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Difference between WOGL and Ben-FM?

J

JH_Radio

So Ben-FM is adult hits and WOGL is classic hits but both seem to center in the '80s still.
So what's the difference musically now between the two? Why would one choose one over the other?
TO me they seem pretty similar with the exception that Ben-FM can lean newer than WOGL at times.
"Paradise City" into "I Will Survive." Who decides in what order songs are played? I figure a program directer would
How do you figure out what songs to play next?
Why is it at around 1:something in the morning the past two days I heard "Hotel California" both nights around the same time on WOGL?
Are radio libraries really that small?
How do they figure out what listeners want to hear, and how do you differentiate?
Would BEN-FM and WOGL be competitors?
Is it just about the music that someone would tune into one vs, the other or is there more to it.
Do program directors pick the jingles and on-air staff too?
What's a swoosh an a shotgun?
In this day and age anyone can program anything by putting some library on live365 or shoutcast.
So are there special qualifications that a program director of a radio station has that an average Joe doesn't have?
Are the qualifications different depending on which format you are programming?
Is there a difference between programming for local station vs national something like Westwood One vs SeriousXM different in some way?
Ok so local stations program to the masses, but what exactly goes into that? Details, please?
 
There's a big difference in stationality, personality, between them. Different "attitude" or presentation approach even if the core music is the same, not exclusively (but including) only a morning personality on Ben vs up to 7 pm on 98.

To my ear, and I'm not sitting around analyzing playlists because...well, I have no time for that level of obsessiveness...Ben seems to lean a little more to the rock side. Not exclusive by any means. Nor does WOGL not touch that. More of a big picture thing.

Ben has...no jingles. They moved on from the O'Hurley liners, but still have that same kind of quirky attitude, just evolved over time.

And of course there are special qualifications just as there are in any business. You may work your way up. But they're not hiring a John Doe off the street to run their station no matter how much John thinks he knows.
 
JH_Radio said:
In this day and age anyone can program anything by putting some library on live365 or shoutcast.
So are there special qualifications that a program director of a radio station has that an average Joe doesn't have?
Click to expand...

You are asking for the difference between a job and a hobby. Do you really need to have that explained?
 
I mean, I “program” deliberately curated playlists of my own music and on services like Pandora. But…that doesn’t qualify me for running bupkus as a job. Heck, I could take my playlist and put it on a streaming platform if I had the money to burn. Still not qualified to get a job doing it. And I can manage a P&L statement, project manage and do a credible job dissecting data. STILL not qualified. ;)
 
My random thoughts...

To me, BEN-FM sounds more fun. The station has a personality (ironically). And they have way more songs in rotation at any given time which is a minus for some but is a definite plus for me.

Back in the day, yes, a PD would look at what the computer spits out and decide whether two songs may not sound great next to each other. (They wouldn't necessarily kick one; sometimes they'd just put a jingle between that made the transition easier to hear.) I doubt there's much of that happening anymore. Heck, when WISX was Rhythmic AC and/or Hot AC, it didn't sound to me like anyone was checking anything at all! LOL.

Songs sometimes come up at the same times of day because someone told the computer to make it so. "Dayparting."

I'll tell ya what, I honestly don't know what the qualifications are to be a radio programmer these days! It might be just knowing the right people.
 
Miguelito said:
Back in the day, yes, a PD would look at what the computer spits out and decide whether two songs may not sound great next to each other.
Click to expand...

If you want to talk about "back in the day," the AM Top 40 stations never played two songs back to back. There were always commercials between them. No chance for trainwrecks when you have commercials between every song. This concept of grouping songs together came about with the rise of FM radio. With regards to computer music logs, the programmer assigns codes to the songs in terms of tempo and other factors in order to minimize conflict.
 
Miguelito said:
My random thoughts...

To me, BEN-FM sounds more fun. The station has a personality (ironically). And they have way more songs in rotation at any given time which is a minus for some but is a definite plus for me.

Back in the day, yes, a PD would look at what the computer spits out and decide whether two songs may not sound great next to each other. (They wouldn't necessarily kick one; sometimes they'd just put a jingle between that made the transition easier to hear.) I doubt there's much of that happening anymore. Heck, when WISX was Rhythmic AC and/or Hot AC, it didn't sound to me like anyone was checking anything at all! LOL.

Songs sometimes come up at the same times of day because someone told the computer to make it so. "Dayparting."

I'll tell ya what, I honestly don't know what the qualifications are to be a radio programmer these days! It might be just knowing the right people.
Click to expand...

I also find Ben FM more fun. I'm not sure how to describe it - but it's sort of like a person. All of the "in your face" liners. WOGL sounds like a cheap, cheesy, stale 80s mix. Ben FM definitely plays more 90s than WOGL.

A few years ago, Ben FM had an 80s weekend. Their slogan was "No one knows more 80s... duh!" which was a direct jab at WOGL. I thought that was pretty funny.
 
JH_Radio said:
TO me they seem pretty similar with the exception that Ben-FM can lean newer than WOGL at times.
"Paradise City" into "I Will Survive." Who decides in what order songs are played? I figure a program directer would
Click to expand...
In general, the computer does. Sometimes you'll get a PD or MD to adjust the log, but out of 250-300 song transistions per day, I figure they're adjusting 5 or 10.

JH_Radio said:
Why is it at around 1:something in the morning the past two days I heard "Hotel California" both nights around the same time on WOGL?
Are radio libraries really that small?
Click to expand...
It's generally considered poor practice to play the same titles at the same time of day, because it creates a perception of a small playlist. People tend to listen in the same blocks every day, so it behooves the programmer to ensure that the 7am hour is a different set of songs every day.

I don't know why WOGL played Hotel California on back-to-back days in the 1am hour. But it is probably a mistake.

JH_Radio said:
Do program directors pick the jingles and on-air staff too?
Click to expand...
Generally yes, but this is becoming more nationalized as time moves on, for example with Audacy (Entercom) having their Alt stations air the same programming in mid-days, evenings and overnights, and many owners pushing one or more syndicated dayparts to all their stations in a particular format like iHeart's "The Woody Show" on its alt stations.

JH_Radio said:
In this day and age anyone can program anything by putting some library on live365 or shoutcast.
So are there special qualifications that a program director of a radio station has that an average Joe doesn't have?
Click to expand...
A program director gets resources from ownership (including playlist research info) and a budget to build their station brand and audience. Successful programmers can leverage those resources into an audience, which the sales team transforms into revenue. Unsuccessful programmers don't.
 
I just heard BEN FM about 20 to 30 minutes ago play Under the Boardwalk by The Drifters. That's something WOGL hasn't played in probably 10 years. So there's a difference right there. I hope Ben FM keeps mixing in older stuff like that.
 
Most of the differentiation (outside of imaging) comes from how the library is setup and executed (categories, rotations, etc.)

Over the past 30 days, 12.9% of the total spins on WBEN came from songs from 1983, the largest of all years they play. Those percentages drop off like a bell curve from 1983 toward the mid 70s on the earlier end and into the 2Ks on the upper end, with a few scattered songs from years before and after.

The bell curve for WOGL also centered on 1983, but that year only represented 10.3% of the library played, and its bell curve stretched out to the early 70s on the older end and the mid 90s on the upper end.

Also, WBEN played 10x as much material from 2000 forward than WOGL (455 spins vs. 49 spins).

Over the past week, the most played song on WBEN received 11 plays, and they played 345 titles 2 or more times.
The most played song on WOGL received 19 plays, and they played 291 titles 2 or more times. Of course, their true libraries are likely larger than that with titles that are platooned in and out, but that gives a snapshot of what they look like on average.
 
They've both been making some changes very recently. This week WOGL played Bee Gees followed by Blackstreet and I'm here for it.
 
Rich_M said:
They've both been making some changes very recently. This week WOGL played Bee Gees followed by Blackstreet and I'm here for it.
Click to expand...
I just heard Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" on WOGL. I can't remember the last time they touched that song. I'm definitely liking the change from what was.
 
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