“Come Monday…” is a
weekly series that will involve a review of, or commentary about, websites, movies, documentaries, television
shows, sports, music, and whatever else may tickle my fancy at the time. Be assured that these reviews will be
generally positive, as in accordance to the Jimmy Buffett song “Come
Monday.” This is subject to change,
however. In fact, I would be most
derelict in my duties to neglect going on a rant every once in a while. For rants promote change, and change can be
good—right? Therefore, since good is
generally considered as being a positive force in 99.3% of the parallel
universes that I am aware of, even a rant could be considered as being
something positive, and a genuine hissy-fit would be even better (so I’m told).
Around
a month ago, I received an invitation to participate in a [Arbitron]
survey. If you are not familiar with the
service, Arbitron is to radio what the [Nielsen Ratings] are to television.
Be
assured that I felt honored to be asked, and I eagerly agreed to participate in
the survey that was set to begin on October 6 and end on October 12. However, I don’t think I will be so
enthusiastic if there is to be a next time.
No,
it has nothing to do with the survey itself.
For their survey booklets were even easier to fill-out than those
employed by Nielsen.
What
it does have to do with is all of the “support” provided. For if I remember right, we received four
different mailings and at least five phone calls for the purpose of making sure
that we were filling out the survey before it was all over with. I wonder if they have had some trouble with
that lately?
Alas,
if they had asked back while I was still trucking, I would have had a lot more
data to contribute. For the AM/FM radio
in my truck was almost always on something while I was driving, and I was an
avid listener to all sorts of talk-radio programs, with a heavy dash of classic
rock mixed-in, of course.
As
for now, the only radio I hear comes from either my wife’s or my mother-in-law’s
radios, and they listen to country music while respectively working and
puttering around the house. So, [KTTS]
and [KOMG] got listed while [KWTO] and [KXUS] did not.
Getting
back to how insistent the Arbitron people were with their “support,” I find it
odd that they did not call to make sure that the survey booklets were mailed
back to them on-time. They were, but all
of the assurances that they were previously given about fully understanding
what needed to be done didn’t seem to matter.
So, when it comes time to get back the booklets that they need so that
they can get paid is the time to back-off?
Strange. Very strange.
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