What? It always boils down to money. To get that money, you need people to hear that ad. So programming has to be there to attract the listener that sells the ads that pays the bills. Theater of the Mind , I'd think you'd understand this and lay off the stupid remarks. The radio business is about making money just like any other business.
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Do radio stations do live radio giveaways anymore
- Thread starter Dj mr fresh
- Start date
During the decade and change that I ran the in house research division of Univision Radio I was able to look in depth at outliers... those who deviate from the fairly narrow norm of a taste or format group... and saw what you describe: each of those outliers was amazingly different from the rest.
There is no way to satisfy those individuals as each is rather unique and there is no consensus taste among them
As K. M. has said, those stations research quite deeply. They do music tests and perceptual research, and know how to satisfy their audience. And that audience is not composed of outliers. It is just a group of people with a common taste that is not satisfied by standard AC, oldies or classic rock stations. What really sets them apart is that the listeners have another thing in common besides their music in that they did mot like conventional DJs and their associated chatter.
Advertising is our business, but to make money we have to entertain our listeners. Our product is that entertainment, and we sell it to the advertisers.
You are showing the kind of reaction that I normally associate with a person who criticizes radio without any practical experience in running a radio station. We are an ad medium and in the advertising business. But unless we attract listeners by entertaining, amusing or informing them,
There is a common belief around here that the quantity of ads indicates the amount of revenue. Many stations use their "oldies" AM or similar low audience station to bonus the advertisers on their other stations. Others that have no sister stations sell for "a dollar a holler" and have lots of ads, but nearly no revenue.
If we should only be so lucky! Beasley's "Magic 98.3" repeats its entire playlist every six hours like clockwork.
My point is, by far the number one complaint about music radio today, and the number one reason people give for why they stopped listening to it, is "they play the same songs over and over again". Pointing at a database printout and saying "ACKSHULLY, you're wrong!" isn't going to help change that perception. Just ask any politician who lost an election not because the economy was actually doing bad, but because people felt the economy was bad -- a "vibecession".
Radio is in a vibecession, and trusting a computer printout more than what (ex-)listeners are actually saying isn't going to change that.
Do I have the answer for how to turn things around, or if it is even possible to turn things around? No! But first you have to accept the reality that radio has a reputation for repetition.
Is his name Jack?
Actually, id thoroughly enjoy KM.s 80s channel.......... buncha bangers on his format, honestly. a person can be in it just for business and still do a good job.
Radio is a business and thats got to come first
There's some truth to that. I've talked a few times about the friend of mine who worked in a hair salon when I worked in radio and swore she heard "Landslide" by the Dixie Chicks on my station every hour at work. That was not possible; it was a four hour rotation. Yes, you would occasionally hear that song closer to three or five hours apart depending on where it fell in each of the hours it played, but it averaged about four hours over a single day. It might've played in consecutive hours once-or-twice going into or coming out of syndicated programming, but that never happened during the workday. Convincing her of that was impossible.
Here's the other side of that. Was that friend of mine in the hair salon ever going to listen to my station outside of work? No. She liked pop and country, not AC. Did she have those complaints about her favorite stations? Also, no. The two CHR's in the market had much higher repetition rates than my AC had. Her complaint was really that she had soured on the Dixie Chicks after Natalie Mains badmouthed George W. Bush at a concert in Europe and was hearing too much of an act she didn't like. People tune into radio to hear their favorite songs, and they have an expectation that they'll get that. Playing 2,000 different songs doesn't meet that expectation. Listeners start complaining and stop becoming listeners when they don't hear enough of their favorites. If radio could get a big enough audience to sell to advertisers by playing 2,000 songs with no repetition, it would absolutely do that.
And you listen all day long, like clockwork! Thanks for being a P1!
very few people would notice that
My boss at Flinn Broadcasting's adult leaning Hot AC Mix 101.1 KWCA Redding, CA once complained we played the same songs way too often, another sales person said their client suggested we play more 90s.
I said "We play our powers once per day part on average.... our competitors at Power 94.7 play them double that and sometimes more. If we play more 90s, we'll shift ourselves much closer to KShasta, a station we'll never beat.. We're squarely between the two right now. Were also modulating at 105 percent, theyre modulating darn near 130 percent. We arent too soft, they're too loud!"
My boss got pup at liek 330-4am went to bed at 8 and did nothing but listen to the radio all day.. only our station. And neither the GSM/GM or sales people were younger than 60...so they had no concept of the format
Ha! We still do tradio, obituaries, local sports, and local news... Our tradio show actually still does pretty well!
We did the hospital and obit report at WKBI and when it got missed for technical or personal reasons, we got a complaint from a listener.. every time. a blind lady who obviously didnt bother with the newspaper, the only other source in our community
I remember when I started at WDBL, we would read the hospital dismissals. This was several decades before HIPPA an the Internet. I asked why didn't we read the admissions so if I heard a friend's name I could visit them in the hospital. The answer was several years ago they did until the sheriff asked them to stop. Someone figured out what houses to rob while the family was visiting their loved one.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Do not twist my words to fit your POV.
I have said -- many times, in many threads -- that the programming has to be as good as possible. Not because it is "filler between stopsets", but because without programming that attracts listeners, there is nothing to sell to advertisers.
That does not make radio into an entertainment business. The whole point is still to be viable as a commercial medium, and my part of that is creating content that is saleable. From your posts, taken as a whole, you seem to believe that the programming is more important than the advertising, and that is the flaw in your logic.
The situation is symbiotic. The programming attracts the listeners, whose "ears" are sold to the advertisers. But without the programming, there is nothing to sell, and the station goes under. So we are primarily in the advertising business, and the entertainment side is important but not the main focus from a business perspective.
I never said that all I care about is selling ads. I have never said that. You have twisted my words deliberately in an attempt to win the argument, and I demand an apology.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
If they want to embrace bad programming practices, it will come back to bite them soon enough.
I've shared this station before, but anyone wants a station that plays a very broad playlist over multiple decades and genres, Magic 95.9 WPNC in North Carolina should be your go-to
The website promises over 10,000 songs in active rotation. Everybody's favorite song... eventually. Give it a listen and see how long it takes for a song you dislike and/or don't know. For me it's never very long.
Oh, and the website gives that other one a run for its money
www.magic959online.com
The website promises over 10,000 songs in active rotation. Everybody's favorite song... eventually. Give it a listen and see how long it takes for a song you dislike and/or don't know. For me it's never very long.
Oh, and the website gives that other one a run for its money
Magic 95.9 Wpnc - Listen To Music Online, Radio Advertising, Radio Entertainment
Largest On-Air Rotation in America With OVER 10,200 SONGS!
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Stop relying on anecdotal "proof". I already know -- as does anyone who has read enough of your posts in various threads -- that your default position is "attack what radio programmers do, even if the station is successful" and "always counter fact with rhetoric". Honestly, I don't know why the management still lets you post.
I proved to you by my own example that scheduling rules can bounce a song all over the day and night, and since the majority of listeners tune in at the same approximate times, they won't have that complaint if the song rotation and scheduling is done correctly. But you don't see that. All you see is "you played the song over and over again", without even acknowledging the nuance.
Your post proves my point. Your POV is incredibly negative with not a trace of positiveness. Go away.
I've shared this station before, but anyone wants a station that plays a very broad playlist over multiple decades and genres, Magic 95.9 WPNC in North Carolina should be your go-to
The website promises over 10,000 songs in active rotation. Everybody's favorite song... eventually. Give it a listen and see how long it takes for a song you dislike and/or don't know. For me it's never very long.
Oh, and the website gives that other one a run for its money
Magic 95.9 Wpnc - Listen To Music Online, Radio Advertising, Radio Entertainment
Largest On-Air Rotation in America With OVER 10,200 SONGS!
Our flagship FM here has been variety before variety was cool... before Wow, etc.
We dont have a 10,000 song playlist but we have variety across all genres and many decades
I wonder what a train wreck 10,000 songs in active rotation is.