There may be hope yet! But I doubt it.

[ForeverAutumn]

I answered the phone last night and it was a telemarketing firm asking me to do a survey. Usually, I just yell at the poor kid on the other end and tell them that the phone ringing woke up my baby/elderly parent/puppy/abusive husband/me. But this time they wanted to do a survey about Toronto Radio. Well, how could I not say "yes" to that? I was just really, really curious about what they were going to ask.

Most of the survey consisted of groups of like-minded bands (i.e. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Genesis), then did I strongly like, somewhat like, somewhat dislike or stongly dislike those bands. Then, what radio station would play that music.

They asked about talk vs. music, which did I like better. Which stations had too much talk (all of them). Which stations repeated their play list too often (all of them). Which stations had good DJs (none of them). Unfortunately, "all of them" and "none of them" were not acceptable answers. "I don't know" was the only non-specific choice.

It was actually a pretty fun survey to do. The jist of the survey was that they are looking at whether Toronto wanted/needed another "alternative" radio station. HELL YES!!! But even if they start out with a good alt station, it'll end up sucking over time. I just know it will.

[kexodusc]

Most of the time I find the "talk" to be the only difference between a lot of stations. Pick your poison, I guess.
I like the news and weather on the way to work, then I listen to sports. My office's tower connects to a shopping mall and I get enough radio music every day I'm at work.
I bet most of my radio exposure comes from elevators and restaurants these days.

I can't remember the last album I bought because of hearing a song on the radio. Usually I listen to web-radio that's 99.99% commercial free.

[GMichael]

FA, you yell at them? That just makes you upset. Here's a good trick. Tell them that you would like to hear all about it. Then leave your phone on the table and go back to what you were doing. Come back a few minutes later to hang it back up. It keeps them from anoying someone else for a bit.

Cool survey though. I would have given the same answers. How about, no DJ? Just play the music. No chance huh? Well a guy can dream can't he?

[ForeverAutumn]

FA, you yell at them? That just makes you upset. Here's a good trick. Tell them that you would like to hear all about it. Then leave your phone on the table and go back to what you were doing. Come back a few minutes later to hang it back up. It keeps them from anoying someone else for a bit.

Cool survey though. I would have given the same answers. How about, no DJ? Just play the music. No chance huh? Well a guy can dream can't he?

Hey if some a$$hole phones me in the middle of dinner to ask me if I want my ducts cleaned (electric heating, no ducts in my house), new windows (I live in a condo) or my lawn sprayed (again, condo) I'm already upset. Yelling at them makes me feel better.

[Hyfi]

The best one I pulled was to calmly ask the person on the other end if I could have thier home phone number so I could return the call when they were eating dinner. There was a long pause at the other end before a short apology and disconnect. My wife loked at me with this startled look and aske if she heard what she thought she did. We have been laughing about and using that line since.

About those radio stations....99% of them suck. We have 1 good alt station in the Philly area. WXPN has been a great station since I can remember. There is a show for all at some time of the day from Sat night Blues show to the Kids Corner weekly at 7 to the Greatfull Dead hour and one of my favs, JamNation which is all jam bands on Monday night.

There is one good Rock station out of Bethlem-Allentown PA- WZZO or Z95. Hard to tune in over 50 miles away but always great when I can. I have since turned to a few Internet stations that just keep playing what you like as well as Pandora where you can create one hundred custom stations and access them from anywhere using an email addy for login.

Cheers,

Hyfi

[3-LockBox]

I don't even own a tuner anymore...and don't miss it. Radio sucks and deserves to die.