XM gets "sirius"

[Joseph Pappalardo]

> How can anything EXCEPT the least-common-denominator be acceptable when
> radio "professionals" on this list, who darned well ought to know better,
> INSISTED that WBOQ's format change HAD to indicate that the station was
not
> making money under its old format and INSISTED that the old format was
Adult
> Standards (which it wasn't)? Apparently their small minds couldn't grasp
the
> concept of variants on that format--at least not on terrestrial commercial
> radio. If the people here--whose IQs must average 30 points more than
those
> of agency time buyers--can't deal with the possibility of terrestrial
> commercial stations carrying anything besides cookie-cutter formats, how
can
> there be any hope that we will ever hear anything else?

Here's my take....

Radio is BROADcasting...MASS appeal...to get as MANY listeners to listen as
possible....to get them to listen as LONG as possible.

That's how stations make money.  ...more people...and....longer they listen.

That's what substantiates an owner parking his assets in a radio
station...instead of in the bank.

So, the so-called, "lowest common denominator" is a sarcastic way of noting
that radio is doing it's job.

Some of the most complained about stations (WCRB) are highly sucessful...and
brought more listeners to the station than at any other time since it's
inception.

People complain about the short playlists.  (Gee, let's remove some of these
very popular records and replace them with less popular records.)

"Gee, let's play Dan's favorite classical pieces and have a lot less
listeners!  Gee there's an idea!"

Radio isn't an IPOD, or CD burning...it's not your personal music station.
It's part of a show...when you are at a concert, the band will play some
songs you like, some you don't...but you understand that there are 30,000
other people at the stadium.   People have forgotten that's what radio does,
broadcast to a stadium at all times.

HOWEVER, there IS one point that is valid.  Time Spent Listening (TSL) seems
to be going down slowly nationwide year after year.  I think radio is
becoming MORE trivial by the minute because it is so focused on itself, its
revenues
and its profits.  "Listener focus" at the top....is history.  The whole
notion of connecting  with intensity to listeners one at a time is regarded
is an anachronism.  Not a pretty picture.

$.02

...back to lurking mode.

JP