Entry 7: Radio 94.7

It's hard to find decent stations to listen to on the radio these days. There are so many awesome alternatives--from Spotify, to Pandora, to Songza, to any kind of personal music player, including just listening to files on a computer. Unfortunately, I don't have the time or money to fill up my iPod with all the music I like, and I don't have WiFi in my room. It's radio for me, and one station that I listen to a lot, Radio 94.7 (http://www.radio947.net/), is beginning to annoy me to the point that I'd rather do homework in silence. That's a big deal, because doing homework in silence is really depressing. It's when you start hearing the voices...

Please please get out of my head!

Radio 94.7's appeal is that they play alternative music, and aren't controlled by big corporations that force feed the public mass media. It goes along with a lot of the themes discussed in Merchants of Cool. 94.7 is everything old MTV was not. They're different and authentic and personal, genuine members of the Sacramento music scene and committed to never selling out. At least, that's what they say. 

One of the points they always mention is that they don't have live DJs, because radio should be music and not talking. Instead, they have several recordings that play between songs. I listened to their station for about an hour and wrote down the things they said: 

"This will be quick, Radio 94.7's back to the music in 60 seconds."
"The commercials never take too long. YOU want to hear music. Radio 94.7"
"We limit our commercials, which means we DON'T have a huge marketing budget for Radio 94.7. Our growth is all thanks to you. We REALLY appreciate that you're spreading the word."
"Limited commercials. A simple strategy, but REALLY hard for a lot of radio stations to do. Radio 94.7."
"Radio 94.7 isn't held by some corporate office. YOU determine what we play, not some corporate guy who's never even been to Sacramento."

All of these are recordings of two people, one male and one female, and all are dripping with that quality a person's voice takes on when they have that extremely self-satisfied, simpering smile plastered on their face. The girl sounds so infatuated with the genius that is Radio 94.7 that she's about to break into a smug giggle. The last three examples especially give off that self-righteous superiority so many hipsters are known for. 

It's true that many of their commercial breaks are one minute, but when they're not, they're around eight. Completely mainstream, manufactured stations like 107.9 don't have commercial breaks nearly that long. Also, two songs they play incessantly are Lights by Ellie Goulding, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NKUpo_xKyQ) and Safe and Sound by Capital Cities, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWZr2F0qohA). Safe and Sound has an awesome video, but both songs are electronic and Ellie Goulding is in no way alternative. 94.7 is incredibly pompous and snobby, and their holier-than-thou attitude towards other stations makes me really mad. 

The needs their slogans try to meet are the need for autonomy, affiliation, and to some extent, the need to satisfy curiosity. Being a cool person who listens to Radio 94.7 instead of "corporate" stuff has to do with autonomy because it sets you above everyone else. Being with all the other cool people helping to spread the word about the station and have a little closely-knit underground community has to do with the need for affiliation because it makes it seem like all the listeners and contributors are friends. Things about being the station with the most music, least talk, and shortest commercial breaks give concrete reasons why 94.7 is the best, which is satisfying curiosity. 

Avante Garde is a technique used here. They're trying to make listeners feel better than everyone else and at the forefront of music culture. When they talk about the "60 second" commercial breaks it's an example of facts and figures. Plain folks is also used. They always lump themselves in with listeners, like everyone is on the same side just trying to create a good station for everyone to enjoy together. 

In conclusion, the advertisers/DJs or whoever airs these commercials are hypocritical, whiny narcissists and every time I hear their smug recordings I want to punch them hard in the face.