"Telamon" wrote in message
...

I was surveyed once by a local rock FM station that had a top 40 format.
The wanted to know what music format I listened too.

There is lots of bad research in all fields. the fact that the station
identified itself is a good clue... introducing the name of the client
creates respondent bias that is capable of ruining the responses.

Classical music was
not one of the choices. Talk radio was not one of the choices either.
They wanted to know what mix of rock music I favored of older music from
the 80s and 90s and current hits. I told them I was tired of hearing the
old hits and dont ever want to hear them again. The new music was more
interesting but not my preference.

It sounds like they were, very badly, trying to qualify respondents for a
phone call out music test. In such cases, only certain combinations of
stations are of interest, and screening does occur. This sounds like they
did not know how to do this right.

She wanted to argue with me about
what I did listened too. The question moved on to if I was to listen to
KXXX what mix would I prefer. Good example of outcome based marketing
dont you think. I didnt fit into their listening survey so they would
make me fit. I just hang up the phone went they call now.

Generally, this only works if they play you mix samples, as there has to be
a common ground to evaluate all responses against. Usually, a variety of
"pods" representing a mix will be played, and the respondent scores them on
a scale.