Comments Continued

Ongoing Discussion between Brian Riggins of Rockford, Illinois and yours truly on the difference between TV and Radio music programming; original thought-provoking piece posted at http://sandwiches.blogspot.com with comments listed in their appropriate place.

As Wyclef said, “ and herrrrreee we go….”

Well, to begin I would like to point out the fact that I did do a little more research than you did; all in all, about an hour and a half. This is a curious subject, but I hope to find a point and accentuate it a little better than I did on your blogger.

Within your response you pointed out that WMAD was owned by Clear Channel and therefore they were “pretty much broadcasting evil waves.” Why is that? Upon glancing at their own website I noticed some things that I didn’t really think were all that bad; there was a quick little link to Unicef, some fundraising promos for regional radio stations, even a blurb about Tsunami Relief. How horrible of them.
But then I found the real dirt: their company creed. This short manifest states what it is that they are about and can be found at http://www.clearchannel.com/Corporate/company_creed.aspx.
Some of the more alarming points included:
• Believing that excellence is encouraged by “Respect for the individual,” “Honest, open communication,” “creativity, innovation and initiative,” etc.
• Creating an atmosphere of “helping our customers grow their businesses.”

The worst being the final line: “We believe the ultimate measure of our success is to provide a superior value to our stockholders.”

Hold on a second, you mean to tell me that ultimately it is a business? But isn’t television a business as well? Why yes it is. But here’s the difference: where as they are both businesses there is a definite and different strategy to selling their product.

According to the “The State of the News Media: An Annual report on American Journalism” survey, performed by Journalism.org, “the highly segmented radio business is increasingly dependent not simply on knowing its audience demographic in broad terms-age, income, marital status-but on knowing who these individual listeners are exactly.” The reports opening lines go on to include the simple facts/ideas that radio executives know many details about ones life; including food preferences, medical conditions, and lifestyle preference frequencies.

The same survey found that out of the following forms of media consumption, radio and television were at the top: newspapers, magazines, books, Total Reading (newspapers, magazines, books), radio listening, TV viewing, computer, and online. According to the survey observers the total average for Radio listening on an average day was 129minutes, whereas for TV viewing it was 319. The medium, which came in third, was “online” material with 78 minutes, only 11 ahead of total reading. This simply points out the fact that people consume most of their media from two major sources: tv and radio. As if you didn’t know that…

However, the main point of this rambling, is the idea that the type of advertising/marketing for the two mediums is completely different. Radio plays to a market whereas TV influences the market.

In previous posts I am not sure if you straight out said it or not, but I do believe that the idea of “who are the executives in charge of radio vs. tv? And why can’t they play some good tunes?” Well let’s take a look shall we?

Beloved NPR’s director of music is the lovely Benjamin Roe. He has done many great things for the station since becoming a part of it in 2002. Such as extending the “World of Opera,” to a full year service; as well as contributing some great advancements for their Jazz programming. However, for the sake of my argument, his biggest achievement came with the infusion of NPR and Starbucks in 2003, when he made it possible for participating Starbucks to make NPR’s Holiday Programming available for frappachino lovers everywhere*. If that is not stealing from Clear Channels playbook I don’t know what is. They are simply making a deal with one of their largest demographics. But honestly though, Starbucks and NPR is a gimmie.

Now on to WMAD: music director? I don’t know. It wasn’t listed. But going along with the idea that radio plays to the demographic I could easily surmise that they are doing a damn good job. Upon looking at their “Now Playing” list for the 9 o’clock pm hour of March 21 you will find such tunes as:
• “So Far Away” by Crossfade
• “Darling Nikki” by Foo Fighters
• “Devils Haircut” by Beck
• “Passive” by A Perfect Circle
• “Right Side of the Bed” by Atreyu
• “I’m Not Okay” by My Chemical Romance
• “Slither” by Velvet Revolver
• “Beating Heart Baby” by Head Automatica
• “Remember” by Disturbed

Now I can not and will not go so far as to say that any of those songs are, or will ever be, within the top of my list of favorite songs. But I can be honest and say that I could appreciate them while driving in a car or working. Point being that these songs are tuned into the demographic that I am a part of. I am a 23 year old recent college grad who has spend time in a Midwestern industrial town and come from a lower to middle class family. What’s not to like about “A Perfect Circle”?

As for the Bikini contest: it’s an advertising ploy to get Frat boys and union men out to the bars. But wait; there is a little something for the ladies. How does a “modeling contract with the Rock Agency,” a “photo shoot, MAD Girl contract, 1 year membership to Neighborhood Fitness Center, clothing and more” sound? Good? Well then pull out the hibernating summer clothes and get your rear down to “Madison Avenue” next Tuesday.

I’m not going to merit the good and the bad of this advertising ploy, but I will say that it seems to some how straddle the line of objectifying women and playing to both sides (at least for me…moral compass without a magnet at times).

Now back to executives. Let’s talk about the OC. The creator of the show is one Mr. Schwartz and at the site www.musicfromtheoc.com/linernotes we can bear witness to the fact that music is a major part of this show. They state on the page that “Schwartz is passionate about music and has made the selection of artists featured on The O.C. one of his main areas of focus.” An example of what The O.C. can do for a band can be seen in the fact that after the band “Rooney” appeared on the show their CD sales went up 200% within the following week. The site also states that “He (Schwartz) is often given other cutting edge bands a big push,” such as “Death Cab for Cutie, Black Eyed Peas, Bright Eyes, Jet and Spoon, and Finley Quay with a significant increase in radio airplay following each bands appearance.”

Upon further inspection of the “linernotes” section of the website I found some other interesting things. The main music supervisor is Alexandra Patsavas, and her company “The Chop Shop.” She began as a concert promoter in Champaign, Il., and has been working in the music supervising business for the past 10 years for various TV and Film projects. Within the notes on the page it was stated that one of the things that this crew loves about their job is being able to mold a song to fit a scene; this to me is the major difference between music within TV and radio. Music is used to accent something within TV and it is meant to define something within radio. Why do you listen to “The Drive?” Guaranteed sing-a-longs. You know the music on the station. You are not looking for it to make a break-up seem more poignant or for it to make a kiss last forever. You are looking for an easy way to spend 40 minutes of what could be a boring drive being entertained. Well, while you are busy trying to make the 40 minutes go a little faster someone saw an opportunity and said, “why don’t we sell that man a thing or two while we have his attention?” Well, in order to do that they had to find out who you were so that they could sell the time to someone who had something to sell you. I don’t think that too many modeling agencies would support NPR, no matter how many bikini contests they propose to hold.

The final portion will be about preference.

You have it, I have it and so do the people at “The Chop Shop.” Actually, the more that I look into it the more that I am convinced you and Ms. Parsavas should hook up. Within the “list of our 50 favorite albums of last year” from the people at “The Chop Shop” some familiar bands were listed. Such as: Belle & Sebastian, The Streets, Elliot Smith, Iron & Wine, Wilco, The Decemberists, etc. Many of these bands I have either heard about from you or have had them played for me by you.
Point: you have a similar preference to the people that decide what is to be played on the show. Does that mean that you fit into the demographic of who watches the OC? Or does it mean that they are trying to influence a younger crowd to listen to good music? I would go with the latter. They do however disagree with you on one thing: Green Day. The O.C. folks want to license the bands music, whereas you considered it a black eye for WMAD.

Bottom line: you are comparing two totally different mediums of relaying media. Both are trying to make money from advertisers; but one is projecting trends and the other absorbing trends; which therefore make them work in different ways. When it comes down to it preference takes the cake, because it doesn’t matter what you think you like, the advertisers know and they are either going to give you what you like or they are going to subtly recommend further options.

But really though Brian, why wouldn’t you just watch the Star Wars trailer online or something like that?

Through this little discussion I have learned a thing or two. Thanks. I promise never to loft over softly woven comments onto your blogger again.

*Starbucks, the world’s largest coffee house, really pisses me off. They sell free-trade coffee by the bag to those that want and they love to show off how great it is for the farmers and their ilk, but they won’t make any solid changes to, you know, perhaps “only” sell free trade coffee. It’s a lot like Wal-Mart changing their clothing areas to “Sweat-Shop” and “Non-Sweat Shop” goods.