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How many songs in a playlist?
- Thread starter Radio Bob
- Start date
Would love to see a 1980s classic hits station that didn't lean rock. Think The Jets, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, New Kids On The Block, etc. Those acts don't get the light of day on a typical classic hits station despite having some big hits in the decade. If it were up to most programmers the 1980s didnt get any more bubble gum pop than Madonna or Michael Jackson.
That is thinking about “stiffs“
Those songs may have been hits 40 or so years ago, but that does not mean people want to hear them today. A classic hits station plays “classic“ songs that people still want to hear. The important thing is to find out which songs are totally dead, and which songs live on.
That does not mean looking for songs nobody plays, particularly in the bigger markets. That means that those songs have been researched and did not pass the test.
As mentioned in the duplicate thread about the same subject, the best thing to do is fine similar stations that you are as certain as possible actually do research. Then combine the playlist of those stations and play mostly the songs that get uniform play across multiple stations.
The songs that don’t get played on significant stations in your format our songs that will do you immense harm. Those are songs that have been tested and found out to be noxious.
Again, a “big hit“ back in the day is no guarantee that it continues to be a hit today. Most of the songs that were hits are also songs that your audience does not want to hear or other major stations would be playing them.
Nobody cares what kind or flavor of music a song is. For radio there are basically two kinds of songs and just two kinds of songs…. Hits and stiffs
Good points David. When you compare old Billboard hit lists ( Ya Billboard wasn't very accurate) to what survived to today you see where a song ended high on Billboard didn't result in it being played today. Great example DON'T WORRY BE HAPPY.
Bob - I think the sweet spot in this format is around 350 titles, with rotations structured so no title plays more than 3x a day. If a song plays every 8-12 hours -- 2:40 am, 10:12 am, and 7:58 pm -- lots of your heavy listeners will hear it once, a few will hear it twice, and almost no one will hear it 3x, so fewer listeners will say 'I just heard that'.
Depending on market size and time spent listening, you might be able to go with 500-600 songs. In smaller markets there's less button pushing and longer listening sessions. Still the best testing songs get played at least 2 or more times a day. I know in our small market you'll hear many of the top songs every day during working hours. We have listeners tuning in 9:15 a week in 12+ and 11:45 a week in 12+. You'd never see that in a major market.
Not an 80s based station but a station where I live plays forgotten favorites in addition to the biggest hits. and they say they play all the hits, not just some of them.
Local advertisers run a lot of commercials.
Local advertisers run a lot of commercials.
A “hit“ is a song that people want to hear today. That station is making the mistake of thinking that every song that was a hit back in the day is one that people want to hear today. Instead of saying “all the hits“ they should be saying “your favorites“.
“Lots of commercials“ may just mean that they are selling very cheap and making no money.
I would also keep an eye on the Billboard Hot 100 for any re-entries from the past. The movie "Michael" has sparked a renewed interest in Michael Jackson. Two of his hit songs from the 80's are back as re-entries on the Hot 100.
I don't know if background music in a mall counts for anything, but earlier this week a mall where I was hearing pleasant songs from the 70s had switched, and I heard these:
"Simply Irresistible" Robert Palmer
"Beat It" Michael Jackson
"One Thing Leads to Another" The Fixx
"Sledgehammer" Peter Gabriel
I think all of these are still accepted by stations that play 80s music.
"Simply Irresistible" Robert Palmer
"Beat It" Michael Jackson
"One Thing Leads to Another" The Fixx
"Sledgehammer" Peter Gabriel
I think all of these are still accepted by stations that play 80s music.
Here in North Texas, 88.5 KEOM in Mesquite does include the sort of non-rock songs that you're talking about in their 70s/80s/90s classic hits format. This station is owned by a school district and isn't trying for a large audience, which is why they can get away with doing this. They do stream online, so you might give it a listen.
That said, I'm not disagreeing with those who note that those songs haven't necessarily aged that well -- I don't think KEOM's music mix would work for a commercial station.
What's the shortest playlist one might encounter outside classic top 40, where forty means exactly what it says?
I was happy when KKGO HD4 debuted its classic KTWV sound-alike Smooth Jazz format, but quickly noticed lots of repetition. For curiosity's sake, I began a long-term capture of the stream's metadata and discovered that their playlist was just 186 songs. A few months later, I ran a second weeks-long check to monitor for anything new, but they were still running exactly the same 186 songs as before. That's regrettable, given the enormous depth of material available in the genre.
I was happy when KKGO HD4 debuted its classic KTWV sound-alike Smooth Jazz format, but quickly noticed lots of repetition. For curiosity's sake, I began a long-term capture of the stream's metadata and discovered that their playlist was just 186 songs. A few months later, I ran a second weeks-long check to monitor for anything new, but they were still running exactly the same 186 songs as before. That's regrettable, given the enormous depth of material available in the genre.