Is CHR Sexist (was: Formats)

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

Todd wrote--

> [My friend] thought it was sexist for
>Top-40 to target only women. I tried to explain that women
>(predominantly) listen to CHR, therefore women are the target demo. She
>insisted that if Top-40 were targeted toward both guys and gals, it
>would do better with men, much as Country attracts men and women
>equally. Does anyone have any thoughts? Is she right? Gender neutral
>marketing seems to work for Country, why not for CHR? I'm not trying to
>get into a sexism debate, but I am curious about this!
>
I agree that targeting a particular demo is not unusual, nor is it
necessarily sexist-- bubblegum is marketed to kids more than to
grandparents, even though there may be kids who hate it and senior citizens
who love it-- but the majority of buyers of bubblegum tend to be kids,
according to American Demographics magazine.  CHR actually has a number of
targets-- there are soft CHRs and  rock-based CHRs and dance/urban CHRs--
each one tries for a particular group of people as their target.  So,
marketing to a specific audience is not the problem.  BUT-- and here is
where I do agree somewhat-- some of the CHR stations do some things that are
incredibly sexist, such as promotions that revolve around wet t-shirts or
getting girls to say embarrassing things over the air.  As radio, especially
morning shows, has gotten cruder, some of the personalities have taken on
what seems to me a very anti-female attitude.  Yes, I know, many of these
announcers still have huge female numbers.  We could get into a
psychological discussion of why people listen to or watch certain things,
but rather than go there, I'd just like to say that yes some CHRs are
programmed by young guys who have no clue what women like or want, and some
jocks think that personality means lots of pee-pee jokes.  Oh well.  But
that is not just a problem for CHR-- AOR and Urban have struggled with it
too.  Interestingly, country has managed to get younger listeners without
being as crude...  

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