Someone mentioned that while watching too much TV decreases IQ, Radio
listening is actually shown to increase IQ. Is there any concrete
evidence/sites/publishings in this regard ?

Thanks.

Vijay

How can ANYONE'S IQ increase listening to 40 minutes of REPEATING
commercials an hour?

But, wait a minute! Someone says there is a fine line between genius
and INSANITY! That must be why....(c;

It would seem that listening to Clear Channel would only tend to melt
the brain into a mass resembling chocolate pudding.....

I almost lost it, last night, after I'd seen the stupid Gateway
Computers cow feet come through the ceiling over the bed for the 72nd
time in 2 hours. Who programs this ****?



On 19 Dec 2003 17:55:15 GMT, (Vijay) wrote:

Someone mentioned that while watching too much TV decreases IQ, Radio
listening is actually shown to increase IQ. Is there any concrete
evidence/sites/publishings in this regard ?

Thanks.

Vijay


Larry W4CSC

NNNN

Larry W4CSC wrote:
How can ANYONE'S IQ increase listening to 40 minutes of REPEATING
commercials an hour?

But Larry, that's the whole point. Repetition is the key to getting people
to remember the commercial!

My favorite example: Sunland Ford/Lincoln/Mercury in nearby Victorville,
California. I have heard their stupid cutesy slogan and company jingle so
many times I could literally sing it in my sleep. But I remember it.

The worst is when I'm driving over on the west side of Victorville and
I pass their lot and then hear the jingle on the radio. (Happens more often
than you might think.)

Since the High Desert only has one television station (KHIZ-TV 64 in
Victorville), most of the residents of this area get their local programming
from the Los Angeles television stations via satellite or cable. Well, Sunland
has bought copious amounts of advertising time from the local cable company
too. And it's not even a few different spots, it's the same one. Over, and
over, and over, ad nauseum. I'm sure that if it is possible to buy local or
regional advertising slots from DirecTV and DISH, they have done that too.

It would seem that listening to Clear Channel would only tend to melt
the brain into a mass resembling chocolate pudding.....

It's not a Clear Channel thing. Commercials are just as annoying on everyone
else's broadcast channels too. And while there are a few truly innovative,
entertaining or thought-provoking ad campaigns, most of them just... suck.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services
22674 Motnocab Road * Apple Valley, CA 92307-1950
Steve Sobol, Geek In Charge * 888.480.4NET (4638) *

On 20 Dec 2003 02:49:11 GMT, Steven J Sobol
wrote:

Larry W4CSC wrote:
How can ANYONE'S IQ increase listening to 40 minutes of REPEATING
commercials an hour?

But Larry, that's the whole point. Repetition is the key to getting people
to remember the commercial!

I guess I'm just too old to listen to radio any more. I download lots
of old shows off alt.binaries.sounds.radio.oldtime that have FOUR
commercials in them, smoothly integrated right into the show itself so
you don't actually realize Glenn Miller is selling you a Philco until
it's almost over...(c;

Oh, well, all the BBC stations are live on the net and archived so I
don't miss my favs. I emailed them and offered to pay my radio tax to
do my part because I'm on their servers quite often. That shook 'em
up. They refused my offer but appreciated the thought.

I listen to a 4 minute snippet of some talking head on news/talk, then
when the 8 minutes of spots comes on I turn it back off and go back to
my MP3 player. Radio is the reason for the MP3 explosion.


Larry W4CSC

NNNN

Steven J Sobol had written:

| It's not a Clear Channel thing. Commercials are just as annoying on everyone
| else's broadcast channels too. And while there are a few truly innovative,
| entertaining or thought-provoking ad campaigns, most of them just... suck.

Ah, yes, car dealer ads appear to be the worst. And don't forget the
weekend remotes from the car dealer, the staple financial lifeline
of small markets. I bet you have those in Victorville, too.

The most clever *and* memorable of recent times (although with heavy
repetition) seem to be the Epsom printer spots. Since they're
running on KCBS in heavy rotation, I think I've got those memorized
now.

--
"Right here in Minnesota!"
"Bullwinkle, that's Florida!"
"Well, if they're gonna keep adding states all the time, they
can't expect me to keep up!" -- Rocky & Bullwinkle, episode 5, 1960

In article , Larry W4CSC wrote:
I listen to a 4 minute snippet of some talking head on news/talk, then
when the 8 minutes of spots comes on I turn it back off and go back to

That is a good question for the radio programmers on this newsgroup.

Why is the spotload so heavy? Breaks on talk stations like WABC used
to be three or four commercials. Now it's more.

All news WCBS used to tout that it only played one commercial at a
time between news capsules. Now they sometimes play two.

WINS sometimes plays three in a row when they used to do one or two
spots about 8 years ago (pre all this consolidation).

Infinity some years back made all their stations up the spot loads.

Ditto, why cluster all the spots in 10 minute sweeps twice an hour
instead of breaking them up into frequent two or three minute breaks
so it SEEMS like less commercials are being played?

--
Sven Weil
New York City, U.S.A.

Sven Franklyn Weil wrote:
Ditto, why cluster all the spots in 10 minute sweeps twice an hour
instead of breaking them up into frequent two or three minute breaks
so it SEEMS like less commercials are being played?

That's the part that confuses me. We've got music stations that
announce "coming up next -- 9 in a row". They mean 9 songs, but if you
listen often enough you quickly learn that also means 9 minutes of
advertising [0] - i.e., that announcement is your cue to change stations...

I suppose since the ratings don't show whether someone was listening
during the ads - only that they were listening - that if clumping the
spot load increases the numbers the rest of the hour it makes short-term
economic sense. One just has to wonder what will happen when the
advertisers start finding they get a smaller increase in sales per
thousand "ears" bought?

(indeed I note the station in the bad example above has begun to promote
"fewer commercials, more music" and indeed appears to have broken up
their spot load across the hour)
--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com
[0] not 100% certain I'm exaggerating!

"Sven Franklyn Weil" wrote in message
...


Ditto, why cluster all the spots in 10 minute sweeps twice an hour
instead of breaking them up into frequent two or three minute breaks
so it SEEMS like less commercials are being played?

Tons of research has been done on this, and fewer stops create far less tune
out. Generally, tune out occurs in the first spot, so there is no
disadvantage to running many at a time.

In general, stations that went to fewer stops have increased ratings while
those adding more have gone down in ratings.

The "never more than a minute from music" sounded good, but did not work.

The other thing that REALLY turns me off is when they run out of
things to say/do and start saying "News Talk 1250, WTMA" over and over
and over ad nauseum. "News Talk 730, WSC" (WSCC is more ashamed of
its call letters. Being a Clear Channel station, they think they
should be able to use RCA's WSC station call, assigned to marine band
use.)

Dan Moon, who switched from 1250 to 730 after being on WTMA for 30
years, once asked the call in listeners what they never wanted to hear
on WTMA, again. I called in and waited my turn after 6 spots played.
"Dan, if I never heard 'News Talk 1250, WTMA' again, it wouldn't be
too soon. Every one of us out here listening KNOWS what the station's
call letters are and KNOWS what frequency it is on. We don't need to
be told 37 times every 10 minutes. Why don't you put on some music if
you all run out of things to talk about." His answer was truly funny
and he didn't want to talk to me further. Three more callers followed
me up. I swear it was uncoordinated, but very effective. It took 'em
three weeks to get the self-promotion spots back up to 37 every 10
minutes in the aftermath.

Over on Clear Channel's WSCC, ol' Dan says the call letters/frequency
nearly continuously, now. Of course, he says WSC, not their real call
until the hour when they have a quickie spot to satisfy the FCC.

I'm for an FCC regulation on all of them that makes it ILLEGAL to say
the stations call letters EXCEPT once during the 2-minute-to-the-hour
requirement and makes it illegal to quote the station's frequency all
together! Any takers?!


Larry W4CSC

NNNN

On 22 Dec 2003 01:17:53 GMT, (Larry W4CSC) wrote:

Over on Clear Channel's WSCC, ol' Dan says the call letters/frequency
nearly continuously, now. Of course, he says WSC, not their real call
until the hour when they have a quickie spot to satisfy the FCC.

Yes, you complain about this. Yes, the listeners calling in complain
about this. No, the frequent call letter mentions are not for you, or
those other listeners.

It has been proven time and time again that frequent call letter
mentions = higher ratings. While you indeed may know which station
you're listening to, many others tune in and out and DO NOT. And
quite a few of 'em end up with Arbitron diaries.

Don't believe me? Hook up with a radio friend of yours - in
programming - and have 'em tell you. I've heard about diaries in one
of my former home markets that would amaze you.

Rush Limbaugh has been a talk radio institution since 1988. Four
years before that, he rose to prominence as a local host on Sacramento
news/talker KFBK, which happened to employ me (not overlapped with
Rush being in Sac for 7 1/2 years.

So, that means Rush has been on 1530 AM in Sacramento for nearly 20
years straight, every single weekday from 9 AM to noon, with late
night and weekend repeats.

Despite that, I've heard of relatively recent diaries (within the past
5 years) that have placed Rush on: KCTC (AM 1320, a nostalgia
station), KSTE (AM 650, a sister talk station to KFBK which runs
Premiere's Glenn Beck in that slot), KCRA (a former set of calls for
the aforementioned AM 1320), and that's just off the top of my head.

This, despite the fact you'd expect any sentient being in Sacramento
to know which radio station Rush was on, even if they don't listen to
talk radio or radio at all! KFBK has featured very frequent billboard
ad campaigns, along with other media, promoting Rush's show, even in
recent years.

The frequent call mentions may frost you...but for stations,
especially news/talk stations...they usually mean HIGHER RATINGS.

Mike