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UBC Theses and Dissertations
"Favourites of yesterday and today" : Popular radio and risk management Barry, Graham Dean
Abstract
This thesis investigates from a social-institutional perspective, the rationale for the dominance of one type of format over another in commercial radio. I argue that the panoptic sorting and selecting of target markets is responsible for the present status quo - radio which is dominated by particular formats and which has come to exclude the diversity that characterized popular radio in the past. In addition, the increasing reliance on information access and control as facilitated by technology, has led many commercial stations to follow the most important demographic group, i.e., the market most sought after by advertisers. Currently, this group is the "baby-boomers", and the proliferation of A/C, Classic Rock, Oldies and "Soft Favourites" stations reflect this strategy. This marketing emphasis also effectively marginalizes the great majority of new, non-mainstream music to non-commercial formats. The Vancouver radio market is investigated in respect to these issues. I present data from interviews with local radio programmers to understand 1. How do the perspectives of station executives affect format decisions? 2. What factors are most influential in determining format and to what degree are these factors standardized? 3\ To what degree is information shared and distributed (i.e., an open market) among competing radio stations? 4. How have format considerations changed over the past twenty years? and 5. To what degree do station executives rely on standardized information collection techniques to influence and/or determine decisions regarding the format? The data from commercial sources are compared with public, college and co-op radio material to highlight the importance of economics in formatting decisions. I suggest that an economically-based rationality characteristic of media operations in a "risk society" largely determines the format possibilities in commercial radio/This in turn, limits the choices available to the radio listener. Although cultural implications-are not discussed in detail, this thesis will provide substance for arguments examining the effects of the exclusion of an important cultural-expressive form from mass distribution.
Item Metadata
Title |
"Favourites of yesterday and today" : Popular radio and risk management
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
1995
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Description |
This thesis investigates from a social-institutional perspective, the rationale for
the dominance of one type of format over another in commercial radio. I argue that the
panoptic sorting and selecting of target markets is responsible for the present status quo
- radio which is dominated by particular formats and which has come to exclude the
diversity that characterized popular radio in the past. In addition, the increasing
reliance on information access and control as facilitated by technology, has led many
commercial stations to follow the most important demographic group, i.e., the market
most sought after by advertisers. Currently, this group is the "baby-boomers", and the
proliferation of A/C, Classic Rock, Oldies and "Soft Favourites" stations reflect this
strategy. This marketing emphasis also effectively marginalizes the great majority of
new, non-mainstream music to non-commercial formats.
The Vancouver radio market is investigated in respect to these issues. I present
data from interviews with local radio programmers to understand 1. How do the
perspectives of station executives affect format decisions? 2. What factors are most
influential in determining format and to what degree are these factors standardized?
3\ To what degree is information shared and distributed (i.e., an open market) among
competing radio stations? 4. How have format considerations changed over the past
twenty years? and 5. To what degree do station executives rely on standardized
information collection techniques to influence and/or determine decisions regarding
the format? The data from commercial sources are compared with public, college and
co-op radio material to highlight the importance of economics in formatting decisions.
I suggest that an economically-based rationality characteristic of media
operations in a "risk society" largely determines the format possibilities in commercial
radio/This in turn, limits the choices available to the radio listener. Although cultural
implications-are not discussed in detail, this thesis will provide substance for arguments
examining the effects of the exclusion of an important cultural-expressive form from
mass distribution.
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Extent |
6824659 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-01-15
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0086685
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
1995-05
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.