Jon Gallant <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Incessant self-congratulation is not limited to NPR.  Seattle's solitary
>CM station, which is commercial and broadcasts classical top-40 moosak,
>confides smugly in every single announcement that "this is K...-FM,
>Seattle's classical choice".  Since no other classical music can be found
>on the dial, there is about as much choice involved here as in choosing
>to ingest food rather than old socks.  The motivation for endlessly
>repeating this phrase is a puzzle. Its incessant repetion must irritate
>other listeners beside myself, which can hardly generate good will for
>the station.  Why do they insist on doing it?  Maybe there is an FCC
>ruling, somewhere, requiring that every station ID include an idiotically
>self-satisfied tag line.

>From what I was told during my years on radio, the rationale stems
from the notion of trying to imprint on the minds of the listeners
a tag that will come to mind should they ever be part of an arbitron
survey.  I was also told that it was part of the process of branding.
I remember when our "classical" station introduced the phrase, "Voice
of the arts for Central Texas." At that point I sensed it was the
beginning of the end.  Prior to that time we never looked at the
arbitron ratings.  It was at that same time when expressions like
"branding," "market share," "demographics," etc.  became subjects for
staff meetings.  It changed from being about classical music to being
about radio.  We had a full time staff of three.  We then added someone
to coordinate membership/marketing, then a bookeeper, then a fundraiser
...At that point we got a new program director who started a policy
of playing movements from works and put prohibitions on what we could
broadcast.  We went to offering a service overnight instead of having
our own people at the station.  Then we had a computerized setup with
digitally stored public service announcements and started outsourcing
the preparation of "ads," which was followed by extending the overnight
service to the evenings, cancelling most of the locally produced
programming...well you get the drift...classical muzak had arrived.

Karl

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