"There is a studio mobile too. It vibrates every few seconds like a faulty alarm clock, as listeners call and text. Scrolling through its inbox, I notice scores of "missed calls". Big N explains that this is how pirates gauge a record’s popularity. If listeners like a tune, they call in and then ring off, so the studio mobile registers a "missed call". This costs callers nothing. If Xtreme receives over 20 missed calls from different numbers before a track ends, the DJs play it again. This is why teenagers listen to pirate radio: it’s interactive in ways legal stations can’t match. Some tune in on their mobiles – on the bus, in the high street, even at school."
Jason Kottke pulls this clip from a Sunday Times article on UK pirate radio. Cool. As for "it’s interactive in ways legal stations can’t match", well, we’ll see about that 😉
Yes – I have to agree this is a good example of a journalists prose running away with itself somewhat…
Are we to take it then that other radio stations don’t know their audience?
Or that people only listen to pirates at school, on their mobile (only possible of course if it has FM built into it,) etc etc.
Capital amongst others have boasted for years that they know exactly which their biggest and most advertiser friendly audience 24/7 and their ouput is tailored to build on this fact e.g. 0845-0900 = the school run, and the music is always slightly (and very slightly more female friendly at that point than the rest of the day).
GWR go to great lenghts to keep in touch with their audience – ringing up dozens of listeners an evening from their Bristol HQ to ask what they think of records on their playlist. If the audience gives it a thumbs down, it goes, there and then. No time for new records to ‘bed in’ and grow an audience – if it isn’t catchy from the word go it goes. Similarly if an older record has gone from being good to annoying, it too will go to jukebox heaven.
Now, they’re two good examples of interactivity – there’s plenty more, but that would result in a longer article than the lazy journo wrote in the first place – these two examples just happen to be driven by very commercial means (which obviously isn’t part of the Queensbury Rules old boy).
But surely the end product for the ILRS, public service and pirate stations is the same – they all want to broadcast to the biggest and most loyal audience possible – so with that in mind, what would make you not want to interact with your listeners (arrogance aside)?