The Sound Focus Group

[ocer]

Got this in e-mail today. Thoughts?

____________________________________________________________

Hi!

Thank you for being a charter member of the Sound Village and our email list. We’re flattered that people in Southern California are talking about The Sound. Thanks to you, more and more of your friends and colleagues are finding us every day too!

Everything we do will be with respect for the music and you, the listener.


Now it’s time for us to get to know you, so let’s meet up.

This is an opportunity to help shape The Sound ... Meet other 100.3 The Sound fans ... Hear new music ... Share your opinions and more!

Our first 100.3 The Sound Meetup will take place on Monday, June 23 from 7pm to 9pm in Studio City. It is limited to the first 25 people (and a guest) to RSVP by Thursday, June 19. If you would like to attend, please email us at: [email protected]. Be sure to include a daytime phone number. We will notify the guests by phone with specific location details on Friday, June 20.


Hope to see you there,


100.3 The Sound

P.S. 100.3 The Sound plays World Class Rock by hundreds of artists. Could we ask your opinion about a few? When you have a moment, please take our Sound Artist Survey.


Thanks in advance for your help.


Want to share the Sound? Invite a friend to listen.

 

[SuperRadioFan]

I'm already going, but I think anyone from this board that responds has to first join up on that Meet Up board for The Sound group. That's easy enough to do. Are you going and since you're on the e-mail list, I assume you're also a participant either on the World Class Rock forum or on The Sound's Village Forum or both. If so have you posted and under what SN? I'm there all over both of those boards with the SN I use here.

As far as what can be accomplished at the meeting, I hope listeners can have some influence on the musical direction The Sound takes. The biggest complaint I have seen is too much classic rock titles and/or artists. That's mine also. They give too much air time to the entire greatest hits collections of: The Cars, Talking Heads, Led Zep, The Eagles, The Police, Santana, The Doors, Doobie Brothers, The Stones, Supertramp(!), Cheap Trick (!) to name a few.
[NOTE: As I type these words, "You're all I've Got Tonight"-The Cars is playing!! ]
[2nd NOTE: Now I'm hearing Talking Heads' "And She Was"]
They give (so far) short shrift to the great catalogue of R.E.M. and many others I don't have time to post. Some pop-leaning stuff like MatchBox 20, Lifehouse, etc.
************************************************************

I just reviewed their playlist for today (since midnight). A few observations and an admission. I haven't been listening as much as I did during the first 45 days or so. I experienced a lot of burn out during that time. Now I notice the playlist has expanded somewhat and they have added some titles I am not familiar with as well as weeding out some of the classic rock stuff. They still played Rolling Stones' "Angie" (more of a pop song) but they also played "This is Not America"-David Bowie (with Pat Metheney IIRC although they didn't have Pat's name on there) so that was surprising. At this moment they're playing Squeeze-Pulling Mussels --- so there is hope yet! They still need to add many of the artists that found a home at KSCA back in the day. But they're coming along.

 

[davideduardo]

Got this in e-mail today. Thoughts?

This is a great idea for nearly any station. While it is not, by definition, a focus group, it is a listener panel and shows that that station is interested in implementing good listener suggestions. It's also a terrific goodwill creator, and there are many stations today that could use a dollop of goodwill.

I say, "congratulations. It's al about the listener."

 

[gcreedle239]

Their billboard advertising is miserable. Graphically, it looks cheaply produced and uninviting (a ball given a 3d look in photoshop? how many times has that been done) and worse yet, no promise or description of what will be provided (no format indication). Wasted money.

 

[SuperRadioFan]

Their billboard advertising is miserable. Graphically, it looks cheaply produced and uninviting (a ball given a 3d look in photoshop? how many times has that been done) and worse yet, no promise or description of what will be provided (no format indication). Wasted money.

Picky picky picky picky.

I take it you're not a listener.

BTW several listeners have tuned in and stayed listeners after seeing a billboard about the station. Albeit these are just a few instances but I would think there are more who did not post in their forum about that.

Props to David for his comments. He may not dig the format but he does recognize good PR and ideas.

 

[scooty430]

I like the open approach The Sound seems to be taking. I hope it continues to improve and be an interesting listen.

I hope those at the panel clamor for:

- avoiding those burned out titles, regardless of genre (however, classic rock, at least the 300-400 top tracks, is one of the most burned out genres)
- allowing DJs to do some song choosing......or at least having a specialty show or two where that can happen. I've mentioned it before but something like KFOG's 10@10 is really great to listen to: it's appointment listening!
- giving the station some life and a sense of humor......AAA often has an NPR sleepy time feel in its presentation.
- some theme weekends, days, or other gimmicks. I really miss the days when AOR would do an Album Sides Weekend (one half an album per hour.) Or a solid hour of an artist. Or maybe an artist profile with music and interviews each night. Was it KSCA that used to have "My Three Songs?" That used to be fun. Stuff like that to liven it up!
- taking some chances.
- when playing new music, not playing pleasant but bland stuff
- getting some jocks with personality
- above all, avoiding the computerized playlist syndrome. It's always obvious, and it's always boring.

A good model might be Radio Free Phoenix rather than things like WXRT or Boston's The River.

 

[SuperRadioFan]

Good comments Scooty. Gotta run but I did want to say if they model after Radio Free Phoenix they will have very few listeners. I have listened to that station and have looked at the extensive playlist and I recognized in two days worth ohhh maybe ONE title! That will not get it done. The concept is not bad but ya gotta have some familiar songs. Ciao!

 

[scooty430]

I guess it depends on the person and what types of things you've listened to over the years, but I find I recognize a good portion of the stuff on Radio Free Phoenix. What I like is the rockier edge and that it's not pre-programmed.

I think the problem nowadays is that to make your station profitable, you have to appeal to a very BROAD audience. Programmers thus are VERY eager to play only "well-tested" songs that are rated highly on panels. The result is repetition and blandness. (Witness K-Earth 101.....)

The OTHER way to appeal to a broad audience is to be compelling. It's a lot harder, too. But if you ARE compelling, then your audience will stick with you through unfamiliar songs, or songs they don't personally adore.

 

[davideduardo]

The OTHER way to appeal to a broad audience is to be compelling. It's a lot harder, too. But if you ARE compelling, then your audience will stick with you through unfamiliar songs, or songs they don't personally adore.

Not in a People Meter world.

 

[scooty430]

The OTHER way to appeal to a broad audience is to be compelling. It's a lot harder, too. But if you ARE compelling, then your audience will stick with you through unfamiliar songs, or songs they don't personally adore.

Not in a People Meter world.

I still feel a smart advertiser would choose a station that someone has on all day, or for a good chunk of time. PPM would I think show even more clearly that unless the listener is loyal or interested, the commercial is not heard. You punch another button.

Those stations that specialize in anonymously presented, instantly recognizable hits that people punch up probably have very few people who stick through ads or unliked songs. JACK, K-Earth, KLOS..... Would anyone sit and listen to these willingly for hours? No, people surf around and "drop in" on a good song or two, then leave when an ad or boring song comes on.

We'll see. With a souring economy, I'm sure companies will be even more careful with their budgets.

 

[davideduardo]

I still feel a smart advertiser would choose a station that someone has on all day, or for a good chunk of time. PPM would I think show even more clearly that unless the listener is loyal or interested, the commercial is not heard. You punch another button.

Because the PPM "hears" rather than "rememembers" lots of very short interval listening gets picked up and creates inflated cume.

Neither the diary nor the PPM shows which listeners listen more. The time spent listening is averaged, so the PPM shows weekly listening that is much shorter on average. That's because of the extra, short interval cume.

In any case, agencies by impressions, and could care less how long a person listens, as long as the campaign hits a percentage of listeners a certain number of times. That is called reach and frequency, and a campaign might give a reach of 70 (70% of the cume) and a frequency of three (three impressions each week). In most cases, they buy multiple stations to get their market goals.

Those stations that specialize in anonymously presented, instantly recognizable hits that people punch up probably have very few people who stick through ads or unliked songs. JACK, K-Earth, KLOS..... Would anyone sit and listen to these willingly for hours? No, people surf around and "drop in" on a good song or two, then leave when an ad or boring song comes on.

In PPMl, the average station is listened to for between three and four hours a week. Again, all the advertiser measures is the number of persons listening to each ad, not the time surrounding the ad.

What the PPM shows us is that listeners know ads are on free radio stations... and don't tune out much. However, a bad song causes significant tune out, so count on even more careful playlists under PPM. Remember, too, that in home and at work listeners don't run to the radio each time commercials come on... that's almost entirely an in-car behaviour. And in-car is only 30% of listening, so the impact is less than one would think.

We'll see. With a souring economy, I'm sure companies will be even more careful with their budgets.

Yes, it is likely, due to the low cost, that they will buy more radio.

 

[SuperRadioFan]

I guess it depends on the person and what types of things you've listened to over the years, but I find I recognize a good portion of the stuff on Radio Free Phoenix. What I like is the rockier edge and that it's not pre-programmed.

Well, scooty, I revisited the RFP website to look at a playlist archive. I sampled them sometime last year but when I looked at their current hour's playlist and also I looked at a few hours playlists in the archive, I need to revise my impression. First I did recognize quite a few more songs on there. And I recognized at least 75-80% of the artists they played so I'm going to give some more listening time to them. Right now I am hearing Springsteen's "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" from his very first work. Being a Jersey Boy myself and also having been to Asbury Park many, many, many times as a kid and as an adolescent, I am enjoying hearing the song! Have a good day, my man!