In 1998, the music industry got a bill passed that made it illegal for radio to play albums end to end.
It's part of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
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Buffalo BIG plans for WEBR
- Thread starter KilowattKat
- Start date
In 1998, the music industry got a bill passed that made it illegal for radio to play albums end to end.
It's part of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
The brand means something in Buffalo. It’s not all about radio
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Something that most of the "radio fans" here are unaware of is what research and focus group participants mean when they say they want "more variety" ... they don't want a deeper playlist, they want to hear their favorites more often.
This explains why stations who go after tighter playlist stations with more deep tracks end up failing in the long run. Sometimes in less than one year.
This is a great use of WLVL. They have the Niagara County news market all to themselves (outside of Niagara Falls). The Lockport Union Sun is less than a shadow of what it used to be. I'm not sure about the Niagara Gazette but I don't think there is much going on their anymore either.
Cover the town board meetings, school board meetings, etc. Things the local people get excited about especially when they talk about raising taxes. Cover the high school games as well.
Thinking a good idea because
WBLK does a mix at lunch.
witnessing reactions of people hearing an OMG song or when 103.3 did a
oh sh*t they're playing this weekend,
+ pos + vibes
place that up against
OMG - I don't want to listen to the radio
they play the same 10 songs.
even if it's actually a 35 song Playlist,
when, not if but
WHEN it happens it gets reduced to
the same 5 songs.
examine a Pandora Playlist and the skip feature if you still need to...
There really is nothing motivating stations to cut playlists to 5 songs. Remember: THEY have to listen to them as well.
Typical radio playlists are between 300 to 400 songs, and those songs often get replaced regularly by new songs, if you listen to a station that plays currents. If you listen to a classic station, the majority of people prefer a very regular group of songs based on familiarity. If they wanted something new, they'd listen to a currents station. If they want unfamiliar music, they go to another format or a AAA station like The Bridge. Or they subscribe to a personalized music service.
Pandora is a personalized music service. Radio is a mass medium. Not the same thing. However, radio stations do research to find out what typical listeners want to hear. If your likes don't match, change the station. As far as Pandora, there is a restriction on how many songs you can skip, unless you pay extra for their premium service. No such option on broadcast radio.
Not exactly. That playlist gets updated weekly. So it's not the same 300 songs in the same order. Things are continually revised. Songs added, songs deleted. It's a lot more work than most people are willing to do. That's what makes it a job, not a hobby.
For some people the same 25 songs is just fine if they're the 25 best songs. We see that in streaming charts, where some people play the same songs by the same artists over and over on repeat. There can be a lot of variety in radio if you just change the stations all the time. But as I said, if you can't find what you want, subscribe to a service. The control is in your hands.
well said
And, when radio was dying the first time in the early 50's with the advent of television, a station owner and his program director in Omaha realized that the servers at their daily coffee shop location would take nickles from their tips and play the same songs over and over.
During any given week, the women played just a small batch of songs, again, over and over. As weeks went by, the songs mostly changed... slowly though.
They took their little 500 watt daytime station and only played the most popular songs, based on singles sales and jukebox data. They had about 40 songs in the "library" at any given time, thus the name of "top 40". The station jumped to #1 over some high power fulltime stations. They averaged well over 50% of the audience.
The "perception" you refer to was "they play my favorite songs always".
Stations have been successful playing 300-400 songs in a careful rotation, but those songs need to be tweaked on a weekly or monthly basis. Different songs are more popular at different times of the year, and if there's news about an artist, those songs either need to be bumped up or down in the rotation.
Another successful strategy in WNY has been to do "special weekends" that allow stations to break perceived monotony and dig a bit deeper into the music library. That's where the "Oh, wow" songs come to play. Hear it once, it's "Oh, wow." Hear it four times a day and it becomes a reminder why it wasn't in the rotation in the first place.
There is something to be said for dayparting, at least in some formats. That's another opportunity to "freshen" the rotation and make stations more user friendly for listening at work or in the car.
Of course, this doesn't happen with syndication that runs the same formats in different time zones across a country as big as the US. Regional differences also make a difference in the music mix. Yes, some core artists are "universal." but there are also some artists who have greater appeal in some regions than they do in others.
Another successful strategy in WNY has been to do "special weekends" that allow stations to break perceived monotony and dig a bit deeper into the music library. That's where the "Oh, wow" songs come to play. Hear it once, it's "Oh, wow." Hear it four times a day and it becomes a reminder why it wasn't in the rotation in the first place.
There is something to be said for dayparting, at least in some formats. That's another opportunity to "freshen" the rotation and make stations more user friendly for listening at work or in the car.
Of course, this doesn't happen with syndication that runs the same formats in different time zones across a country as big as the US. Regional differences also make a difference in the music mix. Yes, some core artists are "universal." but there are also some artists who have greater appeal in some regions than they do in others.
Correction. The 1998 DMCA made it illegal to stream full albums over the Internet *without permission of the record company holding the sound copyrights to that album. However, it did *not tell AM and FM stations that weren't streaming on the Internet that they couldn't play whole albums on their stations. (In fact, I know of at least one radio station, KTWC at 98.3 mHz in Bend, Oregon) that continued to play full albums nightly until the station began streaming at the end of the first decade of the 2000s. Also, WHRB-FM in Boston, for many years after it began streaming in the 1990s, did play full albums on its Internet stream--it just made sure to get copyright holder permission to play the particular albums it wanted to ahead of time.
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But we're talking about 97Rock in Buffalo, which DOES in fact stream on the internet. In fact most music stations in Buffalo stream on the internet. So the rule, created by the RIAA and the record labels, applies. It was designed to prevent radio from playing entire albums. There are also specific song rules regarding the number of songs by a particular artist in a 3 hour period.
If you read my post, I didn't specify the rule applied to AM/FM radio. But given the fact that most stations stream, it has that effect.
The question is "successful for who?" Because what we see is that ratings for such special weekends tend to be lower than when they stay with the format. If people feel the music is monotonous, they should switch to a format that plays currents. Most that do play at least 25% current music in order to qualify for chart reporter status. They do this every day, not just on special weekends.
I agree with your use of the term "perceived monotony." Because when a lot of these people create their own playlists, they are about the same size. We know that based on the streaming charts we see.
Just head on WEBR "coming soon to 106.9FM" Anyone know anything about this?
Sorry, total nothing burger. 15 watts at about 200 feet for $150,000. Just gives bragging rights for a frequency. Wait until Industry Canada sees it.
I purchased 2 full powered translators in Buffalo metro for 200k .
I think he should make me an offer to buy WECK and WUSW and our 5 full powered metro translators.
This translator he just purchased is an absolute rip off. 15 watts, proposed?
Look at the coverage map. The pop count is about 1500 people. Just in Niagara Falls with next adjacent 107.1
My hair dryer has more watts by far than this. Plus, it’s not even at good height.
Seriously, if he has this much money to waste on useless towers , translators, leases, infrastructure, I think he should make me an offer.
I purchased 2 full powered translators in Buffalo metro for 200k .
I think he should make me an offer to buy WECK and WUSW and our 5 full powered metro translators.
This translator he just purchased is an absolute rip off. 15 watts, proposed?
Look at the coverage map. The pop count is about 1500 people. Just in Niagara Falls with next adjacent 107.1
My hair dryer has more watts by far than this. Plus, it’s not even at good height.
Seriously, if he has this much money to waste on useless towers , translators, leases, infrastructure, I think he should make me an offer.