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How often do djs hate what they play?

Many stations with hot clocks use a formula. 25% were recurrents that played on the quarter hours followed by 25% middle rotation hits playing right afterwards. 25% was the hottest hits playing just before the recurrent but it was all spelled out on the hot clock.
 
michael hagerty said:
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".
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I listen to a station that plays the short version of "Hey Jude". You know what's missing, of course.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I listen to a station that plays the short version of "Hey Jude". You know what's missing, of course.
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Sure. And knowing the type of stations you prefer, it makes sense for them to skip three and a half minutes of repetition and occasional screaming.

But the smart move for anyone else would to start there and play the last three and a half minutes---it's all the audience wants to sing along with anyhow.
 
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fordranger797 said:
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.
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Thanks for the reply ! I hear you ! A few ballads are okay, but I don't like sleepy or sappy songs either. There were some songs of the 70's and 80's which really fell into those categories.
 
michael hagerty said:
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:

View attachment 3920


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.

View attachment 3921

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.
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YES. :) :) :) That's EXACTLY how it was done. Thank you, Michael. There's a photo somewhere on the internet of that hot clock in the KRLA studio in Pasadena. I'm going to try to find it. It's amazing how much work had to be done in the days before software and digital electronics. -- Daryl
 
Kemosabe said:
To say nothing of Ingram's intro to The Four Seasons' "Shave It for Me." Speaking of Big Dan, if he didn't like something he played, he would call it a "great record."
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We should point out that the record is "Save It For Me", but Dan would open the microphone and go "sh" right at the beginning of the word "save" every time it came up. I think he did it when he did his guest appearance on KRTH after Robert W. Morgan died. There's tape.
 
Watching mc music only their 70’s channel. Totally right on the mark. Just perfect programming. I could listen to this all day long. My only critique would be too much John Denver, lol.
 
But seriously programming top 40 in the 90’s was the Wild West. Consultants were less influencers in this decade, especially among smaller market stations. But guess what a lot of Pd’s knew how to gain ratings. We did it on an Eastern Washington top 40 in the early to mid-90’s, ignoring those posing as consultants.
 
gr8oldies said:
There really is no short version, it's just cut off early without 4 minutes of "Na na na na na na". I remember that song being a current, and in drive time after the second "Na na na nan na na" started, it was off to the next element.
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Well, whoever played it cut it off before it got to that part.

There's also a short version of "Magic Carpet Ride" but the long part is in the middle so it has to be a separate recording.
 
vchimpanzee said:
There's also a short version of "Magic Carpet Ride" but the long part is in the middle so it has to be a separate recording.
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The master tape of the 45 version of "Magic Carpet Ride" was destroyed long ago, and was only in mono. So these days, if you hear a short verson of it in stereo, it's an attempt to recreate the 45 version by editing the album version, not the true original 45 version, as discussed here:

Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride

I mentioned this a while back, but the Varese compilation On The Radio has the song "Magic Carpet...
www.top40musiconcd.com www.top40musiconcd.com
 
kevtronics said:
The master tape of the 45 version of "Magic Carpet Ride" was destroyed long ago, and was only in mono. So these days, if you hear a short verson of it in stereo, it's an attempt to recreate the 45 version by editing the album version, not the true original 45 version, as discussed here:

Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride

I mentioned this a while back, but the Varese compilation On The Radio has the song "Magic Carpet...
www.top40musiconcd.com www.top40musiconcd.com
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It's Good Time Oldies and I don't hear it in stereo in the car. Even bad Christmas music doesn't sound bad on an AM.
 
kevtronics said:
The master tape of the 45 version of "Magic Carpet Ride" was destroyed long ago, and was only in mono. So these days, if you hear a short verson of it in stereo, it's an attempt to recreate the 45 version by editing the album version, not the true original 45 version, as discussed here:

Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride

I mentioned this a while back, but the Varese compilation On The Radio has the song "Magic Carpet...
www.top40musiconcd.com www.top40musiconcd.com
Click to expand...
"Magic Carpet Ride" certainly doesn't sound the same without the long instrumental part. It's like "Hey Jude" without the long period of singing the na's. Or "Don't You (Forget About Me)" without the la's. I know of one church that sang the Simple Minds song without the la's during a worship service.
 
Marcos_C said:
"Magic Carpet Ride" certainly doesn't sound the same without the long instrumental part. It's like "Hey Jude" without the long period of singing the na's. Or "Don't You (Forget About Me)" without the la's. I know of one church that sang the Simple Minds song without the la's during a worship service.
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Okay, Marcos---I had to go look up the lyrics. They sang THIS during a worship service?

Won't you come see about me?
I'll be alone, dancing, you know it, baby

Tell me your troubles and doubts
Giving everything inside and out and

Love's strange, so real in the dark
Think of the tender things that we were working on

Slow change may pull us apart
When the light gets into your heart, baby

Don't you, forget about me
Don't, don't, don't, don't
Don't you, forget about me
Will you stand above me?
Look my way, never love me
Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling
Down, down, down

Will you recognize me?
Call my name or walk on by
Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling
Down, down, down, down

Hey, hey, hey, hey
Ooh, woah

Don't you try and pretend
It's my feeling we'll win in the end
I won't harm you or touch your defenses
Vanity and security, ah

Don't you forget about me
I'll be alone, dancing, you know it, baby
Going to take you apart
I'll put us back together at heart, baby

Don't you, forget about me
Don't, don't, don't, don't
Don't you, forget about me

As you walk on by
Will you call my name?

As you walk on by
Will you call my name?

When you walk away
Or will you walk away?

Will you walk on by?

Come on, call my name
Will you call my name?
 
michael hagerty said:
Okay, Marcos---I had to go look up the lyrics. They sang THIS during a worship service?

Won't you come see about me?
I'll be alone, dancing, you know it, baby

Tell me your troubles and doubts
Giving everything inside and out and

Love's strange, so real in the dark
Think of the tender things that we were working on

Slow change may pull us apart
When the light gets into your heart, baby

Don't you, forget about me
Don't, don't, don't, don't
Don't you, forget about me
Will you stand above me?
Look my way, never love me
Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling
Down, down, down

Will you recognize me?
Call my name or walk on by
Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling
Down, down, down, down

Hey, hey, hey, hey
Ooh, woah

Don't you try and pretend
It's my feeling we'll win in the end
I won't harm you or touch your defenses
Vanity and security, ah

Don't you forget about me
I'll be alone, dancing, you know it, baby
Going to take you apart
I'll put us back together at heart, baby

Don't you, forget about me
Don't, don't, don't, don't
Don't you, forget about me

Don't you, forget about me
Don't, don't, don't, don't
Don't you, forget about me
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Yes, but they changed the ending a bit, as you will see in the quote, highlighted in bold. This was at a progressive church.
 
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