Fwd: Re: I read the Wall Street Journal so you don't have to

[lglavin@lycosmail.com]

 ---- you wrote: 
> When they say classical music stations saw their 
> billings drop from 1998 to 1999, did they figure this 
> (or did RAB figure it) by adding the billings of all 
> classical stations in each year and taking the ratio of 
> 1999 to 1998 billings? An alternative calculation would 
> determine the ratio of 1999 to 1998 billings of all 
> stations (or selected stations) that had classical 
> formats all year in both years (the radio equivalent of 
> same-store sales). If the calculations were made using 
> the first method, there is a good explanation for the 
> drop in a year when billings rose overall. Classical 
> stations in Detroit, Philadelphia (and I think Miami) 
> changed to other formats.
> 
> As they say, figures don't lie, but liars figure. 
> Somewhat subjectively, 1999 was a damned good year for 
> the socio-economic class one always assumes to have the 
> highest percentage of classical music listeners 
> (affluent people 40 years old and over). But how many 
> owners will think to ask what the statistics mean when 
> they contemplate a format flip. All they'll know is that 
> classical went down when other formats went up.
> 
I can't answer that question;  I was just summarizing
an article that itself was a summary of a full
report.  In a sidebar, I just read a book called
"Nobrow" by John Seabrook of the New Yorker magazine;
one thing I took from it is that media that rely
on an "image of quality" to appeal to advertisers are
going to be swamped by the youth mass sub-culture of 
no culture.  Hundreds of thousands of adolescents and
young adults with 'X' amount of money to spend will
matter more than a small number of people with higher
average disposable income, except for products
and services that pertain to them alone (retirement
communities for example).  I've been very vocal about
my displeasure with  the dumbed-down pseudo-classical
offerings on WCRB-FM and its ilk (97.7 in Albany, NY)
and see the only hope for REAL classical programming
on public stations (or Sirius?)

Laurence from Methuen  


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