Expand the playlists please

[davideduardo]

That of course is subjective but I have a pretty good track record of making those choices. Sample it and see for yourself.

It would be so much easier to ask the target audience, wouldn't it? Were it so easy to pick the hits, record labels would not be putting out 10 or 20 or 30 albums that don't even cover costs for every one that sells enough to make a profit.

 

[Stewy]

Thanks for the fiction compliment Big A. Also, thank you and David for the "professional" advice. Once again, it has been proven that I know so little. Maybe I'll improve.

 

[oldies76]

Nearly everyone in radio programming past and present knows that a longer playlist will drop the cume, not increase it.

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

And CBS-FM is doing very well, several years now, with their "long list". Yup!

 

[davideduardo]

Nearly everyone in radio programming past and present knows that a longer playlist will drop the cume, not increase it.

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

And CBS-FM is doing very well, several years now, with their "long list". Yup!

For a format that appeals to mostly 45+, the roughly 700-800 songs in active rotation (not specialty shows) is a reasonable number. That is not a long list for that format.

Country stations average around 600 to 700 songs.

AC stations can be in the 300 to 400 range, Hot AC a bit less.

CHR stations may be 100-125 songs; agressive new CHRs may play 50 or 60 songs for their introductory phase.

Each format has a range that is not just determined by the market and the competitors, but by the listeners themselves. The "right" range is something you learn from talking to the target audience, not by trying to impress them with how much you know about music.

 

[davideduardo]

Maybe I'll improve.

That should be everyone's goal.

 

[Maestro]

BigA, I've been called worse.

 

[Maestro]

That of course is subjective but I have a pretty good track record of making those choices. Sample it and see for yourself.

It would be so much easier to ask the target audience, wouldn't it? Were it so easy to pick the hits, record labels would not be putting out 10 or 20 or 30 albums that don't even cover costs for every one that sells enough to make a profit.

That's what focus groups do and that's how we end up with the same old dreck. I have a solid audience that keeps building and I know this because of downloads of my show, calls and e-mails. Most people would prefer to tune in and be surprised with something they haven't heard in many years or enjoy the way I put music together. But don't take my word for it tune in or listen to an archived show.

 

[davideduardo]

It would be so much easier to ask the target audience, wouldn't it? Were it so easy to pick the hits, record labels would not be putting out 10 or 20 or 30 albums that don't even cover costs for every one that sells enough to make a profit.

That's what focus groups do and that's how we end up with the same old dreck.

Focus groups are not used to select the songs to play and those that should not be played.

I have a solid audience that keeps building and I know this because of downloads of my show, calls and e-mails.

Yet you show has no ratings. Those other things are interesting, but they are not audience measurement devices. And a 25 day old show that has 7 plays, including mine, is not what one would call overwhelming.

Most people would prefer to tune in and be surprised with something they haven't heard in many years..

In reality, when "you" speak to a random cross section of the population, particularly those over 25, they would rather hear their favorite songs and those tend to be, within each lifestyle group, the songs a large percentage of that group like. The ones you don't hear on the radio are predominantly those that very few people are either familiar with or don't particularly like.

But don't take my word for it tune in or listen to an archived show.

You paraphrase Duke Ellington on your web page, saying that there are two kinds of music, that which is good and that which is bad. However, what that statement does not contemplate is that one person's good music is another person's bad music. Your show is not my idea of good music.

 

[briancraig]

I think we all know that most of the time, the station in a format with the tighter list pretty much always wins in the ratings.

I believe Rick Sklar once said that WABC in New York had their highest numbers when the playlist was the shortest.

However there are examples of stations losing listeners due to a stale playlist. Look at how KROQ became the dominant rock station in the early 1980s. They had a much longer list than any other L.A. rock station and played way more currents than KMET which had previously been the number 1 rocker.

 

[davideduardo]

However there are examples of stations losing listeners due to a stale playlist.

Stale = burnt out. That's not a measure of quantity of songs, but of playing the wrong songs. Again, all the more reason to get accurate listener feedback so that a determination of which songs are toasty can be made.

Except for a few books around '86 and '87, KROQ did not really become the dominant rock station until we were into the 90's... KLOS owned most of the 80's, with KMET falling dramatically around '82... and going so far down that Metromedia was pretty desparate by '86 when they became The Wave.