It is time to once again put together something to describe some of the differences in the stations compared to what artists and promoters are used to submitting music to, with other stations. We operate like a regular terrestrial broadcast station, in that most of our music programming is done directly through our broadcasts and not through extra feature shows. When I first wrote this blog about 10 years ago, it compared what I do to how I programmed back on my days on AM\/FM. Yes I am old enough to have worked on AM radio. To put it into easy terms there is for many stations, a set block or group of songs that are in the main rotation. these tend to be older in most cases, though depending on the format of the station, that could mean 4 or 6 months ago or 4 to 6 years ago or more. A typical Top 40 station Had a very limited number of songs in their rotation and mix, and stations these days, like those that use the moniker “Virgin Radio” are similar in nature. You hear songs that are somewhat recent from time to time, but the driving focus is on the Top 40 songs, give or take. These tracks would and do go into a high rotation, which is back in the day how i build such a sour taste in my mouth for the title track from the movie Titanic from Celine Dion. The typical DJ does not go in for 3 hours and thats their entire work day. There are other duties, and some days it was a full day, some days shorter and some days longer. But all the time the station is playing in the background. those songs in high rotation will play and average of every 70 to 90 minutes. That equates to 15 to 18 times a day. So the average dj would hear a song 5 times a day while working at or for the station, at a minimum. Add typical driving time, radio on ets, and you are at a minimum of hearing the hot rotation songs 40 times each every week. Celine Dion is very talented, but hearing that song more than 200 times a month for 3 months killed it and many other songs for dj’s like me. I digress though. There is typically 50 songs at most in hot rotation. It is very tightly controlled and when a new song goes in another one comes out. Depending on the popularity it may have slid into a lighter rotation, or have disappeared for a few months altogether before coming back on the air. Almost all stations worked the same way, a mix of newer tracks that played more often or depending if it was a classic oldies station, you might find it broken down by years or decades. the key was either way it wasn’t a bottomless pit of music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we started airing Indie music we wanted to make it the hot songs for our stations. Although the frequency of play was not going to be like top 40, our goal was towards to majors ideas. The first was, most stations playing Indie music when I started was doing so only in special shows or giving songs 1 play and that was it. Now if you sent 4 songs to the station, they would play all 4, but I didn’t want to do that. Artists usually were releasing 1 song as a single but telling stations, play what you want, because they just wanted airplay. I wanted to build familiarity for the aritsts and the music on my stations. I created groups or categories for the music, and depending on the song, it could fall into 1 of 3 categories, 4 if you count the songs we weren’t or don’t play. Now this is where it goes from being friendly to being a business, and that is when a song comes in that musically would fit the station format, but isn’t good enough to go to air. Thats a hard thing to tell someone who has busted their ass to put a song out. The reality is my stations were designed and programmed and still are with target demographics and audiences, much to the chagrin of others. I want people to put on a KB station and hear a classic track they are familiar with and maybe another but also mixed in a new track, an indie artist, with a song that blends and works with the sound and doesn’t make people want to change stations or turn it off. From their when we started to get regular listeners, they started to hear some of those same indie songs replayed on the stations. Not 15 times a day, but the better tracks 5 times a week. The others would also be featured at least once a week, and now the listeners got to know not only the song but also the artists themselves. I know of many people who are not in the music business who have nothing but indie songs they heard and discovered on sticks or players and they listen to that music, and not mainstream hits or classics when looking for something different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With that weekly repetition comes the need for those songs to stay in the playlist for multiple weeks. We started with an 8 week window, and a limited number of tracks in each category. Than songs that got onto our chart and did well, some maybe stayed a week or 2 extra or moved in a permanent spot on the station. The other categories were given the 2 month window as well. This programming went against the way many were releasing music, some every month or even every couple weeks. For us this meant explaining our process and saying I can’t play that track right away because we are still featuring the other one. It was funny, I never had an artist say, no they didn’t want that. I did offer the choice. I also suggested so they don’t get missed, message me again towards the end of the 2 months and lets look at adding that other track at that time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of those practices are still in place, for both stations, but do to the amount of email we get we don’t often have the time to get as personal with responses as we would like. But over the years, many artists still remember, and work with us, and we think to their advantage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So if its your first time submitting, we ask that you keep this in mind. We also remind everyone that with the amount of music we get in even if we wanted, we could never play it all. To complete a thought from earlier, never have i replied and told and artist their song isn’t good enough. Thats not my job. My job is to program my stations with the most appropriate music. There are many reasons we may not use a song, so we just answer politely thank you for sending, but we can’t use this track at this time. Nothing personal, and it never will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanks for reading, any questions feel free to ask.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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