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Do radio stations do live radio giveaways anymore

vchimpanzee said:
98.7 Simon in Greensboro NC is frequently number one or close to it.
Click to expand...

Proves my point. No station with a playlist of "outlier favorites" is ever the top station in a market.

"Outlier", by its very definition, is someone who doesn't listen to stations programmed for a mass audience.
 
Top 25 songs on WSMW (98.7 Simon) year-to-date. Doesn't sound like it's programmed for anything other than a mass appeal "consensus favorites" audience:

1A-HATake On Me
2OUTFIELDYour Love
3NAKED EYESAlways Something There To...
4SURVIVOREye Of The Tiger
5EDDIE MONEYTake Me Home Tonight
6WHITESNAKEHere I Go Again
7RICK JAMESSuper Freak (Part 1)
8CUTTING CREW(I Just) Died In Your Arms
9JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMPSmall Town
10KENNY LOGGINSDanger Zone
11CYNDI LAUPERGirls Just Want To Have Fun
12PHIL COLLINSIn The Air Tonight
13UB40Red Red Wine
14BEE GEESStayin' Alive
15BON JOVIWanted Dead Or Alive
16JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMPJack & Diane
17JOURNEYDon't Stop Believin'
18BRYAN ADAMSSummer Of '69
19QUEENAnother One Bites The Dust
20WARLow Rider
21MARSHALL TUCKER BANDCan't You See
22EURYTHMICSSweet Dreams(Are Made Of This)
23MARVIN GAYESexual Healing
24POLICEEvery Breath You Take
25COMMODORESBrick House
 
K.M. Richards said:
Top 25 songs on WSMW (98.7 Simon) year-to-date. Doesn't sound like it's programmed for anything other than a mass appeal "consensus favorites" audience:

1A-HATake On Me
2OUTFIELDYour Love
3NAKED EYESAlways Something There To...
4SURVIVOREye Of The Tiger
5EDDIE MONEYTake Me Home Tonight
6WHITESNAKEHere I Go Again
7RICK JAMESSuper Freak (Part 1)
8CUTTING CREW(I Just) Died In Your Arms
9JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMPSmall Town
10KENNY LOGGINSDanger Zone
11CYNDI LAUPERGirls Just Want To Have Fun
12PHIL COLLINSIn The Air Tonight
13UB40Red Red Wine
14BEE GEESStayin' Alive
15BON JOVIWanted Dead Or Alive
16JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMPJack & Diane
17JOURNEYDon't Stop Believin'
18BRYAN ADAMSSummer Of '69
19QUEENAnother One Bites The Dust
20WARLow Rider
21MARSHALL TUCKER BANDCan't You See
22EURYTHMICSSweet Dreams(Are Made Of This)
23MARVIN GAYESexual Healing
24POLICEEvery Breath You Take
25COMMODORESBrick House
Click to expand...

This sounds like an all hit pop version of what we do.... i recognzie alot of the songs from our playlist but we go deeper
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
This sounds like an all hit pop version of what we do.... i recognzie alot of the songs from our playlist but we go deeper
Click to expand...

I went down as far as 1500 songs and sorted by year. No surprises ... most of the songs with the heaviest spin count were Classic Hits compatible. The lesser-played songs tended to be Classic Rock songs that aren't already part of the CH format, and the sheer number of titles post-1990 was a fairly small percentage of the entire library (I'm guessing somewhere around 6% to 8% ... maybe.)
 
K.M. Richards said:
I went down as far as 1500 songs and sorted by year. No surprises ... most of the songs with the heaviest spin count were Classic Hits compatible.
Click to expand...
The question is how often the top 200 or so of those songs are played versus the rest of them.

Plenty of people do like "Take On Me", but hearing it played three or four times a day, every day, is more than they can take on.
 
But even P1s aren't hearing the three or four plays per day, assuming the music scheduling is done properly. They might hear it once every week or ten days.
 
kevtronics said:
The question is how often the top 200 or so of those songs are played versus the rest of them.
Click to expand...

By asking that question, you make it obvious that you have never seen a Mediabase report on song airplay. The ranking is based on total airplay, and by the time I get to #1500 (which doesn't even cover the really non-consensus titles) the spin count is down to five. For the entire year to date.

kevtronics said:
Plenty of people do like "Take On Me", but hearing it played three or four times a day, every day, is more than they can take on.
Click to expand...

More conclusions based on a common misconception.

Building on what @vw86 posted while I was composing this response, people do not listen continuously throughout the day. They tune in and out multiple times each day, listening for 20 to 30 minutes at a time, and if a programmer is doing their job right, they have the scheduling software set up with rules to prevent a song repeating in the same daypart -- and the same hour as the last time it played in that daypart ... and even a different quarter-hour from when it last played in that hour -- so the typical listener (as in, non-outlier) won't hear all of the plays.

To use your own example, here is the last 30 days' airplay of "Take On Me" on KRKE, direct from my scheduling log:
07/12/2026 Sun 5:43pm
07/11/2026 Sat 6:25am
07/10/2026 Fri 12:08am
07/09/2026 Thu 12:54pm
07/08/2026 Wed 9:43am
07/07/2026 Tue 8:29pm
07/07/2026 Tue 7:25am
07/06/2026 Mon 6:15pm
07/06/2026 Mon 4:21am
07/05/2026 Sun 4:43pm
07/04/2026 Sat 10:32am
07/03/2026 Fri 2:44am
07/02/2026 Thu 3:32pm
07/01/2026 Wed 1:21am
06/30/2026 Tue 2:08pm
06/29/2026 Mon 5:09am
06/28/2026 Sun 2:16am
06/27/2026 Sat 1:24pm
06/26/2026 Fri 7:43am
06/25/2026 Thu 1:54am
06/24/2026 Wed 2:54pm
06/22/2026 Mon 10:00am
06/21/2026 Sun 10:43am
06/20/2026 Sat 5:42am
06/19/2026 Fri 4:54pm
06/18/2026 Thu 8:42am
06/17/2026 Wed 6:44pm
06/17/2026 Wed 2:43am
06/16/2026 Tue 3:44pm
06/15/2026 Mon 10:14am
06/14/2026 Sun 11:24am
06/13/2026 Sat 1:17am
06/12/2026 Fri 1:08pm

I am certain that I am not the only one here who tires of being challenged about established and agreed upon programming strategies and policies, based on anecdotal or emotional POVs. I strongly suggest that everyone who relies on that debating tactic stop doing so, because sooner or later each and every one of you will cross a line that I do not believe you would want to.

As I have said many times before: Repeating the same tired arguments that have been disproved every time they were posted in the past is not going to get agreement from anyone but your fellow outliers (who, honestly, are guilty of the same behavior). And it's not going to change anything, except to make people tired of hearing the person repeat himself ... and we all know what that leads to, do we not?
 
Last edited:
K.M. Richards said:
To use your own example, here is the last 30 days' airplay of "Take On Me" on KRKE, direct from my scheduling log:
07/12/2026 Sun 5:43pm
07/11/2026 Sat 6:25am
07/10/2026 Fri 12:08am
07/09/2026 Thu 12:54pm
07/08/2026 Wed 9:43am
07/07/2026 Tue 8:29pm
07/07/2026 Tue 7:25am
07/06/2026 Mon 6:15pm
07/06/2026 Mon 4:21am
07/05/2026 Sun 4:43pm
07/04/2026 Sat 10:32am
07/03/2026 Fri 2:44am
07/02/2026 Thu 3:32pm
07/01/2026 Wed 1:21am
06/30/2026 Tue 2:08pm
06/29/2026 Mon 5:09am
06/28/2026 Sun 2:16am
06/27/2026 Sat 1:24pm
06/26/2026 Fri 7:43am
06/25/2026 Thu 1:54am
06/24/2026 Wed 2:54pm
06/22/2026 Mon 10:00am
06/21/2026 Sun 10:43am
06/20/2026 Sat 5:42am
06/19/2026 Fri 4:54pm
06/18/2026 Thu 8:42am
06/17/2026 Wed 6:44pm
06/17/2026 Wed 2:43am
06/16/2026 Tue 3:44pm
06/15/2026 Mon 10:14am
06/14/2026 Sun 11:24am
06/13/2026 Sat 1:17am
06/12/2026 Fri 1:08pm
Click to expand...
that is a good song and going to be a p1 song for a p1 audience member..... but i liek that its never scheduled in the same time again for at least a few days, so everyone gets to hear that song
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
that is a good song and going to be a p1 song for a p1 audience member..... but i liek that its never scheduled in the same time again for at least a few days, so everyone gets to hear that song
Click to expand...

As you might guess, Paul, that is deliberate on my part.

Even with literally every other song on the hot clock being a Power, there are enough of those (based on the combined airplay of 19 stations in top-40 markets who are still doing active ongoing testing and research of their active libraries) for me to routinely keep 125 titles in the category, which serves the P1s without overdoing it.

And that leads to higher TSL and more frequent tune ins.
 
K.M. Richards said:
As you might guess, Paul, that is deliberate on my part.

Even with literally every other song on the hot clock being a Power, there are enough of those (based on the combined airplay of 19 stations in top-40 markets who are still doing active ongoing testing and research of their active libraries) for me to routinely keep 125 titles in the category, which serves the P1s without overdoing it.

And that leads to higher TSL and more frequent tune ins.
Click to expand...

i totally get it.. people are continually jamming out.. not quite stopping or changing the channel
 
The Hustle said:
God im not sure what I hate more...the generation who perpetuates this impression of radio, or the overall impression corporate radio gives anyone who knows "just a little bit" about the business. Radio stations ALL over the country still do call in contests all the time. Just because 2 big companies who own 1100 of the 15,000 radio stations in the country "seem" to not do call in contests anymore, doesn't mean the rest of us aren't. You could also ask "Do radio stations do Tradio anymore?" or "Do radio stations still run news, local sports and obituaries anymore". Just because you either live in one large area of the country, that is only served by big companies, or you hear from websites and message boards that "radio is dead", doesn't mean the overwhelming majority aren't still doing something resembling real radio anymore. It might not be 24/7 like it used to be. It might pivot between call ins and online contesting. But it's still being done. In thousands of small to medium markets all over the country. Just because Z100 or KISS FM don't do call in contests anymore (and I don't honestly know if they do) doesnt mean EVERYONE isn't.
Click to expand...
Well said...and do you listen to Van McCoy by any chance?
 


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