Critical Reasoning

akhpad wrote:A new commercial radio station in Greenfield plans to play songs that were popular hits fifteen to twenty-five years ago. It hopes in this way to attract an audience made up mainly of people between thirty-five and forty-five years old and thereby to have a strong market appeal to advertisers.

Each of the following, if true, strengthens the prospects that the radio station's plan will succeed EXCEPT:

(A) People tend to remain very fond of the music that they heard when they were in their teens and early twenties.
(B) In a number of cities demographically similar to Greenfield, radio stations that play recordings of popular music from fifteen to twenty-five years ago have succeeded commercially.
(C) People in the thirty-five- to forty-five-year-old age group are more likely to listen to the radio for news than for music.
(D) The thirty-five- to forty-five-year-old age group is one in which people tend to have comparatively high levels of income and are involved in making household purchases.
(E) Among the few radio stations in the Greenfield area, there is none that plays music from this particular period for more than a few hours per week.

OA: D

Can someone shed some thought about C and D?
C: more likely to listen to the radio for news than for music. At least they devote sometime on radio.
D: A person has high income and want to invest money on household, then it does not mean that he will necessarily purchase radio.

beat_gmat_09 wrote:

akhpad wrote:A new commercial radio station in Greenfield plans to play songs that were popular hits fifteen to twenty-five years ago. It hopes in this way to attract an audience made up mainly of people between thirty-five and forty-five years old and thereby to have a strong market appeal to advertisers.

Each of the following, if true, strengthens the prospects that the radio station's plan will succeed EXCEPT:

(A) People tend to remain very fond of the music that they heard when they were in their teens and early twenties.
(B) In a number of cities demographically similar to Greenfield, radio stations that play recordings of popular music from fifteen to twenty-five years ago have succeeded commercially.
(C) People in the thirty-five- to forty-five-year-old age group are more likely to listen to the radio for news than for music.
(D) The thirty-five- to forty-five-year-old age group is one in which people tend to have comparatively high levels of income and are involved in making household purchases.
(E) Among the few radio stations in the Greenfield area, there is none that plays music from this particular period for more than a few hours per week.

Answer should be C, i believe. Care to check again?

OA: D

Can someone shed some thought about C and D?
C: more likely to listen to the radio for news than for music. At least they devote sometime on radio.
D: A person has high income and want to invest money on household, then it does not mean that he will necessarily purchase radio.

I think your reasoning is correct.
A,B,E strengthen the argument. The motive behind the commercial radio station to introduce new plan is to benefit their advertisers by making this change, which will attract large audience, and will benefit commercially.
C strengthens the argument.
As per your reasoning, D does not do anything favorable to the argument, while other options do.

akhpad wrote: Can someone shed some thought about C and D?
C: more likely to listen to the radio for news than for music. At least they devote sometime on radio.
D: A person has high income and want to invest money on household, then it does not mean that he will necessarily purchase radio.

Geva@MasterGMAT wrote: completely disagree, I'm afraid. Are we sure about OA? C weakens the argument, as it shows that the plan (to try to attract the age demographic with music from their teens) will not have an effect - these guys are past music and looking for news. If we play music, we won't attract the 35-45 YOs, which in turn will not attract the advertisers who want to target this demographic.

D does strengthen the argument - at least the part where the 35-45 demographic is attractive to advertisers because a. they have money and b. they are the ones who make decisions on how to spend it, so advertisers will definitely want to target them.
I believe the answer should be C, and would be very surprised to see that the OA is indeed D. Can you recheck?

rkanthilal wrote: (C) "People in the thirty-five- to forty-five-year-old age group are more likely to listen to the radio for news than for music." Correct. This does not strengthen the conclusion that "the radio station will have a strong market appeal to advertisers". If the thirty-five- to forty-five-year-old age group listens to the radio mainly for news, then the station's plan to change the music format will not be effective in attracting these listeners. Therefore, the conclusion that the "radio station will have a strong market appeal to advertisers" will not hold.

rkanthilal wrote: (D) "The thirty-five- to forty-five-year-old age group is one in which people tend to have comparatively high levels of income and are involved in making household purchases." Incorrect. This answer describes the thirty-five- to forty-five-year-old age group as having comparatively high levels of income and being involved in making household purchases. These characteristics are valued by advertisers. Thus, this answer strengthens the conclusion that "the radio station will have a strong market appeal to advertisers".