Hello,
Last night I participated in a radio focus group. The focus group was centered around the genre that has the incredibly loathsome name of classic rock. Or as I call it, rock music. Anyway the focus group lasted a bit over two hours. Instead of asking questions and having a discussion, the questions were mostly set up in a multiple choice format. We entered our answers on an electronic device.
About 650 songs were played last night, not the full song itself but the actual hook. You know all the bands that they played, pretty much all the rock dinosaurs of old. They played hooks by Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Aerosmith, Bob Seger, the Cars, Elton John, Billy Joel, Heart, the Police, Def Leppard, AC/DC, Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, ZZ Top and many others.
Included in the 650 song mix were songs by Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots. In my opinion Nirvana is completely out of place in the world of classic rock. Not only are they one of the most overrated bands ever, they aren't even close to the so-called classic rock genre. Pearl Jam is my second favorite band of all-time, but even they sounded a bit out of place. However STP's music sound fit right in.
Two bands that were notably missing to me were Meat Loaf and Motley Crue. Meat Loaf really shocks me, because isn't he the very definition of classic rock? And thinking about it them not playing the Crue makes some sense, the only other hair metal band that was played was Def Leppard.
How is Meat Loaf not classic rock?:
"Bat Out Of Hell":
"Paradise By The Dashboard Light":
Our moderator was Dan and he told us that he would be presenting his findings to the classic rock stations in Salt Lake City this morning. He also said that what the radio stations played would reflect his findings as soon as this afternoon. (Even if that's true, would anyone notice? I don't think I would.) On a scale of 1-100, with 100 being the best, we were asked to rate all 650 songs. I took my task very seriously. Nearly every song that was by the Beatles, Nirvana or Aerosmith I gave a poor score. If I never have to hear a Beatles or Aerosmith song ever again that would be just fine with me. However nearly every song by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd or Def Leppard I gave a high score to.
I noticed songs that from a particular time in the 80s I'm now tired of. Journey is one of those bands. Although Journey is one of my favorite bands of all-time, I only gave their songs ratings of about 70. Other artists that received that very average score from me include Pat Benatar, REO Speedwagon and Foreigner. I was surprised to find out that I'm tired of those songs.
On a positive note the other thing I noticed is that I really liked, and scoring high, were most songs done by the Police or the Cars. Now many songs by the Cars and the Police were big hits about the same time as Journey, Pat Benatar et al. That seems nonsensical to me. But in thinking about it, maybe that means that the Cars and the Police haven't reached their saturation point yet.
Here's 80 minutes of Cars bliss:
They asked some other questions about travel, physical appearance, money and things we like to do for fun. For things we like to do for fun, he specifically said things like concerts. I wondered why he'd ask those seeming unrelated to music questions. I realized a few moments later that it was probably to help decided what kind of contests to run.
This was one of those times that I think their questions missed the mark. I think they should have asked questions like 1) Do you listen to radio stations for their contests? 2) Would you rather hear music or djs talking about contests? 3) Do you listen to the radio more because of contests?
If they only had asked the right questions. I'm not sure how worthwhile a focus group is if they don't even ask the right questions. Anyway if they had asked, these are my answers. For question 1: no I don't listen to the radio for contests at all. There's already too much talk on the radio as it is. Also if the contest is too obnoxious, then it will actually cause me to turn the station. (Actually most of the time I listen to CDs. Why? I control the songs played, no DJs, no commercials and no lame contests. And if I get sick of a CD I just play a different one. Easy.) For question 2: music please, as much as possible. I understand they have to play commercials. For question 3: No the only reason I listen to music radio is for music, there's absolutely no other reason.
Another question they could have asked was is so called terrestial radio a dying medium? With Sirius, Spotify, iPods, CDs etc. does anyone listen to traditional radio any more if they have a choice?
Questions were also asked about "personalities". What is our opinions of Mick and Allen, Bob and Tom and Jon Carter? As for Bob and Tom, that's lowest common denominator radio. Mick and Allen and Jon Carter are long-time Salt Lake City morning show DJs. I'm 45 and Carter has been on the radio as long as I can remember. He's basically telling the same jokes he did back in the day.
Jon Carter does a couple of different contests in the morning: the Jon Carter quickie and what is it? For the most part these are inane time killers. But the thing I hate the most about these inane contests is that they come with the triple talk threat. I just made that up and am still working on it. Why do I dislike these contests? 1) Instead of playing music we are hearing the DJs talk more. 2) With these contests, they are basically an advertisement. For instance Rock 103.5 is giving away tickets to an upcoming Bon Jovi show now. I know more about that concert that I ever wanted to know. Also they gave away tickets to Ballet West's "Jewels". I have the dates memorized for when those shows are as they were mentioned so much. 3) Also as part of explaining the contests that leads to a bunch of inane DJ chatter. Aargh!
Also I wish 103.5 would go back to calling themselves Rock 103. The Arrow, what kind of message does that send? That tells me nothing about what kind of music they play or anything about the radio station at all. Well it does tell me one thing that they aren't very creative when it comes to naming their station. I still call them Rock 103 and refuse to call them the Arrow. Rock 106 would probably object to them calling themselves Rock 103,
Meanwhile Mick and Allen are basically low cost versions of Bob and Tom. They aren't funny enough to break out of the Salt Lake market.
That leads me to other questions that could have been asked. Questions like how long should a morning show last before a change happens? Is three years of the same jokes too long, not long enough or just right? Other Salt Lake morning shows like Jimmy Chunga and Kerry, Bill and Gina are also way too long in the tooth. Kerry, Bill and Gina are still doing boner of the day! Or at least they were the last time I listened to them weeks ago.
Also as with contests, questions should have been asked about whether we prefer to listen to music or the so called "personalities". Again my answer is music and it's not even close. We've all heard these songs hundreds of times, we don't need to be told the title of the song or the artist. We also don't need a DJ repeatedly telling us what radio station we are listening to.
themusicaddict
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