This might be kind of a weird question, but I've noticed on Cumulus stations you never really hear songs being crossfaded or have a gapless, no dead air transition between them. You only would hear a sweeper or a DJ talking. While at cox, clear channel, and CBS, you do hear songs being crossfaded and having gapless transitions between them, while you still have sweepers and the DJs talking between some songs. Is it how their automation programs are set? I don't really understand it.
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Question about programmed song transitions
- Thread starter danman425
- Start date
It depends on how the songs and tones* were recorded. Some songs have a natural fade which might be allowed to "play out" under the next event for a couple of seconds by putting the "start tone (for the next event)" a couple of seconds before the "kill audio" tone* (or end of sound file). The switcher (computer) "sees" the start tone for the next "event" but will continue to play the last few seconds of the song too. The real trick is to consistently place tones at the same "time" and the same audio level fade on every "fade" song recorded in the system. Back in the day when live DJ's started turn tables, cart machine or CD players, the DJ would do this by manually adjusting the gain on each sound "source" and to make these segue-ways sound smooth.
* Some old automation systems you held down the end tone to do this. I remember coming back from vacation, the part time help recorded a new song and put a 20 second fade hold tone on a song. The old Harris system held the song then played the liner and then "thought" the tone was the end of the liner and then started a commercial during the liner.
* Some old automation systems you held down the end tone to do this. I remember coming back from vacation, the part time help recorded a new song and put a 20 second fade hold tone on a song. The old Harris system held the song then played the liner and then "thought" the tone was the end of the liner and then started a commercial during the liner.
It was the trend in the past decade to brand your station at every opportunity, so most stations put a liner between every song. In the era of PPM, the data have shown that anything but music causes people to tune out immediately. That's why a lot of stations have brought back the dead seg. Cumulus hasn't changed the policy yet.
danman425 said:
...."AARFF! AARFF!"
Damn...It's stuck in my head, again. Please kill me now! :
MCMagicCracker said:
Star 94 doesn't do dead segs either (they either use a sweeper or a jock in between every song)
BTW I can't believe a 5-second sweeper would cause people to change the station...
All the Boston stations use dead segs constantly (at least they did when I was up there on vacation), and IMO it makes for a really boring radio dial
MCMagicCracker said:
Cumulus still drops IDs between every song, but in Birmingham, their new CHR 99.5 The Vibe is programmed with the tightest, shortest imaging I've heard in a long time. Typical liner is less than two seconds long. Maybe you'll start seeing this from Cumulus in Atlanta as well.
I had an ops mgr who made me wait until the next song started before I started my jock rap, another subtle trick to keep listeners around. Personally, I prefer dry imaging inserted over the song intro, a la classic 99X.
MCMagicCracker said:
Yeah, actually, Cumulus does that also with Q100 - they let the second song start up and then the jock cuts in with a song ID
Star 94 even goes so far as to manufacture longer song intros for the jock to talk over, in order to avoid jocks having to talk over dead air (I wonder how much that's related to PPM)
Dead segues had been around for a while before PPM.
Roddy, it was another time/another place...but oh so cool.
When I was hired to work at 94Q back in 1980, I got to choose what I played (within some loose limits). Our genius PD, Jim Morrison, wanted a radio station that sounded like "Atlanta" and so ours did...with the care and choosing of the music left to the on-air jocks. Album cuts, segues, theme sets, whatever...it was really hard but rewarding work, because not only did it sound magical when done right, it was impossible to counter-program.
A huge part of the job interview was musical knowledge. In the interview, they wanted to know that you KNEW. About artists that mattered to Atlanta, and not just the obvious ones, like the Atlanta Rhythm Section (their bassist Paul Goddard is to this day a dear and close friend). You needed to understand that Jimmy Buffett spent a LOT of time in Atlanta pre-fame, and that songs like "Son Of A Son Of A Sailor" and "The Captain And The Kid" were well known to Atlanta listeners who loved music like that. Artists like Kenny Loggins...whose live version of "I'm Alright" was recorded at the Fox Theatre, and I had the privilege of introducing him that night on stage. Artists like Mac Macanally. People like that.
So, on the freedom: let me give you an example. If it was a rainy Monday, it was totally cool for me to do 45 minutes of "sunny" songs...sunshine as the theme. And I'm talking middays here--not buried late at night. BUT--it had to be well balanced, sound good from a tempo standpoint, and reflect generally our current playlist. I was free to do what I wanted with albums that mattered. So, I'd mix in tracks from, say, Steely Dan "Gaucho" or the latest Dan Fogelberg album that would never be heard on the radio with other tracks that made sense.
Every single day was nothing but fun. Doing good, professional radio between the records--AND being able to shape the sound of the station--was literally amazing.
This lasted for the first 3 years I was there. After that, things got too competitive to keep that going. But I often wonder what it'd be like if a station like that signed on TODAY--totally reflective of what was happening in Atlanta the day you were listening, with an intelligent and adult approach. So many radio people are freaked out about Pandora...how about we freak THEM out with a heavily localized version of what our town is all about, musically?
I was so, so lucky to work there back then. Thanks due to Jim Morrison, and the incomparable General Manager Jerry Blum. Those two guys are totally responsible for whatever career I can claim.
When I was hired to work at 94Q back in 1980, I got to choose what I played (within some loose limits). Our genius PD, Jim Morrison, wanted a radio station that sounded like "Atlanta" and so ours did...with the care and choosing of the music left to the on-air jocks. Album cuts, segues, theme sets, whatever...it was really hard but rewarding work, because not only did it sound magical when done right, it was impossible to counter-program.
A huge part of the job interview was musical knowledge. In the interview, they wanted to know that you KNEW. About artists that mattered to Atlanta, and not just the obvious ones, like the Atlanta Rhythm Section (their bassist Paul Goddard is to this day a dear and close friend). You needed to understand that Jimmy Buffett spent a LOT of time in Atlanta pre-fame, and that songs like "Son Of A Son Of A Sailor" and "The Captain And The Kid" were well known to Atlanta listeners who loved music like that. Artists like Kenny Loggins...whose live version of "I'm Alright" was recorded at the Fox Theatre, and I had the privilege of introducing him that night on stage. Artists like Mac Macanally. People like that.
So, on the freedom: let me give you an example. If it was a rainy Monday, it was totally cool for me to do 45 minutes of "sunny" songs...sunshine as the theme. And I'm talking middays here--not buried late at night. BUT--it had to be well balanced, sound good from a tempo standpoint, and reflect generally our current playlist. I was free to do what I wanted with albums that mattered. So, I'd mix in tracks from, say, Steely Dan "Gaucho" or the latest Dan Fogelberg album that would never be heard on the radio with other tracks that made sense.
Every single day was nothing but fun. Doing good, professional radio between the records--AND being able to shape the sound of the station--was literally amazing.
This lasted for the first 3 years I was there. After that, things got too competitive to keep that going. But I often wonder what it'd be like if a station like that signed on TODAY--totally reflective of what was happening in Atlanta the day you were listening, with an intelligent and adult approach. So many radio people are freaked out about Pandora...how about we freak THEM out with a heavily localized version of what our town is all about, musically?
I was so, so lucky to work there back then. Thanks due to Jim Morrison, and the incomparable General Manager Jerry Blum. Those two guys are totally responsible for whatever career I can claim.
That sounds great, Craig. It's obviously something that would never be attempted in today's radio world.
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