The following appeared in a memorandum from the general manager of KNOW radio station."Several factors indicate that radio station KNOW should shift its programming from rock-and-roll music to a continuous news format. Consider, for example, that the numb

The KNOW radio station seems to be dealing with an ever increasing problem of the generational gap. Who should radio stations appeal to? As technology has increased exponentially, past forms of enterntainment and consumption have become obsolete. The tape has been replaced by the compact disc, and that has been quickly replaced by the mp3 and other forms of digital music. So too, have radio stations, where now people can listen or even watch news on demand. The KNOW radio station seems to be in a dilemma, as they struggle with whom to pander to. However, the general manager’s memorandum and reccommendation for how to solve the problem of the KNOW radio station has inherent flaws and makes assumptions that are not fully developed and analyzed. Until further analysis is conducted, the general manager’s solution should not be implemented.

The general manager starts off by saying that in order to save listeners from leaving KNOW programming, that they should eradicate rock-and-roll music and dedicate programming solely to news. This is based on the assumption that rock music is the ultimate reason people 50 and older do not listen to the radio station. This assumption is not valid. There needs to be more statiscal evidence that rock music is what is driving away listeners who are 50 and older. What if rock music is not the only programming on the station other than news. For example, it could be rap music or silly morning show programming that is not appealling to the older age demographic. The general manager does not offer any statistics to state whether or not this is true. Until this is examined, the KNOW station would be wise to wait to deracinate rock music from their station.

Morever, the general manager makes the claim that rock music should be taken off the air because record sales are down. The assumption here is that because record sales are down, that means interest in music is down and therefore, news is what should take it’s place. This is a very tenuous and unfounded assumption. The general manager does not go into any details regarding why the record sales have decreased. We are left to assume it is because interest in rock music has gone down. There are still many unanswered questions here. Could the cause of the decrease in record sales be due to an increase in the use of digital music that does not require records? Does the store itself only sell vinyl records or has there recently been a push towards an ecclectic mix of tapes, CDs and vinyls? If the later is the case, then maybe the decrease in record sales is in part due to the fact that customers now have more choices now. Either way, the general manager’s case is flawed here and needs to examined more closesly before the KNOW radio station makes such a drastic change.

Even though the KNOW radio station would benefit from a further examination of the general manager’s reccommendation, his points should not be dismissed entirely. If it is true that the population is getting older, then there is more of a chance that they would be the predominant audience of radio programming. This is evident by a generational gap between older people and the current generation that do not necessarily use radio as their primary source of listening to music. With the advent of mp3 players, smartphones, etc., it is plausible that KNOW would do well by appealing to the majority age demographic of their audience. However, it still important to realize that there needs to be more evaluation of the general manager’s claims before such a change is considered the right thing to do.

One of the general manager’s most flawed claims is that KNOW should change to a 24-hour news program due to the fact that neighboring communities have done the same thing and have seen success. However, this point is inherently flawed because there could be many reasons why it has been successful in the neighboring community. Maybe the reason for success could be attributed to the fact that all of the other radio stations have shut down and the only one left happens to be a 24-hour news radio station. It is imperative that the cause for success being that it is a 24-hour news station is analyzed thoroughly.

Overall, it is clear that the general manager’s argument needs to be subject to more scrutiny before it is taken at face value. With any big decision, many factors come into play and every avenue needs to be explored before a consensus is reached. The KNOW radio station’s situation is no different and should be considered accordingly.