By the time we got to our last chunk of 100 song excerpts, everybody was pretty well sick of it all. Smoothly, they threw in a number of surprises in the last twenty or thirty songs, to the vocal entertainment of some in the crowd. A few very corny Quebecois tunes were played, and right at the end there were some pretty raw, very rarely if ever played 60’s garage tunes, which I was surprised to hear (like “Time Has Come Today” and “What I Like About You”). Needless to say, we were still all pretty damn fed up. By far the best part of the whole thing was at the very end, when they gave us the money.

SIDEBAR: Sample questions from questionnaires we had to fill out:

1. We’d like to know more about the kind of radio station you would like to hear on Montreal radio—and how close these stations are to being that kind of station. For each category, rate the accompanying stations on the list according to how closely they fit the description. If none of them fit the description you like, check off “Ideal” to indicate that that would be your ideal station. (The stations listed: CHOM, Q92 and Mix96).
a. Mostly music (1) with little talk or Mostly info with little music (10)
b. Mostly hard rock (1) or mostly soft rock (10)
c. Morning show focuses on humor (1) or morning show plays it straight (10)
d. Laid back announcers (1) or energetic announcers (10)
e. Station wild, edgy and outrageous (1) or station straightforward and traditional (10)
f. Mostly familiar, older music (1) or mostly newer, current music (10)
2. Which of these stations, CJAD, CHOM, Mix 96 or Q92, do you associate with the following phrase or comment:

-Plays my favourite music
-Has too many commercials
-Morning show makes me laugh
-Too much talk
-Plays too many songs I’ve never heard of
-Gives the music/ concert information I want to hear
-Plays lots of non-stop music
-Plays too much new music
-Entertaining DJ’s/ announcers
-Mostly for people younger than I am
-Has less talk
-Plays the same songs over & over
-Plays the best new music
-Has news/ traffic/ weather info I need to start my day
-Plays too much hard rock
-I like the station’s attitude
-Friendly DJ’s/ announcers
-Plays too many old songs
-Music too sleepy
-Always know what kind of music to expect
-Plays the older, familiar songs I like
-Repeats its new songs too often
-Mostly for people older than I am
-Plays good variety of music
-Station starting to sound stale & boring
-Plays the most music.

(Of course, the right answer was that they ALL play exactly what you’d expect: the same old crap, and only the most annoying new crap, over and over and over.)

To be eligible for this survey, we had to say we worked full-time (because advertisers could care less about the unemployed). This meant we all supposedly listened to morning radio every day. They made us rate 5 morning shows on each of the following points:
-Friendly/ good company
-Has news/ traffic info I rely on
-Plastic/ phony
-Makes me laugh a lot
-I’m comfortable with them
-Interesting
-Too much “inside” humor
-Getting better lately
-Intelligent/ well-informed
-Doesn’t play enough music
-The show most of my friends listen to
-I relate to them
-They laugh too much (what do you expect when they snort so much coke?)
-Try too hard to be funny
-Upbeat mood to start the day
-Going downhill lately
-Sounds like friends/ get along well together
-Hip/ in touch with today
-Too much talking
-Boring
-Contests are fun to listen to
-Makes me turn off the station

SIDEBAR: Classic Rock Survey Top 10

(This chart is based on the number of songs played by each band out of the 700 songs played to us in the CHOM-FM study):

10. (6 songs each) Phil Collins/ Neil Young/ Tom Cochrane/ Fleetwood Mac/ Jimi Hendrix/ Steve Miller
9. (7 songs) Tom Petty/ Bad Company/ Heart/ Yes/ ZZ Top/ Journey
8. (8 songs) Rush/ U2/ Boston/ The Doors/ Foreigner/ Van Halen/ Bryan Adams/ Bon Jovi/ Sting-Police
7. (9 songs) Elton John/ Supertramp
6. (10 songs) Styx/ David Bowie/ Aerosmith
5. (11 songs) Pink Floyd/ The Eagles/ Eric Clapton
4. (13 songs) The Who
3. (14 songs) Led Zeppelin
2. (18 songs) Rolling Stones
1. (19 songs) Beatles/ Paul McCartney/ Wings/ John Lennon (combined total).

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