Two years ago, radio station WCQP in Rockville decided to increase the number of call-in advice programs that it broadcast; since that time, its share of the radio audience in the Rockville listening area has increased significantly. Given WCQP's recent success with call-in advice programming, and citing a nationwide survey indicating that many radio listeners are quite interested in such programs, the station manager of KICK in Medway recommends that KICK include more call-in advice programs in an attempt to gain a larger audience share in its listening area.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
Changing KICK’s programming to mimic that of WCQP may be a reasonable idea, however the argument given by KICK’s station manager is incomplete. In order to make a fully informed decision, the station must consider mitigating factors such as why the offerings of the other station were changed, the similarity of audiences and market capture between the two stations, and the validity of the survey.
While it may be true that WCQP had a positive response to the addition of call-in advice programs, the prior offerings are unknown. Whether this station was primarily sports commentary, classical radio, Christian talk radio or another niche category remains unknown. Additionally, the argument does not address what portion of the potential listeners tuned in before. It is possible that KICK’s current market capture exceeds that of WQCP’s new market capture.
KICK and WCQP are in different towns. What is known about the demographics of each target market? Has any data been collected to confirm whether the potential listeners each station could reach are similar? The demographics of current listeners to KICK should be compared to the current listeners of WCQP and that data should be compared to the general market. If the listenership of WCQP is not reflected in the KICK region, then it may not be wise to make a change.
Surveys can be a useful tool when applied appropriately. The methodology, respondents, and potential biases must be considered to confirm whether its findings are widely applicable. The wording of questions on the survey may lead respondents toward an answer. If the majority of respondents were native English speakers, then the results may not be relevant to regions with large minority or immigrant populations. If the survey was conducted over the internet, then young people might be disproportionately likely to respond; on the contrary, if the survey was conducted via home phone or standard mail, then older populations might be disproportionately likely to respond. The demographics of the respondents should match the demographics of KICK’s target market for the findings to be applicable.
In the event that KICK and WCQP are comparable and the study is applicable to the KICK region, the station could question when a call-in talk show would be most effective and what the current times of need for the station are. If a call-in talk show would only be effective during already popular programming, then the upshot of altered offerings might not be positive for ratings or revenue.
Changing the offerings of a radio station is not a simple decision. The contributing factors will likely vary from station to station. While the two stations may well be similar and the survey may be applicable, it still may not be a wise decision.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 50 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 453 350
No. of Characters: 2276 1500
No. of Different Words: 202 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.613 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.024 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.8 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 179 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 139 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 85 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 54 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.591 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.916 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.409 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.291 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.53 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.051 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, however, if, may, so, still, then, well, while, such as, on the contrary
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 35.0 19.6327345309 178% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 23.0 12.9520958084 178% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 13.6137724551 59% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 12.0 28.8173652695 42% => OK
Preposition: 52.0 55.5748502994 94% => OK
Nominalization: 15.0 16.3942115768 91% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2364.0 2260.96107784 105% => OK
No of words: 453.0 441.139720559 103% => OK
Chars per words: 5.21854304636 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.61343653406 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.96257439052 2.78398813304 106% => OK
Unique words: 212.0 204.123752495 104% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.467991169978 0.468620217663 100% => OK
syllable_count: 721.8 705.55239521 102% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 22.0 19.7664670659 111% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 59.1127407223 57.8364921388 102% => OK
Chars per sentence: 107.454545455 119.503703932 90% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.5909090909 23.324526521 88% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.5 5.70786347227 61% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 13.0 4.67664670659 278% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.12826653492 0.218282227539 59% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.045779720642 0.0743258471296 62% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0407764360944 0.0701772020484 58% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0840969649954 0.128457276422 65% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0378783377615 0.0628817314937 60% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.5 14.3799401198 94% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.0 12.5979740519 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.5 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 111.0 98.500998004 113% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.