From: jamie@zikzak.apana.org.au (Jamie Scuglia)
Newsgroups: aus.music
Subject: Re: Commercial Radio
Date: 22 Jan 1993 15:17:30 +1100
Organization: Zikzak public access UNIX, Melbourne Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: zikzak.apana.org.au

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.

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.
Also, why is the most listened to radio show in the country TAKE 40 AUSTRALIA?
This show plays all the latest charting songs, which (according to you) no-one
wants to hear.  If people were really in love with this classic rock rubbish 
we are being contantly bombared with, how come these chart shows are big 
rating winners?

>It's simple statistics.  The McNair Anderson ratings prove that what you're
>saying is *wrong* - that music you speak of is *not* what "Melbourne wants
>to hear", because Melbourne is listening to GOLDFM and 3MP, FOX and MMM and
>even a large slice are listening to TTFM (yes that's where I work :-). 

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.

>3XY was the last radio station to try "chart" or "young" music on a large
>scale and they died a painful death...

They would have done a lot better on the FM band.

>JJJ's audience hovers around a 3, barely.  All the non-commercial FM radio
>stations rate *collectively* around 2-3 and the top stations can rate
>anywhere from 12-15.  Now THAT is fact.  Not opinion.  Fact. So much for
>our taste in music being so popular huh?

Little non-commercial stations do not have the money to attract
listeners with massive competitions and advertisements.  I think
GOLD 104 gave away well over 1/4 of a million dollars to its listeners
last year - an impossible figure for the smaller stations.  And you
must realize that most non-commercial stations (except for HITS-FM) have
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.
Meanwhile, the major commercial stations follow a consistant format in what 
they play during the day, even if it is mostly old stuff.  And because
of this, a lot of people do listen to the FOX, TT and MMM, even though
it is not their ideal station.  I believe that if a more ``contemporary''
radio station hit the FM band, operating with the professionalism
and competitiveness of the FOX, MMM or TT-FM, then it would really
have a significant effect on the other commercial radio stations.
There *are* people out there who want to hear the latest chart
music.  And if there weren't, how come half of the singles that
make the record charts never get airplay on radio?  Who on earth
is buying these singles if you reckon people in Melbourne don't
want to hear them on radio?  And how come chart shows like 
TAKE 40 AUSTRALIA are so popular?  I reckon there is room out there
for a commercial radio station with fresh, young, new ideas to music.