Doing the iPod shuffle

Find your sound with Alpha 96.1 FM - surprisingly good student radio even if it is targeted at Gen Y males.

Yes, after three weeks of 12 hour plus days, the student team behind the Alpha concept has come up with the perfect programming for this Gen X female.

Busting out of my demographic profiling and leaping a whole generation, not to mention my gender straitjacket, this listener is digging fresh play-lists, minimal ads, and only the occasional DJ gaff.

Apparently, the quintessential Alpha male is a twenty-something, male accountant about to make his mark on the world - an interesting, if somewhat contradictory idea.

The programming concept is to channel said quintessential male's iPod - on shuffle. It's like, "pick and mix, only sweeter".

Nice insight - good territory.

The students' audience targeting is a bit light on the psychographics - user attitudes, behaviours and beliefs/values etc. But hey, they seem to have a clear idea of what's on the iPod - a bit of retro mashed up with a bit of now, minus the (overly) commercial "crap" - if not, whose iPod.

Artist integrity is paramount. "Selling out" is a sin (still). Think: Kings of Leon post 2003. Yeah, I know. Bad, huh?

And apparently, if you're a 40 year old woman chatting to a twenty-something chick, you're screaming "lezza", according to Tamsin, or Hendo or Kendall, or some such.

Makes me feel a tad creepy just listening in - like if they knew I was out there it would provoke much high pitched OMGing!!!!

Past-it suburban lezza stalks NZ Broadcasting School's student station... Hmm, scatter and scream, girls.

But just when the self-conscious seniors among us might start feeling like proverbial mutton chops getting on the DL with lamb tenderloins, there's this introduction explaining The Clash: "one of the original 'rock, punk' bands of the seventies".

And then, if that cute little mangling wasn't enough, the DJ chose Rock the Casbah.

Um, excuse me - screaming "sell out"! It's only the most mainstream of all Clash tracks - a little eighties earner for a band well used to top-shelf living.

Huh!

So thanks, Alpha, from those of us who remember the tunes the first time they spun the decks and cassette tapes, and who have continued to appreciate the good sounds of today.

It's a shame the party has to end come November.

Big ups and all that to a great little station that will definitely leave a gap in the local soundscape.

www.alpharadio.co.nz