Here are a few thoughts that just came in as I was reading the thread. I will describe in very roughly chronological order what led me to where I am now, beginning with my earliest interest in radio. I cannot guarantee coherence because it's late and I'm tired after a long, hot day.
Which started when I was very young, like 9 or 10. My mother had some intercoms (the wireless kind, probably based on technology similar to FM wireless mics), and I would use them to "pretend" to have a radio station by "broadcasting" from one intercom to a couple of others. Mainly, I'd stick it up to my tape recorder's speaker or the TV, but once, and only once as far as I can remember, I actually pretended read an ad from a catalog (I can vividly remember it, too. It was an ad for PC RAM (SIMMs and DIMMs!) on one of the back pages of a PC Connection catalog, circa 1998 or so).
After that, I advanced my interest in recording things, eventually upgrading to a proper tape deck and various boomboxes. I recorded off the radio a lot during this time (especially KABL and KFRC, since those were my favorites, but also Young Country at 93.3 FM, because I had a passing interest in country music at the time, and Radio Disney KMCY 1310, because it was Disney, and I was naturally into Disney a lot back then). When my mother got a show at a local LPFM in 2008, I got very interested, as it was the closest I'd gotten to my dream of having a radio station (as I've matured, I've come to realize that owning even a modest, low power station in this day and age is a ridiculous waste of time and money, but young me didn't understand that).
Anyway, while my mother did all the talking, I did all the programming, creating playlists of songs to play during the breaks, and it turned out that my music was the highlight. People would tune in just to hear the music I'd programmed!
This went on for roughly two years, and then politics happened, and we had to leave. That experience left me so sour I avoided radio for 10 years..
But then, during the pandemic, I began to reminisce about the radio dial I grew up with, which get me interested in recreating it. I did stuff on the computer, but it wasn't enough, so further research led me to the discovery of Part 15 broadcasting and the rekindling of my dream. Fast forward a couple years and here I am, on the cusp of... something.
Anyway, something I've noticed throughout the years is that when I'm tasked with setting up a playlist of music to play, people almost always seems to like what I do, and it works. I've never really followed any procedures or anything "proper", I just arrange the songs in a way that feels right. Is that the instinct that
@K.M. Richards is referring to? Perhaps, but I don't know for sure, which is in part why I opened this thread.
My aim is to have a sort of soft AC sound, heavy on the gold (especially mid 60s through 70s), light on the currents (few to none from mid 90s to present). Rather similar to something like MeTV Music. Maybe someone can take a look at a sample of what I'm doing and tell me if I'm close, or totally off the mark. So, that said, would anyone here be adverse to this idea?
Anyway, I'll add more thoughts about how I feel about the business side tomorrow, but a thought or two about being on air to close out this post:
I don't really have any interest in going on air myself as a DJ or announcer (never say never, of course); I would rather tell a DJ or announcer what to play and/or say while
they are on air. Aside from all the other business stuff, this seems to be to be
essentially what a PD does in the most basic sense, correct?
EDIT: Huh, it looks like I already elaborated on some of this last
March. I only remembered because someone happened to "like" it. Reading back, I was definitely not in a positive mood re: radio that day.
Anyway, it only furthers what I've posted here, so consider this post an addendum to that one, but without the pessimism.
c
toytales.ca
