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Expand the playlists please

U

Uncle Rob

To those of you in the radio industry who think everyone wants to hear the same 12 songs by the same 10 artists, please quit now and scrub toilets for a living or something. I'm scanning the stations on the FM dial and find that KLOS plays Foreigner's "Cold as Ice" after the 5 o'clock funnies Friday night. 100.3 FM was playing the same song at the same time. Then KLOS followed up with "Bang a Gong" and guess what K-EARTH was playing at the same time as KLOS?

Last week I heard "30 days in the hole" within 15 minutes on both KLOS and 100.3 FM. That's the first time i've heard that song on the radio since I played it back in the '80's.

LA Radio is like politics. There's no difference between the Democrats and Republicans and there is no difference between most radio stations. It's the same old stuff.

I know I can't be the only radio person (formerly or currently) who knows that there are literally tens of thousands of songs that would fit your format. SO QUIT PLAYING THE SAME ONES OVER AND OVER!!!!!

Rant off
 
As somebody who is not a really big fan and frankly detests of some of the things currently happening in our fair number two market, but fully understands the business of radio I say:

Go to Burbank, or 5670 Wilshire, or venture down La Cienega and talk with the powers that be about your plan on wanting to expand playlists and how it's going to improve ratings and revenue.

In fact go to CBS and explain why Jhani Kaye isn't a good fit for KRTH and explain your cunning plan to improve one of the nation's most popular oldies/classic hits radio stations.

If you have such a plan the said companies would be very interested in speaking with you.

Otherwise it's too bad there isn't some small, portable device that lets you program all the songs you desire and that allows you to make a dream playlist, and at the very least allows you to listen to any song you want anytime by the press of a button, and best of all, you don't have to deal with the stupid decisions radio programmers make. ;)
 
As someone who is in the business, you should know by now that radio is not meant for enlightened music listening enjoyment, it is about selling car insurance and various colored pills designed to cure ailments you probably don't have. Everything else is simply window dressing.
 
Yes, the KRTH playlists are tight still, but better than before....pre 2005.
 
Uncle Rob said:
To those of you in the radio industry who think everyone wants to hear the same 12 songs by the same 10 artists, please quit now and scrub toilets for a living or something. I'm scanning the stations on the FM dial and find that KLOS plays Foreigner's "Cold as Ice" after the 5 o'clock funnies Friday night. 100.3 FM was playing the same song at the same time. Then KLOS followed up with "Bang a Gong" and guess what K-EARTH was playing at the same time as KLOS?

Last week I heard "30 days in the hole" within 15 minutes on both KLOS and 100.3 FM. That's the first time i've heard that song on the radio since I played it back in the '80's.

LA Radio is like politics. There's no difference between the Democrats and Republicans and there is no difference between most radio stations. It's the same old stuff.

I know I can't be the only radio person (formerly or currently) who knows that there are literally tens of thousands of songs that would fit your format. SO QUIT PLAYING THE SAME ONES OVER AND OVER!!!!!

Rant off
Click to expand...

I would have thought that HD Radio and it's promise of additional channels would have prompted stations to experiment with more "progressive" formats since the legacy frquency was the moneymaker. Just like it happened in late 1960's when FM was our HD. By the way, I do a show (Whole 'Nuther Thing) every Saturday from KSBR FM 88.5 in Mission Viejo that is exactly what you are looking for, tune in one Saturday. We also stream our signal http://www.ksbr.org. If you want to sample it you can go to my site where I archive my shows for download and listening http://bobksbr.podomatic.com. I call it "Radio for people that listen."
 
I'm sorry, I couldn't concentrate on reading your post enough to turn me away from hearing Jim Laad unleashing Carouselambra by Led Zeppelin upon my earholes. It's like the first time in 27 hours I've heard it! God, I hope he breaks on through to the other side with that last DJ who loves Hotel California.
 
Robnoxious said:
I'm sorry, I couldn't concentrate on reading your post enough to turn me away from hearing Jim Laad unleashing Carouselambra by Led Zeppelin upon my earholes. It's like the first time in 27 hours I've heard it! God, I hope he breaks on through to the other side with that last DJ who loves Hotel California.
Click to expand...

;D ;D

Hey, don't worry, in the next set we have some uh, let's see here, oh yes, some more Doors music. Just stay through this next break and we'll get your Mojo Risin'.
 
Uncle Rob said:
To those of you in the radio industry who think everyone wants to hear the same 12 songs by the same 10 artists, please quit now and scrub toilets for a living or something.
Click to expand...

Actually, the PDs who try to expand the playlists are the ones who end up scrubbing the toilets. Because the fact is that the people who want endless playlists don't listen to the radio. The people who do want to hear their favorite songs and their favorite artists. That means repetition. That's what radio is. Wash, rinse, repeat.

My suggestion to people who want to hear a broad range of music: Put a broad range of radio stations on your pre-sets. That's what I do. By listening to formats I normally don't hear, I get a lot of songs and artists that are totally new to me. It's amazing. Normally listen to rock? Try country. Burned out on AC? Try Urban. It'll shake up the carpool. Personally, I stopped listening to rock radio years ago. There are lots of other formats on the radio that are far more aggressive with new music, and broader with their Gold. In my view, it has nothing to do with radio, but the format itself. It's DOA.
 
ChannelFlipper said:
As someone who is in the business, you should know by now that radio is not meant for enlightened music listening enjoyment, it is about selling car insurance and various colored pills designed to cure ailments you probably don't have. Everything else is simply window dressing.
Click to expand...

Don't forget to mention the phone number 4 or 5 times in a row! :D
 
TheBigA said:
Uncle Rob said:
To those of you in the radio industry who think everyone wants to hear the same 12 songs by the same 10 artists, please quit now and scrub toilets for a living or something.
Click to expand...

Actually, the PDs who try to expand the playlists are the ones who end up scrubbing the toilets. Because the fact is that the people who want endless playlists don't listen to the radio. The people who do want to hear their favorite songs and their favorite artists. That means repetition. That's what radio is. Wash, rinse, repeat.

My suggestion to people who want to hear a broad range of music: Put a broad range of radio stations on your pre-sets. That's what I do. By listening to formats I normally don't hear, I get a lot of songs and artists that are totally new to me. It's amazing. Normally listen to rock? Try country. Burned out on AC? Try Urban. It'll shake up the carpool. Personally, I stopped listening to rock radio years ago. There are lots of other formats on the radio that are far more aggressive with new music, and broader with their Gold. In my view, it has nothing to do with radio, but the format itself. It's DOA.
Click to expand...

I agree with your recommendation to sample other formats and that is the crux of my show. (Whole 'Nuther Thing) I put music together from many different formats. Jazz, Rock, Reggae, Classical, R&B, Folk, Oldies, Pop, Urban etc. The only stipulation, it must be good. The best part is you never know what you're going to hear next but in all likelihood it will be something you haven't heard in a long long time or not at all. Worst case, you will hear something thats familiar but packaged differently.
 
Don't expand playlists, it won't work long term, here's what happens. Let's say you expand the "professionally" suggested number by, oh, 4 to 6 times more. Your cume will go way up but your aqh will possibly have a slight drop which means your PD and OM and jocks will birth cows right there in the studio when they see the aqh. Your sales people will suddenly be happier because for some strange reason their clients aren't complaining about a lack of results and actually send checks in on time. Then the really bad stuff happens, the cats and dogs (I mean on air talent and sales weasels) start being nice to each other. Revenues go up because of better payment times and because the sales team actually gets out and sees people instead of just cowering and waiting for the phone calls. Cash flow increase, even with more paid in commissions, because the on air talent is so afraid they'll be fired because of lower aqh they don't badger you for more money and are actually (and quietly without prodding) much more productive and cooperative. Then with this new revenue/cash flow someone offers you what seems to be an obscene amount of money for the property. You sell, they bring in the "professionals" who limit the playlists to fix the problem. It doesn't work long term.
 
Stewy said:
Don't expand playlists, it won't work long term, here's what happens. Let's say you expand the "professionally" suggested number by, oh, 4 to 6 times more. Your cume will go way up but your aqh will possibly have a slight drop
Click to expand...

You write humorous fiction, but that's what it is. Expanding playlists hurt cume, and there are lots of LA stations I can point to where that's happened.
 
Stewy said:
Don't expand playlists, it won't work long term, here's what happens. Let's say you expand the "professionally" suggested number by, oh, 4 to 6 times more. Your cume will go way up but your aqh will possibly have a slight drop which means your PD and OM and jocks will birth cows right there in the studio when they see the aqh. Your sales people will suddenly be happier because for some strange reason their clients aren't complaining about a lack of results and actually send checks in on time.
Click to expand...

Ratings services only measure cume and the length of time spent listening by each person. AQH (expressed as "rating" or "share" or "AQH persons") is a function of how many people listen and the time the spend one each station. Without cume, there is no AQH, no TSL, no listeners.

Nearly everyone in radio programming past and present knows that a longer playlist will drop the cume, not increase it. We have, collectively, learned this by either making the mistake of thinking that song count equals variety (and usually gotten ourselves fired for breaking the radio station) or we have watched another station tank big time from playing too many deep cuts.

In any format, a shorter list tends to broaden the appeal because the songs will be mass appeal, liked by people from all different sides of the core. With too many songs, the appeal to those who are not at the core is reduced, and cume falls. The trick is balancing the two groups, and then scheduling music so that rotational mechanics optimize exposure and repeat plays.

That long list may get great TSL from a narrow cume base, but most people will not listen.

I can write about many anecdotal experiences, good and bad. The best example, thought, would be a very large market rock station that was averaging around a 20 share with a 600 song list. A new competitor came into the format with an equal signal but with at least 1800 songs (they claimed, on the air, to have four times more variety). A year later, the new station left the format, having peaked at a 1.8 and we continued on with a 20. Research showed we owned the variety position, while the other station owned the "plays too many bad songs" position.
 
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