I love Canada. It’s a beautiful country. Its cities are clean and relatively safe. Its people are mostly terrific.

I just returned from there after a week at Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission hearings in Calgary. The CRTC is considering adding stations to Calgary and a couple of small cities in Alberta.

Unlike the FCC (which licenses stations concerned mainly with minimizing interference while squeezing in as many as possible), the CRTC does “due diligence.” It concerns itself with applicants’ business plans, financial qualifications and even formats. It wants new stations to add diversity of voices and choices to their markets. And it wants new stations to be viable without threatening the viability of existing ones. No wonder Canada has far fewer stations per capita than the U.S.!

Calgary, a metro area of over a million, with the hottest economy in the country, has only eight commercial FMs! Certainly, it can support more. And any new license in Calgary will be worth many millions.

Companies compete for the prize, and that’s where the fun part comes in. Broadcasters (and would-be’s) make elaborate presentations to CRTC commissioners, to convince them that they have the right plan, make the right promises, and have the right format for the market.

Not surprising, research (or what claims to be research) plays a role in this discussion. And I learned some amazing “facts” in Calgary last week…things that stunned me even though I’ve been in this industry for 30+ years. For example…

Seventeen percent of Calgary listeners do not have a favorite station! (It’s actually more like 2%.)

Sixty percent of the listeners to a Hot A/C station could name it as their favorite!

A station that includes MOR performers like Perry Como will appeal to 45-64’s, and even 45-54’s!

An Easy Listening station that includes 35% instrumentals will appeal to 45-64’s, and even 45-54’s!

There is a big opportunity for a Folk Music station!

Now, one of the CRTC commissioners did have a problem with something I testified to…that a Triple A station would have significant appeal to listeners in their 20’s and 30’s. But Triple A is new to Canada. Once he checks out the demos of Triple A’s in the U.S., he’ll understand that it is true.

But even (especially?) after 30+ years in the business, there’s something I don’t understand…why would anyone even want to play Perry Como on FM???

Why should successful stations should do research? Because research can help them stay successful. It can tell them whether their music mix is on target, whether their personalities are appealing, and if they have any vulnerabilities that a potential competitor could exploit.

Beyond these obvious benefits, though, is the “bigger picture”… Research can help managers better understand all of the reasons why their station is successful! Often, execs don’t fully grasp the reasons for their brand’s success, with potentially disastrous results.

New Coke is a prime example. It was Coca-Cola’s response to losing the “Pepsi Challenge” — a series of ads featuring consumers who preferred Pepsi in blind taste tests. Coke’s chemists developed a formula that could reverse the preference. After nearly 200,000 taste tests, Coca Cola’s Chairman announced New Coke in Spring of ‘85, calling it “the surest move ever made.”

But consumers said “no” to New Coke”…

“Changing Coke is like God making the grass purple or putting toes on our ears or teeth on our knees.”

“Like spitting on the flag.”

“Next week, they’ll be chiseling Teddy Roosevelt off the side of Mount Rushmore.”

Coke management — fixated on winning taste tests — had ignored other research it had — research that suggested changing Coke would break an emotional bond with many of its consumers. Said Coke’s President: “We did not understand the deep emotions of so many of our customers for Coca-Cola.” What resulted was one of the biggest busts in business history.

Coke was more than carbonated, colored, sweetened water. And listeners’ emotional reactions to WBCS-FM’s switch to Jack back in June suggests that it was more than just its music, DJ talk and commercials…

“I came home and I turned the radio on and it was not there. I thought I was going to faint . . . I really am sick. Part of my family is gone.”

“It was a crushing blow. I grew up on WCBS-FM, it was the station my parents listened to when I was a child and it was the station I listened to as an adult….It was the first pre-programmed station in every car radio, in every car, my family has owned. Now that is gone.”

“It’s the last thing New York needs.”

“Not all city radio stations feel like a part of the city,” said radio veteran Jonathan Schwartz. “WCBS-FM did.”

Infinity had logical reasons for making the change. Anyone involves with Oldies station knows that the format’s listeners are moving up and out of 25-54. Jack was an opportunity for WCBS-FM to adopt a younger, newer version of Oldies.

And format changes often bring protests. Many times, we encourage the controversy as a way to promote the new format!

But so far, the results for WCBS-FM are not positive. In the latest Arbitrend, the station’s 12+ share was 1.7…half of what it was prior to the change. Younger demos won’t compensate for that big of a decline.

I wonder if Infinity entirely grasped that WCBS-FM was more than an Oldies station, any more than Coke execs realized that their brand was way more than a soft drink.

I came across this today …

From Broadcast Dialogue: “A study from Yahoo and OMD Worldwide shows that the internet has surpassed radio as the preferred medium for music among youth in 11 countries. Forty-seven percent of young U.S. consumers prefer the internet for music, compared to 27% who prefer radio.”

When evaluating any research, take a close look at the methodology. In this case, the numbers were based on an online survey!

Think that might had any impact on the results???