From: pet@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU (paul eng-yi tan)
Subject: Re: Commercial Radio
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Distribution: aus
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 11:30:07 GMT

jamie@zikzak.apana.org.au (Jamie Scuglia) writes:
>Felicity_Jones@guru.apana.org.au (Felicity Jones) writes:
>>People, I've been following this thread for a bit, and I even dived in to a
>>similar discussion about 12 months ago (Liron might remember).
>[stuff deleted]
>>Sorry to disabuse you people, but you do NOT represent what
>>the vast majority of radio listeners enjoy hearing - or the top rating
>>radio stations just wouldn't have such a huge share of the market.

I think your article was great Felicity, but I disagreed with some of the
points you made.. Now I find myself in the extremely unfamiliar position
of being on Jamie's side! (despite totally opposite taste)

>If our tastes of the latest chart music are not very popular,
>then how come listener-run charts shows on the radio are so
>popular? Eg: The FOX HOT 20 countdown from last year.  Remember these radio
>shows play mostly the music the radio station wouldn't normally play.

Agreed. I am forced to listen to the FOX whenever we're in my girlfriend's
car, and I hate it. Take 40 is not my style coz of the large Barnes/Farnes/H&C
element, but Hot 20 was pretty good. I was very pleased (smug look) when it
started playing my old favorites Unbelievable, I'm Free, and the like (indie
UK dance) plus a bit of techno. It gave me some small comfort after hearing
all that crap classic rock stuff. I find top 8 at 8 and similar shows always
have better music because you get more dance or alternative music compared
with the usual FOX fare... or MMM as the case may be.
>Ok, I listen intermittently to the FOX, TT-FM and MMM.  Does that mean
>that I reckon these stations are great?  I usually flick between
>those three stations regularly, trying to catch some modern music,
>and dumping a station for a while if they go into some crazy
>classic rock triple play or something.  If there was a station out
>there that played only modern music, I'd never tune to MMM, FOX or
>TT-FM again.  It is basically the case of picking the station
>you hate the least - not picking the one you like the most.

Ack, this is SO familiar!!! I agree with that 100%.
>some weird programming ideas.  Take SER-FM 97.7 (Fountain Gate, Melbourne).
>Their "drive time" show might include the latest stuff from Kylie, Girlfriend,
>Radio Freedom, etc.  Yet, other times, they could be playing
>music from the 1950's or something.  Because of their un-restrained
>programming style, some listeners are going to be turned off by
>the station at certain times, due to the rapid switches in programming style.

Yup. I think it would be better for the alternative stations if they
devoted entire DAYS instead of 1-2 hour shows on the different genres
of music. It would then be easier for the listener to decide to listen
to them. Like, "great, it's Tuesday, that's Industrial/Ambient/Techno/Alt.synth
day on JJJ" or "Monday, mainstream pop/dance", etc. If this occurred,
someone like myself would be able to listen to JJJ,PBS, and RRR each 2 days
a week perhaps, quickly becoming familiar with an established pattern of
what day to listen to what station. My main gripe is that the best segments
are obscurely hidden between segments I don't like, and it's a major effort
to find out exactly when to listen to the techno show, or ambient show for
example. In JJJ's case, the Frente daily 1/2 hr :) ... 

*moan* *groan* *whinge*

Paul



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