Too Many Commercials!

[landtuna]

Couldn't sleep last night so I plugged in my earbuds and flipped on the radio - something I almost never do outside my car.  It was just after 5AM so I figured the all-night guy would be on and playing uninterrupted music.  Was I ever wrong!

KOOL's morning crew was on and during the ten or so minutes I listened to them I heard one (1) song.  The rest of the time was taken up by two long commercial blocks (complete with repetitive ads) and a minute's worth of traffic banter.

Hit the button to KSLX - certainly the Classic Rock station won't have all those irritating commercial blocks this early, right?  Wrong!  Not even one song here.  Morning guy does his promo followed by half-a-dozen commercials (including the identical one that was repeated two times on KOOL).

And people wonder why radio is losing its audience.....

[TheBigA]

And people wonder why radio is losing its audience.....

Sorry, but it's the popular stations that usually air the most commercials.   

[KOOL Listener Lauren]

Why not just turn on the 14-songs-in-a-row Goldmine? 

[KeithE4]

And people wonder why radio is losing its audience.....

Sorry, but it's the popular stations that usually air the most commercials.   

A two minute commercial break is reasonable.  Even a 2-minute break, then a 60-90 second traffic report, followed by another 2-minute break is acceptable.  But anything longer will make me change the station.  I've timed KOOL's commercial breaks, and some of them are 5-6 minutes long.  That's ridiculous.

[TheBigA]

I've timed KOOL's commercial breaks, and some of them are 5-6 minutes long.  That's ridiculous.

Listeners prefer two or three long breaks rather than ten short breaks.  It adds up the same, so the stations don't care either way.  But multiple surveys in multiple cities show that 2-3 long breaks is better than 8-10 short ones.

[caveman-97]

I know what I do after about the third commercial.   I feel some sympathy for the advertiser who bought spot number 6 or 7.

Junky research is all over the place.

[TheBigA]

Junky research is all over the place.

It's not junky.  It's been documented over and over.  Most people sit through commercials on the radio.

[landtuna]

Why not just turn on the 14-songs-in-a-row Goldmine? 

I would have except:

1.  I can't get the Goldmine where I live (S. Tempe) and
2.  My little radio is FM/MP3 only.

[landtuna]

It's not junky.  It's been documented over and over.  Most people sit through commercials on the radio.

I can't address the "junky" research but I can say I won't listen to certain stations who air giant strings of commercials.  I hadn't listened to KOOL for quite some time and this experience doesn't encourage me to begin listening again.

Another good reason to tune to The Coyote!

[pattiwacki]

That's why I listen to it lt, and why the format change hasn't bothered me. The type music KYOT plays isn't as important to me as the fact that they play fewer commercials than other stations and their announcers are not loud and obnoxious.