The Armchair Politician

In Georgia, there’s a radio station called 99x. This station, up until recently, primarily broadcasted new rock. Within the past month, they added 90s alternative to their playlists, catering to listener demands enumerated in a survey. As a recent advertising campaign, they’ve started playing back positive listener feedback on the new changes. One such listener stated (this is a rough quote), “I used to think you guys were only in it for the profits. Now I know you really care about how your listeners feel.”

Perhaps I’m being blunt when I say this, but could he be any more clueless? Of course it’s about profits. Does he honest-to-god not see that pleasing your customers is a sure-fire way of getting more business? It’s quite simple: the more listeners they have, the more money they can get from companies purchasing advertising.

And really, when it comes down to it, what’s so wrong about being in it “only for the profits”, anyways? Last I checked, capitalism has a hell of a better track record than its alternatives.