Playlist pattern I noticed on current based stations.

[tall_guy1]

It seems like at the "bottom" of the hour 50-:00) after maybe one or two currents is where there tends to be a collection of recurrents/golds (sometimes that's where occasionally youll hear an "oh wow" but not likely) followed by the "top" of the hour 00-:10) with the "freshest" currents. Does anyone else notice this?

 

[kevtronics]

Is that right after the interminably long stopset that everyone tunes away from? Then they figure you probably won't be back in time to hear the first song or two coming out of the stopset.

 

[K.M. Richards]

You have hit on a common programming philosophy there, and it is driven by the realities of timing.

At the end of the hour (which is what we more commonly refer to that time span as; to us, "bottom of the hour" is :25-:35), we might get one song, two songs, or three songs in between the last commercial stopset and the top of the hour (that term, you got spot on!).

We can always take for granted that the first song is going to play, absent any unforeseen glitches in the playback automation. At night, we will often presume the second one always will. The rest are going to be dropped by the automation when it hits the TOH real-time reset, and we don't want those to be critical to the overall format integrity, so those will be programmed just as you noticed ... recurrents and neutral-testing gold titles.

Good observation!

 

[Don CT]

And say the call letters as much as possible.

 

[K.M. Richards]

And say the call letters as much as possible.

Or the station's main branding (including jingles, sweepers, and the like).

But @tall_guy1 was specifically referring to music scheduling and I think he saw the basic concept quite well.

 

[Don CT]

Or the station's main branding (including jingles, sweepers, and the like).

But @tall_guy1 was specifically referring to music scheduling and I think he saw the basic concept quite well.

Ya, hit the quarters of the clock.