To the editors:
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A station like WFMT pulls in only a tiny share of the Chicago radio audience–but what it gets is choice. It makes a lot of money and it is discriminating in its tastes (which means it pays $12 for a pound of coffee). That audience does not want to hear ads about MONSTER TRUCK RALLIES AT ROSEMONT HORIZON THIS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY–BE THERE! So firstly, the people who make those kinds of commercials would never buy time on WFMT. It’s just not their demographic.
But even if they did, the other advertisers wouldn’t want their ads running next to them. It doesn’t matter how much I paid Gene Hackman to do my United spot if he’s preceded by an Oxy 5 commercial (“This is the sound of a zit . . . about to explode”) that annoyed the hell out of you or, god forbid, made you turn the dial. So WFMT has guidelines which keep any single advertiser from disturbing the serene, easy-listening-for-PhDs atmosphere of a commercial classical radio station.
