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How often do djs hate what they play?

tall_guy1

tall_guy1

I was wondering that. It would seem to me djs would either get tired of a certain song or downright hate certain songs on their playlist. Thoughts?
 
Your job isn't playing your favorite songs. Your job is doing a show and executing a format. Of course, especially when we were playing music manually, jocks got tired of hearing current songs twice per shift. I don't like country that much but still played it.
 
I work for a classic hits station with a fairly tight playlist of the best testing hits, some 70s, mostly 80s, can selective 90s here and there.
These are the same songs that work best everywhere that even though they are playing so heavy and have been for years, people don't tire of them ever.
No, I wouldn't say that I hate them, they are the greatest hits for a reason, but I'm burned out on them because I have heard them a ridiculously amount of times my whole life. And yet I will say that some of them I just can't get burned on, they always are enjoyable, they are that good that I and other DJs can't get sick of them.
It's proven that these songs work best. Music testing and ratings are undeniable fact.
The listeners are really different from passionate music fans that post on this site. They are the people that matter, only satisfying their expectations of tuning in to hear a mix where they know and love every song and can sing along to them. The perception of a familiar consistent friend that makes them feel good is what we want to achieve and it could be hearing just one song that they don't know or don't want that could do serious damage to that perception beyond changing the station, they could decide that we don't deliver the expectation and never come back.
We all know we don't play music for us and we are on board with that because we want to win and do our job which is serving the masses of our target demos.
 
tall_guy1 said:
I was wondering that. It would seem to me djs would either get tired of a certain song or downright hate certain songs on their playlist. Thoughts?
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If you're truly a professional, you leave personal tastes behind and concentrate on how you present yourself and the station(s) in the best light on the air, including now via social media. Anyone who gets tired or bored in doing their job, no matter what it is, should look into a different career path. Doesn't matter if you're paid to be a personality on the air, or working in a warehouse.
 
"Hate" is a strong word. I'd suggest "indifferent."

However, most DJs tend to stay in the same format. So that tells me they like the music in general.

Other than my time in college radio, I never played my personal favorite music while on the radio.
 
Radio is about like an interior design person I know. She was schooled and had all these great ideas. Her customers dictated what was done. She did her work to please the client. She never got to do those great ideas she had.

For me I'd get sick of a song but only briefly. Then I'd listen very carefully to hear why the song has such staying power. For most songs, that sick turned into respect and for a few I was just sort of numb to them, not disliking or liking. I knew I had to relate to the listener and know their mind somewhat, and play the songs they love with the same enthusiasm they experience hearing the song.
 
tall_guy1 said:
I was wondering that. It would seem to me djs would either get tired of a certain song or downright hate certain songs on their playlist. Thoughts?
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I think it'd only be natural for DJs to not like every single song they need to play. Once some get repetitive ad-nauseum, even songs they once really liked can get old and monotonous to play over and over after a time. That said, if you're in the business for the right reasons and a true pro, you quickly realize you're not there to play what you like. You're there to play what the listening audience wants to hear and what earns ratings and keeps the station on the air. Similar to being a newscaster where they'd prefer not to cover some stories, but it's the gig so they suck it up, put on a smile and do it.

As others have stated, now in the days of voice tracking, it's no longer necessary for the jocks to listen to the music, or if anything, they maybe hear just the intros/outros. Back in the day when everything was live, however, you'd just do the gig. I had a buddy who had the option of working for the Top40 I was at part-time, hoping something permanent would open up, or he could go across town to the AC station and get a full-time gig there right away. He hated it there..Not because of the station, but because he had to suffer through all the slow tempo "love ya to death" songs, to get to maybe one or two per hour with a decent guitar riff he could at least appreciate. That said, when you heard him on the air, you'd never know he'd rather be working elsewhere. He was a true pro. In his case, after months of paying his dues there, a spot opened up at a station that was more in-line with his musical tastes and he made the jump.
 
When I was a jock/MD/PD (1971-1980), even if a song wasn't something I'd personally like, I could usually hear why it was a hit (some records were beyond my understanding, but only a few).

So it wasn't so much hate as burnout that became the factor. Doing a four-hour shift in Top 40 meant you'd play your powers twice a day. There are songs from 1973-1975 that I burned on so throughly at the time that it's only been in the last couple of years that I've been able to listen to them all the way through again. And given that most of them were 3 and a half minutes or less, that's saying something.
 
There was one situation I know of where there was a DJ at KSUD 730 in Memphis where they changed from Southern Gospel to CCM, and he later went to WWGM 93.1 in Jackson, TN and in talking to him I found out to put it mildly that he liked SG better, but it might have gone into an anti-CCM bias.
 
The only people who hear songs more often than a DJ are the artists themselves. In the recording process, they might hear a song thousands of times before they're happy with it. If they can get through that, they might be able to sing it for the rest of their lives. I've asked a few artists if they get to a point where they get tired of their own songs. A lot of them told me they've forgotten the lyrics of their own songs. One told me she once dreaded the point in her show where her biggest hit would come up. "OK, here we go again." She said it was a real process for her to get to the point where she was comfortable singing it again. There are some who've dropped certain hits from their shows just because they're tired of singing them.

I thought the best answer came from James Taylor. He was asked (not by me) if he ever grew tired of singing his songs. He said he did, but then looked out at the crowd, and their faces gave him newfound energy to sing those songs again. I see the same thing with Mike Love of the Beach Boys. He's been singing the same songs for 60 years! Every time I see him, his eyes are focused on the audience. He's looking at each of them individually, waving to them, and smiling. That's what keeps him going.

Certainly there are songs we all play on the radio that are like wallpaper. We don't notice them at all. I thought about that when I voted in the CMA Awards this year, particularly in Song and Single categories. I thought about which songs moved me every time I heard them. Those were the songs I voted for. I guess other voters did the same thing, because my choices ended up winning.
 
TheBigA said:
The only people who hear songs more often than a DJ are the artists themselves. In the recording process, they might hear a song thousands of times before they're happy with it. If they can get through that, they might be able to sing it for the rest of their lives. I've asked a few artists if they get to a point where they get tired of their own songs. A lot of them told me they've forgotten the lyrics of their own songs. One told me she once dreaded the point in her show where her biggest hit would come up. "OK, here we go again." She said it was a real process for her to get to the point where she was comfortable singing it again. There are some who've dropped certain hits from their shows just because they're tired of singing them.

I thought the best answer came from James Taylor. He was asked (not by me) if he ever grew tired of singing his songs. He said he did, but then looked out at the crowd, and their faces gave him newfound energy to sing those songs again. I see the same thing with Mike Love of the Beach Boys. He's been singing the same songs for 60 years! Every time I see him, his eyes are focused on the audience. He's looking at each of them individually, waving to them, and smiling. That's what keeps him going.

Certainly there are songs we all play on the radio that are like wallpaper. We don't notice them at all. I thought about that when I voted in the CMA Awards this year, particularly in Song and Single categories. I thought about which songs moved me every time I heard them. Those were the songs I voted for. I guess other voters did the same thing, because my choices ended up winning.
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Some artists resisted recording what became their biggest hits. Junior Walker didn't like "What Does It Take" because it was a departure from songs like "I'm A Road Runner" or "Shotgun". George Jones so much hated "He Stopped Loving Her Today" he took forever to record the spoken word part. He said "ain't nobody going to buy this maudlin piece of s**t" or something like it. It became his biggest hit and he sang it for the rest of his life.
 
BigA, I think you nailed it with the James Taylor interview comment. In fact, when JT was in Nashville earlier this year, tables were slightly turned on me and he asked how many times I have played his music and how could I stand it. I may have heard his take on his music, but indeed I said “what i think is immaterial, what listeners think is everything.” I can’t even imagine the of spins of his music, by the way, over all the years, I always keep/kept pretty busy during the live shifts.

As for today’s air folks, since most of it is voice tracked, few hears the music.

By the way, another axiom to avoid boredom is not listen to your station (heard that from Broadway Bill Lee way back when) and the other was from Ronnie Lake: (Somewhat paraphrased/combined/condensed:) “when you get bored with your air shift it means you are doing things right, keeping it tight and not overdoing it, overthinking it or overwhelming the listeners.”
Pretty dang accurate in my book.
 
Tibbs4 said:
As for today’s air folks, since most of it is voice tracked, few hears the music.
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Maybe. Some VT programs play the start and end of each song so you can get the tempo. You don't want to yell coming out of a big ballad, or whisper coming out of a big rocker.
 
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