They've played mine before.
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I wonder what program directors would want to play?
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
There's certain types of stations that lend themselves to a wider playlist. Adult hits, AAA (even commercial stations), and sometimes soft ac. Bob fm in Pittsburgh has a pretty wide range as does kckc in Kansas City (kind of an ac/adult hits cross.)
Every format has a finite library size. During 25 years of researching a Spanish AC in LA, the library seldom was greater than about 260 and never less than about 220. Yet a classic rock station I did in another market always had around 600 songs that passed. And a Spanish CHR in the Caribbean had no more than 80 to 110 songs over a two decade period I was involved.
You will find that each kind of format, even across national borders and languages, will have very similar library sizes. And each kind of format will have a different average library size when compared to other formats.
Kckc is technically an ac station, but has the library of something like either an adult hits or soft ac station.
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Saturday night is a good time for hauling out those "deeper" cuts, as listeners are few (but enthusiastic) and advertisers aren't figuring weekend nights into their plans. Weekday drive times are their happy hunting grounds, with middays also important.
This is true. Not because the Pd didn’t care but knowledge that ratings were not so important during these day parts. As I said, I screwed around the format at a Seattle top40 in the 80’s. Never was blatant but would play requests that fit the format. I think secretly the Pd was ok with this after 7pm. Or maybe he was just not listening!
Yeah, that's just overkill. There are plenty of radio stations around the United States that have those wider playlists. Most of them are in the smaller markets or in areas where retirees live (Florida, for example) and all songs are game. I hear so many nice 1976-1982 tunes around here, its a refreshing change to the "Jessie's Girl" example you mentioned. That song is 41 years old, it's not a current and by no means should it be played four times a day. Maybe twice, if it's really that popular, once in morning drive, another in evening daypart.
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Let me ask a question. Do P-1 listeners still command radio ratings? I think their importance has diminished due to how radio listenership is measured today. But I retired several years ago and don’t know what is going on today.
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And those stations, when facing competition with a tight, researched list, fail miserably.
And...why would you not want to play a song your listeners all love as often as possible?
P1 just means people who listen to one station more than any other. It always applies, and P 1's represent about 50% of a station listeners and about 90%of all listening time.
Because classic hits stations are not CHR stations. Yeah, you can play the loved hits, but not in the league of a radio station playing currents. If you're playing "Jessie's Girl" 4x a day, that means other loved songs are being played as frequent, which makes the station sound like its currents and fewer classic hits overall get played. That's where the concerns of repetition and stagnation come in by some listeners. They love "Jessie's Girl" but I don't think I'd want to be oversaturated with it over the long run. Personally I'd rather hear "Don't Talk to Strangers".
But yes, you've told me several times why certain songs get played as much as they do.
Why am I thinking P-1 could stand for Preset 1?
No, it means "Preference Level". A P1 listener to a station listens to them more than any other. A P2 gets the next largest number of quarter hours... and so on as deep as it goes. The average PPM panelist hears 6 different stations a week.
The average listener to a station gives it about 3 to 4 hours a week. The P1 listeners give it 6 to 7 on average. Even a heavy P1 only does an two or three hours a day. So if you play a song 20 times a week, that average P1 will hear it about every two weeks.
Rotations are determined in part by library size and in part by which need more weekly play than others. If you play 12 songs an hour that is a bit over 2000 plays a week. If the library is 500 songs, you will play the average song 4 times. But really you will want to play the "loved by all" songs several times a day, and the weaker ones once or twice a week.
And listeners who tune in perhaps an hour a day want to hear big favorites each time, not secondary songs. So the limiting factor is how many songs even test well enough to play.
What was the common research method before the 70s?
The Postal Service? Or did they attempt to read people's minds with a device? 🤣
Some stations just left it to the instincts of their music directors. WDRC Hartford had a highly respected one in Bertha Porter.
WDRCOBG.COM: Bertha (1/17/26)
Bertha Porter, music director at WDRC Hartford compiled by Ed Brouder
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