Radio Survey

A couple weeks ago I got polled. I get polled a lot, and I'm sure it's because I answer surveys. Makes me wonder about the validity of their sample. Same thing with jury duty, I always show up so I get called like clockwork every three years. But I love both polling and jury duty, so I ain't complaining.

The latest poll was from WDQR, the big country music station here in the Triangle. They are apparently thinking about changing their format, and I'm happy to help. But they asked a lot of bad questions. One long set of questions listed three songs and asked if I liked them a lot, a little or not at all. Problem is, there is very little music I like not at all, just musical comedy, metal where they are actually worshipping Satan by name, whiny liberals with guitars -- you know, only the truly egregious offenses against music. Another problem is among any three songs they would pick one or two that I liked and one that I just can't stand. In country music, that would be all those jingoist post-911 anthems.

Another long set was a list of names, asking would you listen to a station with that name and what kind of music do you think they would play? The last part yeilds useful information, but frankly I don't really care what their marketing gimmick is, I just care about the music. And besides, all the suggested names were really lame. All animal names, except for "the Thunder." The lamest was "the Gator." Unless it's Lynryd Skynryd and the Allman Brothers all the time. I might listen to a station that played the Allman Brothers at least once a day.

The biggest failure of the survey is that it only cared about competition with other radio stations, so I didn't have a chance to tell them that I get most of my C&W knowledge these days from Country Music Television. CMT, quite frankly, is the salvation of country music from corporate pap. They have shown the proper reverence to the old-timey sound. Anybody who tries to make Del McCoury a star is OK by me. It's the only place you can hear Loretta Lynn's latest record, which is one of her best ever. And by doing so, they have cultivated new stars making real country music like Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson, and influenced older acts to reconnect with their honky tonk roots.

Then today, I read about Jack, the latest cynical prepackaged radio format. It's Gen X nostalgia, you know, buy our mass marketed product because you are a rebel who does things their own way. It's a just another micromanaged corporate playlist "presenting itself as a voice of unfettered expression in an era where corporate radio serves up micromanaged playlists." I cannot think of anything to say in response that doesn't involve swearing, another avoidance I am trying to cultivate.

But I digress. If all of a sudden WQDR switches to honky tonk or classic country or Christian rock or a country version of Jack, remember you heard it here first.