one of them changed momentarily to a new name before reverting back to the older name) If this was an honest poll, they would put more than just rock music in the choices like, I dunno, blues, country, rap, metal, (of course) electronica, etc. You know it's push-polling when all four choices for favorite music are 'rock, rock, rock or rock'

Just another example of how clueless some of these media conglomerates can be - even locally.

[Wham]

Enjoyed your comments Ice! Hey, here's a neat idea for ya. Why don't you give a show like play music for, let's say 1 hour from like 50 years ago. That would be like 1957 music. I'd love to hear something like that.

[IceCube]

Heheh, I'd do that, but unfortunately, I'm already doing my duty as a radio DJ by playing a broad range of music from the electronica genre. Though for me when I joined the station, it was more like a 'fuck it, there's zillions of stations playing the same rock music over and over and over again, I wanna be bold enough to do something different.' So now I rebel against the stale music landscape by playing something other than the next band that got bought by the major record labels and used as a pawn for financial gain and masquerading it as the next best thing since sliced bread.

I'd often get that bizarre idea in my head of how suddenly, people start recognizing my voice on the street from the show, but I doubt that is likely to happen unless I actually know the person.

[Wham]

Ya man, I'm with ya. I often wished to ask people in the radio business why they got in the business in the first place. Unfortunetly, I never knew anybody in the radio business to ask. It's got to be a lot of fun, and if you like music as I do, it's got to better than sliced bread.

[IceCube]

Mainstream commercial radio is pretty awful on the internal side of things, not just what's being aired - but that's mainly on the whole idea of what's going on the air.

I don't have any personal experience with it, but I know two people involved with it. For one guy, it took years and years of volunteer work with public performance gigs before they'd even consider him. Then several years down the road, they considered him in doing something on the air, so they let him voluntarily come onto the station to be on for about a half an hour. After about a year of that, they finally gave him a show and started paying him. Why it took so long, I can tell you for darn sure that it's not because of his skills. He's got a heck of a radio voice. Now he's working in commercial radio... part time.

Then the other guy I know works for commercial radio and he gave me the lowdown of how commercial radio works. They basically give you a playlist and say, "You're playing this music" Then they give you the commercials to play as well, then the format of the show. After that, they pretty much get you to do station ID's and fill in small pockets of time with little bits of talk.

From what the second guy tells me, he's pretty much saying that these guys in the commercial biz totally don't get it. The major broadcasting corporation that has a monopoly on things don't get it and it's the reason why their business has been going down the tubes. He tells me that the playlists are horrible with no variety (then he gave me what is probably one of the biggest compliments I've ever received about my show which is, "...and awful music is not including the music you air. I might not understand the music you play, but I at least find it enjoyable.") He airs underground blue's music - major contrast to my show and it's right after me.

We both essentially agreed that because the station I'm on actually allows diversity in the first place, that since getting the full CRTC license, the other stations will be in trouble because we'll soon be installing a huge antenna that will broadcast further out in town to all the corners of the city. I admit, the station I'm on still cators to rock music, but it's at least partially indie rock instead of just mainstream rock music. I'm personally hoping that the guy that did the heavy metal show will also return because I know there's an audience for that kind of music too (as much as I cringe at some of that music) There's also a guy that does punk rock, hardcore metal and ska from the 80's and 90's. Then there's a number of shows that simply do a variety of different kinds of music. As soon as this antenna gets installed, I'm crossing my fingers for a larger audience.

[Wham]

Thank's for the insight Ice. I kind of figured it was very hard to get into the business, but like I said, I never have known anyone to ask.

I wish you the best of luck and would like to hear how you make out. You could pass the word on this thread you started.

[john82]

i totally gave up on radio already!!!

every time i listen to the radio it just makes me think what kind of idiots get air time...

and local radio is the worst - i can't listen to local radio for even five minutes straight!!!

Johnny from guitars101

[SwordOfZork]

IceCube, I've downloaded some of your music, and think its pretty good, but whats this radio station you're talking about? Does it have a web broadcast?

[bmh67wa]

Jeeeez. Talk about necroposting.

[SwordOfZork]

Oh wow... Haha! I didn't even notice how old this was.

[MrFredPFL]

john punk'd u, zork