How often do djs hate what they play?

[DOB]

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.

I don't like Country music personally, outside of some classic Country from before the 80s.
With that said, whenever I visit a small market or drive through it, there are certain well programmed Country radio stations that really capture the feel of their market and there's something really special about listening to them in getting to be a part of that community for a while. It's a magic radio does with locality that goes well beyond watching the local news when it's done right.
The same is true with the well done local sports station of a specific town.
Once local radio is a thing of the past then everywhere becomes anywhere and that's a sad thing to imagine.

 

[michael hagerty]

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

I know b-turner answered, but you might need some background for that answer. This is a very basic explanation.

In another thread, I posted a "hot clock". It's designed by the Program Director to dictate when which types of records get played.

The chart is split into categories. Again, really simply, let's say you have a top 30 plus three hitbounds. And let's say that you've determined that there are seven really big records out of those 33. The rest are either not at their peak yet, or are past their peak and on their way down the chart.

So you create three categories---one for the hottest, another for the up-and-comers, and another for those heading down. You can call them category A, category B and category C respectively (some stations used colors---like red, yellow and blue).

Let's say the station was still playing 45s. You get a box, a three-hole cubby, and put it with the openings facing up. You put the seven A records in the front hole, the B records in the middle hole and the C records in the last hole.

The simplest way to do the rotation is to tell the DJ to play whatever record is in the front of the stack when that category comes up and to put it in the back of that stack after they play it. If you're playing three As an hour, and you have seven As, and the jocks obey the system, It will be more than two hours before the same record comes up again in that category.

The other categories operate from the same principle, but with different math.

Jocks will occasionally skip the front record for a good reason (incompatible with the song before it, same artist played a couple of songs ago, perhaps as an oldie, etc.) and occasionally for a bad reason (they don't like it and want to push it off to the next jock).

Oldies were a bit more complicated. Some stations had a signout sheet for the jock to note when an oldie was played and a policy of how many days needed to pass between plays and between plays in the same timeslot. Others had the oldies put in a bin after being played and the Music Director kept them out of the library for x number of days. And some stations pre-programmed the oldies...they were put on the music log in advance by the PD or MD and the jock filled in the current songs as they were played.

Again, this is the most basic setup possible---many stations had a greater number of categories and rotations and it got very complex. By the computer era, it wasn't so much about tracking what the jock played as dictating what the jock played.

 

[seatownmedia]

In the late 70’s, even before, computer playlists became the norm. I worked at KING AM Seattle during this period. Every song was scheduled.

 

[michael hagerty]

In the late 70’s, even before, computer playlists became the norm. I worked at KING AM Seattle during this period. Every song was scheduled.

Varied widely by station. There certainly were stations scheduling all their music by ‘78, but it was by no means universal.

Doing it by computer? Well, Selector was the first, and it didn’t come to market until ‘79.

 

[michael hagerty]

Actually, make that mid-1980—and the cost kept widespread adoption from happening too quickly:

https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-RandR-IDX/IDX/80s/80/RR-1980-06-13-OCR-Page-0012.pdf#search=%22selector%22

 

[michael hagerty]

…and it was six years before they could claim 300 clients:

https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-RandR-IDX/IDX/80s/86/RR-1986-09-05-OCR-Page-0038.pdf#search=%22selector%22

 

[DavidEduardo]

Varied widely by station. There certainly were stations scheduling all their music by ‘78, but it was by no means universal.

Doing it by computer? Well, Selector was the first, and it didn’t come to market until ‘79.

There were a couple of pre-Selector schedulers that used database software like dBase to schedule. I had one in Puerto Rico around 1978, and they were about a year old then, using early System 100 bus hardware.

 

[fordranger797]

I liked very little of what I played.

 

[Daryl Lynn L.A.]

I liked very little of what I played.

What music format were you playing? Was it one specific genre, or was it a format like Adult Contemporary where you play a lot of music that crossed-over into other genres - like country-rock, or electronic dance music, or Light R&B/ Smooth Jazz? Some genres have more unlikeable melodies and lyrics than others.

Or, some songs can be really obnoxious, but they get stuck in your head, like an ear worm. Did you ever see that tv commercial 1-877-KARS FOR KIDS? The one with the cute kids in the rock band? I'm very much in favor of donating to children's charities, but I had to start muting that commercial, because I couldn't get the melody out of my head. Another one is Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk". Or Maroon 5's "Sugar" or Janet Jackson "What Have You Done For Me Lately" Those melodies are so catchy, but they can really be an ear worm.

Maybe I'll start a new thread of songs played on the radio that can turn into "ear worms". Even if the Program Director doesn't want to listen to every hour of every DJ show, a song can still get stuck in his head. That's an occupational hazard.😃 🎶

 

[b-turner]

I appreciate D O J's comments about the locality of a station. In my travels, I always felt if the radio station made me feel like a local, they were doing it right. Several small town stations seemed 'too good' and 'too professional' for an only station in a town with a county of a mere 5,000. This was KNDK in Langdon, ND. About 2006 it was full service, maybe 4 songs an hour, news every 30 minutes and talking about things happening. It was Elvis Presley's birthday, a Senator was to be in town for a Q&A and talked to the guy and a tiny community's festival organizer explained their annual festival would happen even though a tornado hit the town and tore up quite a bit of it For Elvis, they called Graceland and talked to a worker there who finally admitted they were not born before Elvis died. Tons of local commercials (maybe 20 units). Other stations along my Midwest route shined just as brightly. It seems people expect a lot from their local station in quite a few of these mainly farming areas. Coolest of all these were young jocks just spreading their wings and rising to the occasion.

Another North Dakota station, an AM, in a town of barely 1,000, had a former KFYR jock manning afternoons. This was after KFYR had sold and went talk. He did silly things that kept you on the station. He asked a person at the station what was in the prize box after offering to give the contents to the first person to drive over to the Main Street studios. This person was placed outside with a microphone to give a play by play of traffic. By the time the commercial break ended, a guy in a pickup was grabbing his pen and crayon as the big winner that day.

 

[Daryl Lynn L.A.]

I know b-turner answered, but you might need some background for that answer. This is a very basic explanation.

In another thread, I posted a "hot clock". It's designed by the Program Director to dictate when which types of records get played.

The chart is split into categories. Again, really simply, let's say you have a top 30 plus three hitbounds. And let's say that you've determined that there are seven really big records out of those 33. The rest are either not at their peak yet, or are past their peak and on their way down the chart.

So you create three categories---one for the hottest, another for the up-and-comers, and another for those heading down. You can call them category A, category B and category C respectively (some stations used colors---like red, yellow and blue).

Let's say the station was still playing 45s. You get a box, a three-hole cubby, and put it with the openings facing up. You put the seven A records in the front hole, the B records in the middle hole and the C records in the last hole.

The simplest way to do the rotation is to tell the DJ to play whatever record is in the front of the stack when that category comes up and to put it in the back of that stack after they play it. If you're playing three As an hour, and you have seven As, and the jocks obey the system, It will be more than two hours before the same record comes up again in that category.

The other categories operate from the same principle, but with different math.

Jocks will occasionally skip the front record for a good reason (incompatible with the song before it, same artist played a couple of songs ago, perhaps as an oldie, etc.) and occasionally for a bad reason (they don't like it and want to push it off to the next jock).

Oldies were a bit more complicated. Some stations had a signout sheet for the jock to note when an oldie was played and a policy of how many days needed to pass between plays and between plays in the same timeslot. Others had the oldies put in a bin after being played and the Music Director kept them out of the library for x number of days. And some stations pre-programmed the oldies...they were put on the music log in advance by the PD or MD and the jock filled in the current songs as they were played.

Again, this is the most basic setup possible---many stations had a greater number of categories and rotations and it got very complex. By the computer era, it wasn't so much about tracking what the jock played as dictating what the jock played.

Thanks so much Michael ! And, I do remember that you sent the image of the hot clock ! If I didn't remember to specify the hot clock when I thanked you last time, then thank you ! At KRLA, program director Jim Washburne installed a hot clock, divided into multi-colored wedges like pieces of pie. But I never knew what it signified. I appreciate learning about how the records were chosen to be categorized into their respective boxes. It depends upon how they are charting for that week. As a teen, I always thought that the Top 40 DJ's tried to play different types of songs, depending on the artist. For example they would not play 2 slow ballads back to back, or they would not play 2 Beatles songs back to back, but they tried to mix it up. I always appreciate your explanations ! Thanks again, from Daryl

 

[Daryl Lynn L.A.]

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.

Thank you, B-Turner. I was thinking that DJ's had more leeway than that, because Top 40 DJ's in L.A. were influential in promoting different songs. By their comments, they could affect which songs had high numbers of sales and high rankings on the charts. -- Daryl

 

[michael hagerty]

At KRLA, program director Jim Washburne installed a hot clock, divided into multi-colored wedges like pieces of pie. But I never knew what it signified. I appreciate learning about how the records were chosen to be categorized into their respective boxes. It depends upon how they are charting for that week. As a teen, I always thought that the Top 40 DJ's tried to play different types of songs, depending on the artist. For example they would not play 2 slow ballads back to back, or they would not play 2 Beatles songs back to back, but they tried to mix it up.

Well, again, what I posted was the most basic approach possible.

Another way, and one that would solve Washburne's tempo issues, is to color-code, which it sounds like he did. So let's say then that your seven hottest records are red, your uptempo songs are green and your slow songs are yellow. Then you can control the tempo of individual dayparts by producing different clocks with a greater or lesser portion of greens and yellows.

If you wanted to control tempo and still factor in chart movement, you could add more colors. Green becomes uptempo and climbing the chart, blue becomes uptempo and past its peak, yellow is slow and climbing and orange is slow and past its peak.

And you could categorize oldies the same way---let's say purple, black, white, brown and pink---with one color designating your "power" oldies (the ones that never seem to burn out---like "Satisfaction"), and the rest whatever you want to categorize by---age, tempo, popularity.

When I was programming, I went with color-coding. It's easy to change when the category of a record changes. And all you need is a really cheap box of round dot labels:




Those made it really easy to change the category of a record during its chart life because (for the most part) they're removable and don't tear the record label underneath.



So, on new chart day, the MD would just go into the studio, take the records whose categories had changed, peel off one sticker and replace it with the new category color (we also used the space on the sticker to indicate the intro time and whether it had a cold or fade ending---just write ":16/F (or C)" in sharpie on the label before putting it on the record) and put it into the bin matching its new color for that week.

Again, this is literally the most basic approach you could take---and as computer music selection became more popular in the 80s, it vanished. Computer systems allowed for much better tempo control, artist separation, library management and a kajillion other factors.

 

[seatownmedia]

I used that colored dot system in the early 90’s! Of course on a small market station. We eventually moved to Selector. As I mentioned when I worked at KING AM as a teen in 1979 they had some sort of computer scheduling, but don’t remember what it was called.

 

[kevtronics]

Actually, make that mid-1980—and the cost kept widespread adoption from happening too quickly:

https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-RandR-IDX/IDX/80s/80/RR-1980-06-13-OCR-Page-0012.pdf#search=%22selector%22

I wonder which minicomputer it ran on... DEC PDP? The ad shows what looks like a DEC VT100 terminal.

Selector then switched to PCs running MS-DOS, and hung on to it for a long time -- as of version 12 in 1999, Selector was still DOS-based!

 

[b-turner]

I used a 45 rpm or single record for the perfect circle hot clock.

A hot clock was an hourly schedule. Most were showing commercial breaks and fixed position items like a liner for quarter hour sweeps and so forth. Your jock had to think. If you played a longer than normal song, yu might have to drop a song. To explain, commercial breaks, like news and such, are at certain times, so if you are at the designated time without playing, let's say, that "blue" before the break, you drop it and pick up with the song after the break,

 

[michael hagerty]

I wonder which minicomputer it ran on... DEC PDP? The ad shows what looks like a DEC VT100 terminal.

Selector then switched to PCs running MS-DOS, and hung on to it for a long time -- as of version 12 in 1999, Selector was still DOS-based!

I don't know. I remember taking that piece to the boss at KOLO in Reno and pitching it---found out that their idea of low-cost and his were pretty far apart.

 

[michael hagerty]

I used a 45 rpm or single record for the perfect circle hot clock.

A hot clock was an hourly schedule. Most were showing commercial breaks and fixed position items like a liner for quarter hour sweeps and so forth. Your jock had to think. If you played a longer than normal song, yu might have to drop a song. To explain, commercial breaks, like news and such, are at certain times, so if you are at the designated time without playing, let's say, that "blue" before the break, you drop it and pick up with the song after the break,

Exactly. And for a "Hey Jude" or "Stairway to Heaven", it might mean playing one record where the clock calls for two. Usually the PD would set some priorities as to how to handle that---if it's a gold and a power back to back and the gold is the 7-minute record, it gets skipped---but if it's a gold and a lower category current---play "Hey Jude".

 

[DavidEduardo]

I wonder which minicomputer it ran on... DEC PDP? The ad shows what looks like a DEC VT100 terminal.

I recall earliest ones that were not Selector ran on S-100 bus devices, like the Vector, Cromeco or Northstar ones. I followed those closely as the S-100 bus was basically an expanded version of the Altair bus and I had, for the heck of it, bought one of those when I saw it in Popular Electronics. (I continued using my "donated" IBM System 33, though)

Selector then switched to PCs running MS-DOS, and hung on to it for a long time -- as of version 12 in 1999, Selector was still DOS-based!

Same for rival MusicMaster. They were DOS systems well beyond when most business software had gone to Windows. I always wondered about that, since even before 1990 I was using system calls out of Windows to access processes that, then, could not be done inside Windows easily (or if it could, it was too dang slow)

 

[fordranger797]

What music format were you playing? Was it one specific genre, or was it a format like Adult Contemporary where you play a lot of music that crossed-over into other genres - like country-rock, or electronic dance music, or Light R&B/ Smooth Jazz? Some genres have more unlikeable melodies and lyrics than others.

Or, some songs can be really obnoxious, but they get stuck in your head, like an ear worm. Did you ever see that TV commercial 1-877-KARS FOR KIDS? The one with the cute kids in the rock band? I'm very much in favor of donating to children's charities, but I had to start muting that commercial, because I couldn't get the melody out of my head. Another one is Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk". Or Maroon 5's "Sugar" or Janet Jackson "What Have You Done For Me Lately" Those melodies are so catchy, but they can really be an ear worm.

Maybe I'll start a new thread of songs played on the radio that can turn into "ear worms". Even if the Program Director doesn't want to listen to every hour of every DJ show, a song can still get stuck in his head. That's an occupational hazard.😃 🎶

I previously worked for an adult contemporary radio station in a relatively smaller market. I liked all of the older songs that I had the opportunity to play (spanning the 1980’s), though I’m not always the biggest fan of newer music. With that being said, up-tempo new songs were never a problem. Rather, it was the slower songs, which were a few years old, that I didn’t care for. Artists like Josh Groban, James Blunt, and others come to mind. You’ve inspired me to try to think of a list of all of the songs that were too slow, too sleepy, or too sappy.