Phone survey
Apr. 1st, 2004 07:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
womzillaSince the (mostly successful) demise of telemarketing calls, I've noticed an increase in the number of what are effectively entire focus group studies conducted by phone. I guess those telemarketers had to go somewhere.
I just spent nearly half an hour answering questions about rock radio stations in New York City. One cool thing about it, which made it very much a focus-group-by-phone, was that they played five or six "medleys", sets of songs for comparison. Of course, I instantly recognized each medley by traditional rock radio marketing genre--"Oh, that's Active Rock, that's AOR, that's Classic...", but it was still nice to be asked.
The limited format of the study only gave me a few opportunities to express my non-commercial preferences--I got to say that I was "strongly favorable" towards Pete Fornitelle and Vin Scelza, for instance. They did ask whether rock radio in NYC has gone downhill since 102.3 (WNEW) stopped being a rock station, which I could agree with entirely; it was clear by that point that the study was exploring the viability of a "rock" station which doesn't focus as exclusively on 1960s hits as Q104.3, a very mainstream "classic rock" station, does.
I was barely able to convey that rock radio in NYC has gone to hell in the past four months because WLIR, the Garden City station which played a mix of modern rock and dance music, has gone off the air. (Progressive and modern were conspicuously absent from the medleys they played, alas.)
What I'd really like is an eclectic rock station--something more rock-oriented than Vin Scelza's show, but with his combination of awareness of the history of rock outside of the classic rock main line (Stones-Aerosmith-U2-lather-rinse-repeat) and his untiring quest for new sounds. I would listen around the clock to a station which plays The Who, Oingo Boingo, Bowie's "Berlin" albums, Mojo Nixon, the Smiths, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Ben Folds--you know, good rock music from a variety of rock traditions, including new rock. I don't hold out much hope of getting that, but it would be nice to get a rock station which at least pays as much attention to the '80s and '90s (and to the 1950s!) as it does to the fertile but massively overplayed "classic rock" boom of, say, 1963-1978. More Devo, Less Skynard, that's my hope, and if I never hear Journey again, it will be too damn soon.
I just spent nearly half an hour answering questions about rock radio stations in New York City. One cool thing about it, which made it very much a focus-group-by-phone, was that they played five or six "medleys", sets of songs for comparison. Of course, I instantly recognized each medley by traditional rock radio marketing genre--"Oh, that's Active Rock, that's AOR, that's Classic...", but it was still nice to be asked.
The limited format of the study only gave me a few opportunities to express my non-commercial preferences--I got to say that I was "strongly favorable" towards Pete Fornitelle and Vin Scelza, for instance. They did ask whether rock radio in NYC has gone downhill since 102.3 (WNEW) stopped being a rock station, which I could agree with entirely; it was clear by that point that the study was exploring the viability of a "rock" station which doesn't focus as exclusively on 1960s hits as Q104.3, a very mainstream "classic rock" station, does.
I was barely able to convey that rock radio in NYC has gone to hell in the past four months because WLIR, the Garden City station which played a mix of modern rock and dance music, has gone off the air. (Progressive and modern were conspicuously absent from the medleys they played, alas.)
What I'd really like is an eclectic rock station--something more rock-oriented than Vin Scelza's show, but with his combination of awareness of the history of rock outside of the classic rock main line (Stones-Aerosmith-U2-lather-rinse-repeat) and his untiring quest for new sounds. I would listen around the clock to a station which plays The Who, Oingo Boingo, Bowie's "Berlin" albums, Mojo Nixon, the Smiths, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Ben Folds--you know, good rock music from a variety of rock traditions, including new rock. I don't hold out much hope of getting that, but it would be nice to get a rock station which at least pays as much attention to the '80s and '90s (and to the 1950s!) as it does to the fertile but massively overplayed "classic rock" boom of, say, 1963-1978. More Devo, Less Skynard, that's my hope, and if I never hear Journey again, it will be too damn soon.
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no subject
Date: 2004-04-01 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-01 07:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-01 05:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-01 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-01 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-01 07:05 pm (UTC)To me, Alison Steele "The Night Bird" was the stuff fantasies were made of.
Not only that, but it is because of her that I acquired my taste in British Art Rock and New Wave.
If she sold sex with music, so what.
The music was great (and the sex, at least in my mind) was incomparable!
Of A's and Z's
Date: 2004-04-02 05:09 am (UTC)Call me Leo Bloom, as Max Bialystock correctly spelled Scelsa's name in his comment. (If he doesn't get Vin, I have to admit I never got Allison Steele. No doubt it is due to the green-eyed monster of jealousy, as Steele was the Night Bird, calling on her audience to fly with her, while I am a Sparrow who can't get very far off the ground.)
I'd say more, but just now I can't seem to get Elvis Costello's "Radio, Radio" out of my head. Switches do tend to break when they're old.
Re: Of A's and Z's
Date: 2004-04-02 09:10 am (UTC)The rest being history, and "Pantasia Boutique" (I blame Joel Hueman, who may still have a record store called "Mad Platters", note to womzilla, if it is still there you might want to check it out, best prices, and an owner who knows more about musical styles then anyone I've ever met)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-02 08:58 am (UTC)But i do agree with you about the rock stations... Ive pretty much stopped listening to the radio unless otherwise unavoidable... I cant deal with a lot of the stuff they play on stuff like k-rock, q104 jsut plays the same songs over and over again, and WSOU has gone to hell.... so yeah.. they need a station like the one you described.. ide totally tune into that....
--E!
no subject
Date: 2004-04-03 01:04 pm (UTC)WLIR gone?
Date: 2004-04-05 07:59 pm (UTC)Re: WLIR gone?
Date: 2004-04-05 08:12 pm (UTC)Radio? Who listens to radio?
Date: 2004-04-06 07:32 am (UTC)For anyone who needs more ammunition against Journey.
"Just a city boy raised and raised in South Detroit.." means
A. He's canadian. A Windsorite. As Detroit is the only US city North of Canada.
B. He took so many drugs he can't recall where he was born & raised.
Patrick O'Leary
Good as always seeing you, dude.