Happens in the bigs, too. KMPC was rarely better than sixth in the ratings after 1968, but they raked in the revenue.
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How often do djs hate what they play?
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
'When the bug light comes on, turn this knob and talk into the sponge.'
DJ's are only human, and everyone has favorite or least favorite songs; but if those records are in the rotation, they still have to be played.
I always wanted to be a DJ, and I liked to imagine that I could find many positive things to say about records in any format. This was back in the mid to late 70's. But, I thought that if I was working at an MOR station that played "Muskrat Love", "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro, "You Don't Send Me Flowers Anymore" by Streisand/ Diamond or even Sinatra's "My Way", that I would turn the studio monitor way, way down. Those songs really got on my nerves. 45 years later, they still do.
In the old days in L.A. radio, Al Lohman and Roger Barkeley worked together as a team for approximately 25 years. ( That's approximate). I thought they were very funny. But one day, the story goes, Barkeley just got up and walked out. According to the Fandom website, ONE of the reasons ( there were several) he told the L.A. Times newspaper was that he was just really tired of listening to the Eagles' "Hotel California" or Springsteen's "My Home Town". He just burned out and left. Link and quote below. - Daryl
Roger Barkley
I always wanted to be a DJ, and I liked to imagine that I could find many positive things to say about records in any format. This was back in the mid to late 70's. But, I thought that if I was working at an MOR station that played "Muskrat Love", "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro, "You Don't Send Me Flowers Anymore" by Streisand/ Diamond or even Sinatra's "My Way", that I would turn the studio monitor way, way down. Those songs really got on my nerves. 45 years later, they still do.
In the old days in L.A. radio, Al Lohman and Roger Barkeley worked together as a team for approximately 25 years. ( That's approximate). I thought they were very funny. But one day, the story goes, Barkeley just got up and walked out. According to the Fandom website, ONE of the reasons ( there were several) he told the L.A. Times newspaper was that he was just really tired of listening to the Eagles' "Hotel California" or Springsteen's "My Home Town". He just burned out and left. Link and quote below. - Daryl
Roger Barkley
Oops ! My message above won't allow me to go back in and edit this song title. However, the corrrect title is: "You Don't BRING Me Flowers Anymore" by Barbra Streisand/ Neil Diamond.
I wasnt referring to that. I was referring to the dj who brought up avril lavigne locally.
We could start an entire thread on this site, asking what folks used to call certain songs they didn't like. Either acronyms or alternative titles they made up....Or better yet, alternative lyrics they made up for some of the worst offenders.
"American Pie" was originally split up on two sides of the 45. Some stations only play the first half. It's also ended up on some '70s music compilation CDs that way.
But Don McLean also recorded a special shorter and more upbeat version of the song that was only sent to radio stations -- it was never commercially released. It was a completely different recording, not just an edit of the normal version:
The promo 45 is mono on both sides, so unless the original tape is still sitting in a vault somewhere, there is no stereo version of it.
It wouldn’t be one of these threads without an odd Ava Max mention.
Oh good Lord, please don't.
Your job is always to sell your product, I guess I don't understand how anyone would think that there would be a valid reason to put down the product, or that any professional would think their own personal opinion on music should be mentioned to an audience that clearly likes the songs that they are hearing or they wouldn't be listening.
Would you think it fine for a waiter to come up to your table and start to tell you why they personally hate everything that comes from the kitchen?
And any person with decency, two brain cells, and not a complete narcissist would take into account that they are hearing these songs everytime they are scheduled so naturally they are going to burn out on them faster than the average listener, that listener who 100% matters, and you hired as the promoter of the product, your opinion matters 0%.
Countless times I have pleaded with my program director to play a new song. Never once was it because I personally liked the song, it was always because I felt that it was an in format hit that our listeners would like. About 8 out of 10 times I would be proven correct even if it took a year or longer. The thing is many of those songs were ones where I would wait until I really was sure that they would work. Rarely does a hit jump out on first listen.
Would you think it fine for a waiter to come up to your table and start to tell you why they personally hate everything that comes from the kitchen?
And any person with decency, two brain cells, and not a complete narcissist would take into account that they are hearing these songs everytime they are scheduled so naturally they are going to burn out on them faster than the average listener, that listener who 100% matters, and you hired as the promoter of the product, your opinion matters 0%.
Countless times I have pleaded with my program director to play a new song. Never once was it because I personally liked the song, it was always because I felt that it was an in format hit that our listeners would like. About 8 out of 10 times I would be proven correct even if it took a year or longer. The thing is many of those songs were ones where I would wait until I really was sure that they would work. Rarely does a hit jump out on first listen.
I've been in radio 20 years, in country radio about 16-17 years. I hadnt even listened to country music for an hour in my entire life before i started in country radio
When i got my first country radio gig i was like "Dear god, i dont wanna keep getting country radio gigs, thats all ill get my entire career and thats not the format or genre i wanna do or like" but damnit, if the listeners were clueless about that when i got my first job. i made sure they had fun and enjoy themselves.
17 years later, guess what? As fate would have it, ive grown to genuinely LOVE country music, and its treated me wel land made me very successful in small market radio.
The week of April 9, 1969, KHJ added The Youngbloods' "Darkness, Darkness" as a Hitbound.
Robert W. Morgan hated it---grunting through the guitar riff at the ending and then he said:
"That was really horrible. I'm not gonna play that again. And I'm not gonna tell you what it was so you won't know what I'm not playing. It's 7:34 in Boss Angeles....."
"Darkness, Darkness" never made it from Hitbound to the Boss 30. It peaked at #124 in Billboard.
Robert W. Morgan hated it---grunting through the guitar riff at the ending and then he said:
"That was really horrible. I'm not gonna play that again. And I'm not gonna tell you what it was so you won't know what I'm not playing. It's 7:34 in Boss Angeles....."
"Darkness, Darkness" never made it from Hitbound to the Boss 30. It peaked at #124 in Billboard.
I agree with the comments. Not a hit. But on a side note, it was produced by a then-unknown Charlie Daniels. At the time, he was a session musician looking for a break. This wasn't it. It came a few years later when he started his own band.
So a couple months after this song flopped, someone at RCA decided to re-release a song from the band's debut album called "Get Together." That song was more successful, peaking at #5. Wonder what Morgan thought of that one.
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I never heard him say. He'd just come back from a failed 60-day salary walkout when it debuted, so he might have been behaving. "Get Together" went to number 3 on the Boss 30, so Morgan pretty much just had to roll with it.
A couple of things about rotations and songs that jocks hated. I worked at KDON-FM in Monterey from 1985-early 89. I survived through an ownership change, five program directors, two GMs, and at least two complete changes of airstaff. I was a kid jock and worked weekends and fill-ins and I guess I kept flying under the radars that be. The station was always CHR and always #1 in the market. When I got there in 85, the station was more of an AC/Hot AC during the workday but we played regular hits, classic rock, some new rock, a little disco now and then, and even The Beatles - the station was actually about 60-75% pure CHR at the time but had a wider variety of golds which went back about 15 years or more. Back then it was common to have maybe three or four songs repeat once during a four-hour shift. Over the years the golds tightened up and the rotations increased. By the time I left in 1989, we had a consultant who flipped the station to Rhythmic CHR (it still is today and owned by iHeart) and at least 7 songs had about a 70-minute rotation with the rest of the top-charting playlist running about 1 hour 50 minutes or 2 hours 10 minutes and about three or four golds/recurrents an hour. The golds went back about two years by then. Many of the songs sounded similar and of course had very high rotations. I think I was done when I played Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson within 15 minutes of each other and panicked because I thought I had played the same song twice within 15 minutes. I ended up going to the AC station in town (#6 at the time) and did a few months there before coming to San Diego for school.
Now, there were a lot of songs I didn't care for, or even hated during that time, and then later something changed in me and the song became an all-time favorite. Maybe it was a scene in a movie or TV show that was "just right." Maybe it was hearing a different remix of the song. Maybe situations changed in my life and the fact that I wasn't hearing the song eight times a day made it that much better. Don't get me wrong, there are some songs that I couldn't stand then, and won't stand today, but I had a new appreciation for "Foolish Heart," "Silent Running," "In The Air Tonight," and a few others.
Now, there were a lot of songs I didn't care for, or even hated during that time, and then later something changed in me and the song became an all-time favorite. Maybe it was a scene in a movie or TV show that was "just right." Maybe it was hearing a different remix of the song. Maybe situations changed in my life and the fact that I wasn't hearing the song eight times a day made it that much better. Don't get me wrong, there are some songs that I couldn't stand then, and won't stand today, but I had a new appreciation for "Foolish Heart," "Silent Running," "In The Air Tonight," and a few others.
I mean, that's kinda like giving your order to the waiter and having him laugh and say "Really? That? You want to eat THAT? Hey, it's your stomach..."
(Which makes me nostalgic for the old Ed Debevic's chain from the 80s---they had a sign on the dumpster reading "The food's better inside.")
Back in the old days, like the 80's and 90's, how did DJ's keep track of the last time that a song was played? For example, if the DJ on the shift before your shift had played a song in the last hour, how would you know, unless you happened to be listening? I always wondered if there were some way to make a note of the time of day when the song was played. For example, if you played a Janet Jackson song on your shift, then how would the DJ whose show started immediately after your show be aware of when you played that song?
In the 80's or 90's, if you are playing songs digitally with a computer program, then was there a way to note on the computer the last time that the song was played? Thank you, from Daryl
Noting the time wasn't needed. Stations I worked for had a rule of playing top of the stack no matter what. You follow the clock/wheel and the same song pops up every 70 minutes give or take a couple of minutes and the other rotations as well. If you had the budget, you have every song for every hour planned out so the jock pays the songs in order per the music log.
Totally disagree with his assessment. It's a great song.
Beach Boys "God Only Knows" is considered by many to be one of the greatest tracks ever. It only peaked at #39 on the singles chart. Meanwhile, garbage like "Judy In Disguise" became a #1 hit. There's no accounting for taste...
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