1 of 1- RadioActive
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T.O. Star's "Reader's Choice" Contains Surprising Nom. For Radio Stn.
Every year, the Toronto Star does its annual "Reader's Choice Award" nominations for everything from restaurants to auto mechanics. They suggest a few names that might fit a host of categories, but you can always enter your own.
So I was surprised under the "Arts & Entertainment" banner to find a list of local radio stations on display. The suggested possible vote getters: Boom 97.3, 102.1 The Edge, and CBC Toronto. But there was one other on the list that I'd actually never heard of. It's CHDS, aka Radio Dil Se.
Who you might ask? Well, I did, too. Turns out CHDS - if those are even legal call letters - is an Internet only station broadcasting to the local Indian community. Its "about us page" says this:
"RadioDilSe.com is a series of Hindi and Punjabi language radio stations based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada owned and operated by Dil Se Media Group."
Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but to put it on the list of four suggested choices is absolutely baffling. No CHFI? No CHUM-FM? Not a mention of Kiss 92.5 or even 680 News? I'm sure it has an audience, but to list this obscure "station" amongst the default choices in a city with so many better known ones in the media capital of Canada just seems really odd to me. How about CHIN if you wanted an ethnic station represented?
You don't need to be a subscriber to make your choice. You can vote for your favourite here.
- paterson1
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Re: T.O. Star's "Reader's Choice" Contains Surprising Nom. For Radio Stn.
They aren't going to list all of the radio stations in Toronto, or just the best known. Normally with the examples shown there would be 2-7 businesses listed. They hope the Star readers nominate other or lesser known businesses in addition to more established companies who usually get nominations. This would be why they included CHDS. Readers Choice is hoping for a wide variety of nominations, not just the obvious. With some more obscure nominations more Star readers will actually participate.
These things are advertising vehicles. A business gets nominated and they take out an ad thanking their customers for the nomination. If they win or place very high in the "winners section" many will take out another ad thanking their customers for their loyalty. Many of the big regular advertisers or chain stores don't bother with ads since newspapers all across the country have something similar. It is a way to get smaller companies to advertise and many of them actually like the promotion and gives them something to promote.
- RadioActive
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Re: T.O. Star's "Reader's Choice" Contains Surprising Nom. For Radio Stn.
Including a station that technically isn't even on the "radio" seems way beyond the pale - especially one so completely obscure I'll wager most of the people on SOWNY have never heard of it. If they want to get esoteric, how about Jazz 91.1 or CHLO 530 AM? CHDS is so obscure in this city as to be practically non-existent.
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Thread Starter- RadioAaron
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Re: T.O. Star's "Reader's Choice" Contains Surprising Nom. For Radio Stn.
Self-nomination.
- paterson1
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Re: T.O. Star's "Reader's Choice" Contains Surprising Nom. For Radio Stn.
RadioActive wrote:
Including a station that technically isn't even on the "radio" seems way beyond the pale - especially one so completely obscure I'll wager most of the people on SOWNY have never heard of it. If they want to get esoteric, how about Jazz 91.1 or CHLO 530 AM? CHDS is so obscure in this city as to be practically non-existent.
It's not beyond the pale at all. They would love if every internet station in Toronto got nominated along with broadcast stations. They are showing that EVERY radio outlet in Toronto is open for nomination. Like I said they are not going to list all the stations for the examples. It is up to Star readers who gets nominated. When nominations finish they will likely only list the top ten or twelve in some categories. For categories like best restaurant you could literally have over 100 nominated. Unlikely they would list them all.
- RadioAaron
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Re: T.O. Star's "Reader's Choice" Contains Surprising Nom. For Radio Stn.
The Star didn't list them. They nominated themselves. It's easy; I nominated a friend in another category and it showed up very quickly.
- RadioActive
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Re: T.O. Star's "Reader's Choice" Contains Surprising Nom. For Radio Stn.
The Star didn't list them. They nominated themselves. It's easy; I nominated a friend in another category and it showed up very quickly.
If it's that easily manipulated, then it throws the whole thing into doubt.
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Thread Starter- RadioAaron
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Re: T.O. Star's "Reader's Choice" Contains Surprising Nom. For Radio Stn.
The Star didn't list them. They nominated themselves. It's easy; I nominated a friend in another category and it showed up very quickly.
If it's that easily manipulated, then it throws the whole thing into doubt.
It's not manipulation, it's how the nomination process works.
- RadioActive
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Re: T.O. Star's "Reader's Choice" Contains Surprising Nom. For Radio Stn.
The Star didn't list them. They nominated themselves. It's easy; I nominated a friend in another category and it showed up very quickly.
If it's that easily manipulated, then it throws the whole thing into doubt.
It's not manipulation, it's how the nomination process works.
Well, it seems like skewing the list to me, but if that's the case, I nominate SOWNY member Paul Jefferies' ClassicHitsOnline.com!
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Thread Starter- paterson1
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Re: T.O. Star's "Reader's Choice" Contains Surprising Nom. For Radio Stn.
The Star didn't list them. They nominated themselves. It's easy; I nominated a friend in another category and it showed up very quickly.
If it's that easily manipulated, then it throws the whole thing into doubt.
It's not manipulation, it's how the nomination process works.
Yes some of the small companies nominate themselves if they know about it or haven't missed the deadline. Some encourage staff to vote for the company but you can only vote once on the same computer. This isn't scientific or meant to be like ratings, it is an advertising promotion that a lot of smaller companies seem to like.
Every category will likely have three or four winners- diamond, gold, silver and bronze. Not really sure how the Star handles it but this was my experience. Our paper sent out certificates to all of the winners and most would get them framed and had them displayed prominently in their stores. Again most of the big players like Canadian Tire, Walmart, Best Buy etc. usually didn't take part and mostly weren't that interested but always pleased if they won. Since they are national chain operations literally every market that they have a store would have something similar so in most cases didn't take part with any advertising. Although in years past they may have in Toronto with the Star when the paper had the big circulation and were considered a must buy for many.
- RadioAaron
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Re: T.O. Star's "Reader's Choice" Contains Surprising Nom. For Radio Stn.
If it's that easily manipulated, then it throws the whole thing into doubt.It's not manipulation, it's how the nomination process works.
Well, it seems like skewing the list to me, but if that's the case, I nominate SOWNY member Paul Jefferies' ClassicHitsOnline.com!
Nomination is not voting.
Each user can only NOMINATE once per category, so self-nomination isn't a problem. The top NOMINATED businesses then move on to the VOTING stage.