Extra Spins: Common Practice?

[trackertalent]

An out of town friend who works for one of the local stations in her market tells me that almost every weekend, her PD instructs each member of the weekend air staff to add sometimes three extra spins of a particular song; sometimes more than one song, per shift.

I never encountered this at any station I'd worked at before. Is this a common practice today?

 

[bigpunk81]

Based on rotation, probably only for Nickelback... ;D

 

[davideduardo]

I never encountered this at any station I'd worked at before. Is this a common practice today?

Most stations that play currents use computer scheduling, Selector or MusicMaster mostly, and load the music logs into their digital storage system; the jock, particularly on weekends, has no control over spins and rotations... as it should be.

So this is a bizarre practice. I don't want to speculate, so it would be interesting to know if a reason or explanation was offered.

 

[trackertalent]

Forgive the delay in my response, David. I haven't been receiving topic update notifications.

Yes, this station does indeed use music scheduling software, and I agree that the jocks should not be able to change things (unless the PD allows them a little flexibility). And there is no reason or explanation. The instruction comes usually in a phone call: the PD calls the Saturday morning jock and says to "tell the others this is what I want."

But in addition to the consistent weekly instruction to add as many as three extra spins per shift for this song or that song, my friend says there's another issue. She believes the PD apparently either isn't computer or software savvy, or just plain doesn't care, because more often than not, far too much music is scheduled without concern for spots. Unless the weekend jocks know to watch for it, the last stopset of the hour (the :50 break) is in danger of being tossed out by AudioVault's GTL Simple (and they have been), which is scheduled to run the ID at :00:59.

So the jocks are being told to insert extra songs - which means they have to check before and after the anticipated play time to see how long ago or in the future the same song has played or will play. And they have to delete songs to make sure all the spots play at the right times.

In my opinion, who needs a Program Director if the jocks are doing all the work?

 

[davideduardo]

But in addition to the consistent weekly instruction to add as many as three extra spins per shift for this song or that song, my friend says there's another issue. She believes the PD apparently either isn't computer or software savvy, or just plain doesn't care, because more often than not, far too much music is scheduled without concern for spots. Unless the weekend jocks know to watch for it, the last stopset of the hour (the :50 break) is in danger of being tossed out by AudioVault's GTL Simple (and they have been), which is scheduled to run the ID at :00:59.

The update function in Audio Vault should run ahead of stopsets to "eat" any overscheduled songs, usually fill. With the FCC rules not demanding an exact time for the ID, many stations don't even do an update near the top of the hour; they schedule from the start of the stopset and know that AV will pick up the next hour's log whether early or late. The Id can be placed where it is reasonably sure to run within the spirit and letter of the FCC rule whithout the update.

 

[trackertalent]

The update function in Audio Vault should run ahead of stopsets to "eat" any overscheduled songs, usually fill.

Agreed. She tells me the station runs only a single update (scheduled at 00:59) only to ensure the ID runs near the top of the hour. When she (at my suggestion several months ago) suggested to her PD that other updates can be placed within the hour to make sure the stopsets play at their approximate scheduled times, she perceived a lack of interest, receiving not much more than a grunt in response.

This is one of the PDs I had in mind in my other thread about loose automation: he also doesn't bother to place sec tones/EOM markers or time the intros when he puts new songs into the library.

 

[chriscollins]

In Audiovault, it would be difficult to time out updates prior to stopsets to work correctly (outside of an AvAir/AvSat combo).

This would potentially take you off track if you had an update and your break wasn't filled. It would make you have to back load the hour with songs. My clock is very tight. I edit each hour for time manually, as well as, use an update at the end of the hour.

Also, all of my times in MusicMaster correspond with the run length to the segue tone. Many put in the entire run time of the song and that gives you an inaccurate representation of how long your hour will be in the Automation Engine.

No properly programmed radio station would instruct a jock to add spins... Nor would anyone need to, as the hour would be timed out.

 

[trackertalent]

As for updates for stopsets, this station fills the :50 break first, then the :20, then the :35. Wouldn't it be possible to place an update at those approximate times, and backfill the time that follows the :50 position in case of a light spot load?

Opposite of those times when too many songs have caused some or all of the spots in the :50 break to be tossed out, my friend tells me there have also been times when hours come up short of music (one day she was 10 minutes short) and the jocks have to find songs to fill. And forget about songs without sec tones for a moment; she says she found herself speechless one day when a new add was playing and the file ended while the song was midway through. She looked up and saw the time ticking down but not quickly enough to do anything about it.

She tells me there is some speculation among her peers that the PD is either really out of his element, and/or that he has other priorities. It's a country station with a single-county coverage, and the PD - a die-hard country fanatic - has taken two week-long vacations in Nashville in the past two years. Extra spins, anyone? Just speculation, mind you.