Re: NorthEast Radio Watch 3/5: We Will Never Make Fun of Boston Weather Again...

["Douglas J. Broda" <dougbroda@mindspring.com>]

At 10:28 PM 3/9/99 -0500, Rob Landry wrote:

>If your listeners can only hear a few other stations, then diversity makes
>sense since your audience will necessarily include a lot of people of
>disparate tastes, and none of your listeners are likely to find their
>needs entirely met by one of your competitors. In my opinion this is why
>"full-service" radio was so successful prior to about 1980.
>

Hmmmm. This market (Albany-Schenectady-Troy) had as many radio voices in
1980 as it does today (there are a few more signals now, but there are also
several simulcasts that didn't exist then), and roughly the same
population. Yet then, a full-service AM (WGY) was the dominant market
leader. Today, with WGY a shell of its former self, WGNA buries it.

I respectfully submit that this is a case of the cart or the horse.
Programmers decide that narrowcasting is the way to go, and recognize that
full-service is expensive to operate (and it is), so they disembowel the
full-service stations, then point to the ratings toilet that the
disemboweled now-less-than-full-service station ratings and say that it's
market driven. Of course, the one part where WGY kept its traditional
strength (AM drive) stayed strongest in ratings; the parts other than that
went to pieces (except late mornings with Rush -- what was WGY's weakest
part pre-Rush).

> What good will it do to play
>an hour or two a day of, say, modern rock, when there's someone else on
>the dial playing it 24 hours a day? 

Little. But a college station can fill niches that are not presently served
without a ratings issue, but which have a real audience (within or without
the school, as their philosophy may dictate). World music. Polkas.
Gay/lesbian radio. Liberal or moderate talk (which one knows we don't get
much of on commercial radio in many markets). On one I know of, it's a few
hours of MOYL-like programming (which has no commercial outlet in that
market, which has a sizeable 60+ community). Stuff that isn't out there in
the market, needs that the college station can meet with shows at the same
hour each week.

Or it can be viewed as a place for kids to have fun, gain experience, and
run a board. :) Nothing wrong with that in my book.

>To do so successfully it will have to find some common interest which most
>members of its target audience share: college sports? news analysis? talk
>shows on themes of interest to members of the college?  It can't simply
>divide its time and resources in a hopeless bid to become all things to
>all people, or it must fail. In the words of Londo Mollari: "only an idiot
>fights a war on two fronts; only the heir to the throne of the kingdom of
>idiots would fight a war on twelve fronts."

But it's *not* a war. A college station need not "compete" unless the
raison d'etre of the station is to get the most possible listeners. That
must be a huge factor in commercial radio; there are many other important
goals for college radio.

Besides, as I recall, things didn't always work out well for Londo. :)

And... with limited resources, a college station could rarely compete on
the same level as a commercial station.

"Only a fool fights in a burning house." -- Kang to alien entity, Star
Trek, "Day of the Dove"

Its philosophies need not require such competition.

- -- Doug Broda (dougbroda@mindspring.com)

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