Lots of what we know is simply what we have observed and the result of what we observed. There often is no reference point and frequently no universal or long-term observation. With that said, I want to bring up music library size but not from the larger side but the smaller side.
I have three observations. All are in small markets. One was an older fellow that hosted a daily program of 3 hours aimed at older demographics. He had once leased an FM in Los Angeles in the 1950s and utilized the same philosophy as he had back then.
His format was best described as a mostly standards mix ranging from hand selected big band through pop hits (ironically Hey Jude by The Beatles). The music was all well known and performed by the musicians that had the ‘hit’ version. We can call this an easy listening format.
His music library was tiny, 204 minutes in all, with each hour reflecting about 52 minutes of music. Thus, a daily 3 hour show was 156 of this 204 minute library.
The program aired 9 to Noon weekdays and was always sold out at a price over and above other dayparts. In this heavily populated retirement aged area, there was never a complaint about hearing almost every song he played each and every day.
I grilled him on his criteria for selection. He said he looks at the uniqueness of the music, it’s evergreen popularity and as he put it, ‘burn-free’. He said people love these songs and never tire of hearing them. He sure seemed to be right.
The second was a local small town station. This would have been in the early to middle 1980s. This station, per the DJ on duty, complained he played the same songs every day, or almost every day during his 6 hour shift. It seems the station had somewhere near 7 hours of music. From seeing their program log, the station played about 48 minutes of music hourly. The station seemed to do pretty well with about a dozen spots an hour.
The songs were all big hits from the past few years (at least 1975 forward but most in the past 5 years). These were all mega hits and almost all are still staples on classic rock and classic hits formats. The emphasis was on artists that would appeal to the rock, top 40 and adult contemporary audiences although not every song was that universal. Example might be Don’t Stop by Fleetwood Mac, Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet and Down Under by Men At Work.
There were no slow songs like most AC stations and there was no straight out rock. It was simply an adult mix. They had about 2 or 3 current hits but there was no specific rotation on these.
The station manager said the station was owned by a fellow that had 5 other stations and that this was sort of the black sheep of the bunch. He said the station at least broke even or turned a bit of cash.
The station manager, also the sole salesperson, said he never got complaints about playing the same songs over and over. The local folks seemed to be quite happy with their station.
Bob Rule at KPIN in Pinedale, Wyoming used an old computer with not much storage. He said liners, commercials and music library could not exceed 12 hours. He said he had 50 songs in rotation in one instance but I also noted 100 songs. By Bob’s formula, the station was to be 50% country, 50% pop/rock. So, Running On Empty by Jackson Brown would be played about every 9 or 10 hours.
This is a tough one to determine. He had people complain about the limited music library. It seems there was no complaint about the songs played but how frequently they were played. I call this one tough because the prior two stations gave lots of thought about the library trying to find the greatest consensus while with KPIN, it seemed more of what they had on hand versus what research went in to the library. It was obvious it was not to be too rock or too soft.
With all of this said, I’d love to hear comments on what is too small for a music library and whether a library this size should be rotated out with fresh selections, say, paying attention to the time of year the song peaked on the charts (ie: a mega hit from Spring gets played in spring but not so much, and maybe not at all in the other seasons).
I have three observations. All are in small markets. One was an older fellow that hosted a daily program of 3 hours aimed at older demographics. He had once leased an FM in Los Angeles in the 1950s and utilized the same philosophy as he had back then.
His format was best described as a mostly standards mix ranging from hand selected big band through pop hits (ironically Hey Jude by The Beatles). The music was all well known and performed by the musicians that had the ‘hit’ version. We can call this an easy listening format.
His music library was tiny, 204 minutes in all, with each hour reflecting about 52 minutes of music. Thus, a daily 3 hour show was 156 of this 204 minute library.
The program aired 9 to Noon weekdays and was always sold out at a price over and above other dayparts. In this heavily populated retirement aged area, there was never a complaint about hearing almost every song he played each and every day.
I grilled him on his criteria for selection. He said he looks at the uniqueness of the music, it’s evergreen popularity and as he put it, ‘burn-free’. He said people love these songs and never tire of hearing them. He sure seemed to be right.
The second was a local small town station. This would have been in the early to middle 1980s. This station, per the DJ on duty, complained he played the same songs every day, or almost every day during his 6 hour shift. It seems the station had somewhere near 7 hours of music. From seeing their program log, the station played about 48 minutes of music hourly. The station seemed to do pretty well with about a dozen spots an hour.
The songs were all big hits from the past few years (at least 1975 forward but most in the past 5 years). These were all mega hits and almost all are still staples on classic rock and classic hits formats. The emphasis was on artists that would appeal to the rock, top 40 and adult contemporary audiences although not every song was that universal. Example might be Don’t Stop by Fleetwood Mac, Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet and Down Under by Men At Work.
There were no slow songs like most AC stations and there was no straight out rock. It was simply an adult mix. They had about 2 or 3 current hits but there was no specific rotation on these.
The station manager said the station was owned by a fellow that had 5 other stations and that this was sort of the black sheep of the bunch. He said the station at least broke even or turned a bit of cash.
The station manager, also the sole salesperson, said he never got complaints about playing the same songs over and over. The local folks seemed to be quite happy with their station.
Bob Rule at KPIN in Pinedale, Wyoming used an old computer with not much storage. He said liners, commercials and music library could not exceed 12 hours. He said he had 50 songs in rotation in one instance but I also noted 100 songs. By Bob’s formula, the station was to be 50% country, 50% pop/rock. So, Running On Empty by Jackson Brown would be played about every 9 or 10 hours.
This is a tough one to determine. He had people complain about the limited music library. It seems there was no complaint about the songs played but how frequently they were played. I call this one tough because the prior two stations gave lots of thought about the library trying to find the greatest consensus while with KPIN, it seemed more of what they had on hand versus what research went in to the library. It was obvious it was not to be too rock or too soft.
With all of this said, I’d love to hear comments on what is too small for a music library and whether a library this size should be rotated out with fresh selections, say, paying attention to the time of year the song peaked on the charts (ie: a mega hit from Spring gets played in spring but not so much, and maybe not at all in the other seasons).
