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Does on air talent or people working at a station remember forgotten hits better than others?

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tall_guy1

tall_guy1

Since songs are in rotation so much, I wonder if people working in radio know songs deep in their archives well or if there are songs that are totally "lost" on them since there are so many they have played. It seems like one KC DJ on his socials brings up a lot of songs from around 1999 that were near and dear to him (as well as some years prior and after) which never took off. For example, last year he posted that the song 8 Letters by Why Don't We (2018) should have been a bigger hit.
 
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With Voice Tracking a lot of folks are doing a bunch of stations who has "time" to check the social media accounts?

On the other hand someone in market only worrying about one station should have some time for interaction with listeners. The best example of this I can think of having a vast knowledge of rock is Atlanta's Steve Craig now at 99X. He did a "trivia" segment on 97.1 (former Atlanta gig) that had some surprising stuff. I believe he is doing the music at 99X too.

IMHO anyone who can do the music at an Alternative station and the station is successful has to have a better knowledge of music than 7 or 800 tested song music director
 
secondchoice said:
IMHO anyone who can do the music at an Alternative station and the station is successful has to have a better knowledge of music than 7 or 800 tested song music director
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"Knowledge of music" is a totally separate item from "playing what listeners want to hear."

The music test finds out what to play. Knowledge of the music can make interesting features if not overdone. But most of us really don't want to hear over and over what album a song came from or what year it was recorded.
 
DavidEduardo said:
"Knowledge of music" is a totally separate item from "playing what listeners want to hear."

The music test finds out what to play. Knowledge of the music can make interesting features if not overdone. But most of us really don't want to hear over and over what album a song came from or what year it was recorded.
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If you test music you will end up with "popular" music which tend to become "commercially successful or hits". That would put you in classic hits or something like that. I don't think Alternative fans want to hear a steady diet of same 800 to 1000 "commercially successful" songs.

Can Alternative be considered a modern version of the old AOR?
 
secondchoice said:
If you test music you will end up with "popular" music which tend to become "commercially successful or hits". That would put you in classic hits or something like that. I don't think Alternative fans want to hear a steady diet of same 800 to 1000 "commercially successful" songs.
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In spite of what they might claim, most listeners of any appreciable volume want the hits. Tune-out is common for unfamiliar music sprinkled with familiar music. Been that way since research and ratings began. Now with streaming and the small number of ground breaking music stations like KEXP in Seattle, you're wasting your neuron power fretting that the vast majority of stations catering to a broad audience aren't playing eclectic music. All one needs to do is stream one of the hundreds of choices out there on the Interwebs.
secondchoice said:
Can Alternative be considered a modern version of the old AOR?
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Alternative is still considered newer music, although when artists aren't producing anything worth the kilowatt rate of utility power, it's common to find recurrents or music from the 90s.
 
I have always looked at music as a bookmark in time. Every song brings you back to a person, place or time of your life. I did 25 or 30 years in the radio business back in the days when dinosaurs were road hazards on the drive to work. I remember songs from then just like anyone else of my age group. Some oddities I remember more than others. Billy Don't be a Hero was a hit 50 years ago this summer. Most people don't hold the song in high esteem but I love it, more for the memories of that period of time than for the tune itself. I looked at the songs more as part of the job than anything special. Some more obscure songs I remember. Some hits are long forgotten until I flip around on satellite radio and hear one. From the days of having to time out to network news, I tend to remember the times of some old songs, and how long of a fade out they had. I took pride in almost never having to backtime an instrumental to the news, yet I don't believe I had ever played Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In in its entirety. Gotta love that long repetition for the final two minutes of the song. It could be faded anywhere, with few people noticing. That's the type of thing I most remember about music from my radio years. You could also cheat with the :57 intro to Colour My World and hit the news at the cold ending of the song, which ran 2:57. Ah, the memories of all those well timed songs.
 
I know I'm an outlier, but most songs don't remind me of the time when they were popular because in many cases I discovered the song years later, and in some cases I hear the song a lot. A few songs do remind me of the time when they were popular but I'm guessing I haven't hear them a lot. I didn't spend a lot of time listening to oldies stations until I had to. And after not hearing certain songs on standards radio, I was probably hearing a song for the first time since it was popular, unless I had heard the song while sampling various stations.
 
I might remember certain songs differently than others. My first radio job was at an AM/FM combo in 1981. I was basically the babysitter of the FM automation system. I had to keep track of the songs so I knew when to change tapes. I paid keen attention to the last song on each reel because that meant I had to change the reel. I recall one specific song…”Back On My Feet Again” by the Baby’s. That was the last song on one particular reel, so I knew I had to change reels after that song. Conversely, the first song on another reel was “Off The Wall” by Michael Jackson. The format was “Contempo 300“ by Drake/Chenault.
 
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I think as a person who collects airchecks and records them I seem to know about some outliner hits than most people. Because I can go back to that time of year and hear what was hot at that time.
 
I'm sure anyone who has worked in radio remembers a lot of one-offs and deep cuts, if only because you heard them so much when they were new music, or -- if you worked at a format factory as I did for 16 years -- you heard everything. Numerous times. Because we delivered entire formats and had to edit / QC the music before sending it out.

But the people who program the music are a different matter entirely. They have to separate their personal taste from what they choose to go over the air. Even older stuff, like classic hits. It's all researched.
 
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