Low-key adverts on ‘highbrow’ Washington radio station

Press, 3 December 1982, Page 11

Low-key adverts on ‘highbrow’ Washington radio station

NZPA staff correspondent Washington New Zealanders have little to fear if the Concert programme follows the advertising policies of American classical music stations as ir switches to FM broadcasting. ; The best "highbrow” station in Washington is WGMS, which broadcasts mostly classical music but takes’time out for jazz too. and the occasional news bulletin — but no sport. The quality of the FM broadcast is superb, and advertising is low-key.

WGMS is a commercial station, but the advertisements are carefully controlled. Their volume does not come up above the level of the previous music, as often happens on other stations, and the music is never interrupted to make way for a commercial. Commercials may come

during the intermission of a live concert broadcast — otherwise they tend to be bunched, leaving long periods of music followed by a concentrated burst of advertisements.

The effect on the listener is hardly noticeable; the listeners recognise that the advertisements pay for the music, and they are not obtrusive. Other stations, such as Washington’s Weta, are noncommercial. They exist on fund-raising drives and support from a quasi-govern-ment body, big corporations and philanthropic foundations.

In fact the constant appeals for money from these stations are more annoying to the listener than are the advertisements on WGMS; the constant harping on the theme that listener subscriptions keep the station going tend to twinge the conscience, and they go

on, and on, and on, the tone of voice often desperately cherry. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was set up in the late 1960 s to fund alternative programming from taxpayers’ money, in some cases giving a voice to minority groups, in others helping to finance broadcasting of “good" music which would not otherwise attract enough advertising to be viable. Advertisers are "sponsors" in the United States. Where programmes are financed by big corporations, or foundations, the formula is: “This programme was made possible by a grant from .. The programmes they finance are good ones, and they extend also to public television. The television programmes cost them a considerable amount of money, but the corporations and foundations are happy with low-key name recognition, probably on the principle that they are broadcasting to a sophisticated audience which will appreciate the sponsorship but which would be annoyed by the hard-sell advertising they aim at the Archie Bunkers of America. The type of television programmes the corporations and foundations finance are David Attenborough’s “Life on Earth,” Jacob Bronowski’s “Ascent of Man,” and similar American progammes. Americans have long realised though that there is no such thing as a free lunch. ■ WGMS asks its listeners to support the station advertisers — again a quiet, low-key request — but the point is understood that if this relatively small (but growing) section of the radio-

listening audience does not, then the often superb programmes — often live — might stop. One rock station in Washington takes a similar tack, but one which is harder on the ears, telling listeners again and again and again that 60 minutes of commer-cial-free rock music is coming up. or taking place. The message tends to be so strident, and so frequent, that one longs for a quiet commercial instead. The commercials come — about 15 minutes of them — once the hour has finished.