One thing to note: We once participated in a music survey for the local oldies station. They set aside an hour and just played clips of songs interspersed with numbers. For each you rated (scale 1 to 5?) whether you liked the song. It was something like 150 songs so more like 20 seconds per song.
Are they doing a parody of such surveys (which of course are at the heart of the Evil That Has Become Radio, unless you’re the one doing the picking!) or some such?
Joke. The blurb sounds like a cheap Dilbert knockoff (‘We noticed our consultant had a seven-second attention span, so we replaced him with Ratbert and haven’t noticed any difference.’) and the ‘format’ is laughable even to suits. (Especially to suits, who would think of this as a ‘hip’ way to get the audience laughing and tuning in.)
In a few days, you’ll have Yet Another Bet Hits/Best Variety Station there. I guarantee it.
This is clearly an attempt to “clean the cumes” and generate a buzz before announcing their new format.
They probably had all of these clips already loaded into their Enco system as that’s what they’d use for call outs or focus group surveys.
It would be absolutely no effort to have Enco cycle through the element numbers involved.
No need to pay anyone until you have the new staff (if there will be one live) in place.
I think you’ll notice they don’t have any advertisers during this change. (Although by the looks of their ratings decline over the last 6 books they may have already bailed.)
Don’t worry, I’m sure something new and wonderful… something never before done on radio, will soon take its place.
–It’s been a few years since I was involved in the research area. Do they still call those 7 second clips the “hooks?”
About, oh, ten years ago or so, they launched a new radio station in the Twin Cities called “WBOB”. For the first week or so, the station played all sorts of novelty songs such as you might hear on Dr. Demento. It was cool. Over the course of the week, it was revealed that this was not to be the permanent format of the new station. However, my friends and I were eagerly looking forward to this new station’s launch–after all, if they were playing Dr. Demento songs, they must be going after a young audience, and the Twin Cities must finally be getting an alternative-music station, etc. etc.
Imagine our horror to wake up that fateful morning to 'BOB’s puke “Achy Breaky Heart” and Garth Brooks. Yep, it was yet another country music station. (Long since demised now, BTW, and Twin Cities radio is even worse now.) We were quite disappointed.
At least this “Quick 96” stuff sucks enough that the real format will be better. Right? (I hope.)
[sub]I still have tapes I made of the Dr. Dementoesque stuff that week.[/sub]
About, oh, ten years ago or so, they launched a new radio station in the Twin Cities called “WBOB”. For the first week or so, the station played all sorts of novelty songs such as you might hear on Dr. Demento. It was cool. Over the course of the week, it was revealed that this was not to be the permanent format of the new station. However, my friends and I were eagerly looking forward to this new station’s launch–after all, if they were playing Dr. Demento songs, they must be going after a young audience, and the Twin Cities must finally be getting an alternative-music station, etc. etc.
Imagine our horror to wake up that fateful morning to 'BOB’s puke “Achy Breaky Heart” and Garth Brooks. Yep, it was yet another country music station. (Long since demised now, BTW, and Twin Cities radio is even worse now.) We were quite disappointed.
At least this “Quick 96” stuff sucks enough that the real format will be better. Right? (I hope.)
[sub]I still have tapes I made of the Dr. Dementoesque stuff that week.[/sub]
Does Central Massachusetts still have that radio station that plays a 3 hour loop over and over and over again? I remember the first time I went there, I noticed them playing some weird combos like Prince followed by the Who. The second time I went out there, I heard the same thing. By the third time I was there, I was betting people dinner that they’d play the Who within five minutes.
Nuts! It looks like they stopped. And I was all set to hear 7 second bits. Now they’re playing some 80s rock song I don’t recall the name of
Supposedly, it’s now classics from the 60s and 70s, but I heard an 80s song the last time I accidently tuned in.
Yeah, it’s now one of those stations where the tag line oughtta be “The same repetitive shit that you’ve listened to for 30 years.”