Too many tomatoes in the salad?

[CTListener]

So I was listening to one of the local country stations, WXXK Lebanon, NH, in the car around 3 p.m. today and heard the following six-song sweep, starting with the song just before the top of the hour:

Kacey Musgraves, "Rainbow"
Megan Moroney, "Six Months Later"
Lainey Wilson, "Wildflowers and Wild Horses"
Cody Johnson, "Dirt Cheap"
Priscilla Block, "Just About Over You"
Miranda Lambert & Chris Stapleton, "A Song to Sing"

That's five out of six songs with women singing, four of them solo, and three of them consecutively. I thought this was a no-no on contemporary country radio these days, given the conventional industry programming wisdom about female artists being the tomatoes in the salad and not to be played back-to-back, let alone in five of six songs. Just a case of an out-of-the-way station in a small regional chain breaking the "rules" or are bigger stations starting to relax the rules too?

 

[TheBigA]

I thought this was a no-no on contemporary country radio these days,

Obviously not. The "tomato" theory was espoused ten years ago by one radio consultant named Keith Hill. I'm not aware that the industry agreed with him. There were a lot of discussions about it and it went away.

 

[davideduardo]

Still, there are fewer female hits than male. So, if good log rules in Selector or MusicMaster are set up... and proper editing done afterwards, this should not happen.

With fewer female hits, it makes sense to spread them around so that they get at least one play per sweep, but with segues avoided.

With PDs doing more than one station today, it's likely that good editing is not being done.

 

[CTListener]

Still, there are fewer female hits than male. So, if good log rules in Selector or MusicMaster are set up... and proper editing done afterwards, this should not happen.

With fewer female hits, it makes sense to spread them around so that they get at least one play per sweep, but with segues avoided.

With PDs doing more than one station today, it's likely that good editing is not being done.

WXXK and sister station WWFY Montpelier run the same playlist with different jocks, ads, sweepers and jingles, with WWFY usually running nearly a full song ahead.

I'm thinking that another factor in play here is that both the Moroney song and Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas" are in or approaching their "push weeks," which, on these stations, means top-of-the-hour treatment for one or the other every three hours. The position right before the top of the hour is always gold, and right after the power hit at the TOH is a recent/recurrent. Why the PD chose two very minor hits by Musgraves and Block to flank "Six Months Later" this afternoon is a mystery. Maybe female artists just test better up here.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

Why the PD chose two very minor hits by Musgraves and Block to flank "Six Months Later" this afternoon is a mystery. Maybe female artists just test better up here.

The computer picked the songs. The computer was told "Play a Gold" and it decided that it was time to play "Rainbow." Then the clock said it was time "Play a Power", and it selected "Six Months Later." Then it was told "Play a Recurrent" and it got Lainey Wilson.

Music scheduling software is pretty dumb, until you coach it up. By default it is just music on shuffle. You have to tell it which songs are power songs and which are golds, and how many of each to play in an hour, and where to play a jingle and where to have a crossfade.

If you want to separate women artists to implement the "tomato rule", you'll have to tell the software which artists are women or men, and I'd say that effort isn't worth it. While I happen to think Keith Hill's observations were good guidance for country programmers, I'd be shocked if a small station in Vermont went to the trouble.

 

[davideduardo]

The computer picked the songs. The computer was told "Play a Gold" and it decided that it was time to play "Rainbow." Then the clock said it was time "Play a Power", and it selected "Six Months Later." Then it was told "Play a Recurrent" and it got Lainey Wilson.

Music scheduling software from the only two companies that dominate significant stations has the ability to set rules of all kinds, including "no female back to back" or even "no females without 2 or 3 or so songs in between.

You can set rules on tempo by segue and by set and lots of other things. You can control rotations so that you don't get the same sequences day after day. You can do rules on gold and even recurrrents saying they must play in each "daypart" once before coming back to the same one... and then in a different hour. You can even establish rules on age so that you don't get all your oldest gold in a single hour. And lots more.

But the PD or MD has to edit the log as well to make up for positions that won't schedule due to rule restrictions or songs that "just don't belong together".

Music scheduling software is pretty dumb, until you coach it up. By default it is just music on shuffle. You have to tell it which songs are power songs and which are golds, and how many of each to play in an hour, and where to play a jingle and where to have a crossfade.

And all kinds of rotation rules, segue rules, rest rules, tempo, gender, texture, age, demo appeal (no very young appeal songs back to back, for example) and lots more.

Every time I did a music test for a station I programmed, whether in Argentina or Puerto Rio or LA, I'd usually spend two or three days fine tuning the rules to match the library.

If you want to separate women artists to implement the "tomato rule", you'll have to tell the software which artists are women or men, and I'd say that effort isn't worth it.

That is the simplest rule to implement.

While I happen to think Keith Hill's observations were good guidance for country programmers, I'd be shocked if a small station in Vermont went to the trouble.

Obviously, nobody took the time to adjust the rules. Or they are not using good scheduling software. The good apps have been doing this for over four decades.

 

[davideduardo]

Why the PD chose two very minor hits by Musgraves and Block to flank "Six Months Later" this afternoon is a mystery. Maybe female artists just test better up here.

It is very unlikely that station in those markets test at all. A music test can easily cost $20,000 and over and that is a huge amount for those stations. More likely they look at other station playlists and consolidate them.

 

[CTListener]

The computer picked the songs. The computer was told "Play a Gold" and it decided that it was time to play "Rainbow." Then the clock said it was time "Play a Power", and it selected "Six Months Later." Then it was told "Play a Recurrent" and it got Lainey Wilson.

Music scheduling software is pretty dumb, until you coach it up. By default it is just music on shuffle. You have to tell it which songs are power songs and which are golds, and how many of each to play in an hour, and where to play a jingle and where to have a crossfade.

If you want to separate women artists to implement the "tomato rule", you'll have to tell the software which artists are women or men, and I'd say that effort isn't worth it. While I happen to think Keith Hill's observations were good guidance for country programmers, I'd be shocked if a small station in Vermont went to the trouble.

That makes sense. Thanks. There were only two currents among those six songs, anyway -- "Six Months Later," a peaking hit, and "A Song to Sing," on a slow trajectory upward -- and there were three songs separating them, so it was just pure chance that those particular three golds or recurrents were played, due to lack of specific instructions in the scheduling program, intentional or unintentional.

This is the kind of "inside baseball" I come to this forum for, even though, as a 70-year-old retiree who spent his entire working life in print media, I'll never put that information to use.

 

[Deus Ex Machiato]

This is the kind of "inside baseball" I come to this forum for, even though, as a 70-year-old retiree who spent his entire working life in print media, I'll never put that information to use.

Many years ago (when dinosaurs ruled the land) I worked for this PD who bucked the rules. I remember a consultant practically losing his mind when we came out of the top of hour ID and went straight into a "gold" record that was by a female artist and was a ballad to boot. The PD's logic was pretty simple: "If I didn't feel that song was good enough to kick off the top of the hour, it wouldn't be on my station in the first place." It worked, and when I was there we were at or near the top of the ratings heap.

Fast forward to last night at work...with people who don't listen to "the radio," and one of my co-workers had loaded up a playlist for our musical enjoyment. It didn't matter to them that it went from the new Bruno Mars song to a Tears For Fears song and into a new Euro pop record. Was it at the top of the hour? I didn't check the time. Did the stream come out of the break with a "B" record or a power recurrent into a "C?" Nope. All that mattered was "is this a good song?"

Now, of course it's hard for a radio station to compete with a streaming service where listeners can pick their playlist, but if you're in that situation, how do you measure up? What are the "rules" you must follow? How can you figure out if maybe the best path forward is to play five female country artists in a row? I dunno. Not my circus...not my monkeys anymore.

 

[TheBigA]

Music scheduling software from the only two companies that dominate significant stations has the ability to set rules of all kinds, including "no female back to back" or even "no females without 2 or 3 or so songs in between.

It may have that ability, but it's possible the programmer didn't choose to use those rules. There was a lot of discussion about Keith Hill's tomato rule when he did the interview ten years ago. Some programmers disagreed with it. They didn't see the gender of the artist as a factor in programming music. Perhaps this programmer is among them.

 

[fybush]

Music scheduling software from the only two companies that dominate significant stations has the ability to set rules of all kinds, including "no female back to back" or even "no females without 2 or 3 or so songs in between.

I'm raising an (amused) eyebrow that the moderator here who's most adamant that there's much more of a world than North America didn't couch that statement about "the only two companies" with "in North America."

But of course that's partially because I'm now the North American rep for Myriad, whose scheduling software has been a staple in European and African markets (and Asia, too) for several decades. And we're challenging the two big guys here in the Americas, too.

Obviously, nobody took the time to adjust the rules. Or they are not using good scheduling software. The good apps have been doing this for over four decades.

As I learn more about music scheduling in my new role, it's absolutely amazing how many factors a good piece of scheduling software can take into account Gender is certainly one attribute that software can look at when it's doing scheduling and song separation, along with tempo, energy, mood, decade, nationality, Cancon status... and indeed, at least with Myriad, users can create a literally unlimited number of categories and attributes within their music libraries. As we like to say at demos, if you want to create a schedule that only plays music by left-handed bassists on Tuesdays, as long as you tag your library appropriately, we'll help you churn out that schedule.

But what we offer is entirely a tool in service of our users' goals. It's none of our business at the software end whether or not you want to subscribe to the "tomato" theory (I think it's kind of silly and outdated, myself). You can program Myriad (or MusicMaster, or GSelector) to play one female vocal an hour, or none, or not to look at gender as a category at all. And then in our case, we'll put that schedule right into playout for you, too, but that's another story...