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Radio questions

B

bdogcali

Just a few curosity questions here from a guy who's interested in Radio, but has never worked in radio.


1.)At commerical radio stations, how are songs played? What form are they played in (CD/computer file? maybe some sort of digital tape) and if they are played from a sound file, are they .wav files, or some other format?

2.)Do the stations have to pay to play the music? If they decide to play a song, other than the "single" from an artist, is that allowed?

3.) how realistic are most TV/movies which show a radio studio? What are the common "eye rolling" moments of most TV shows, where your thinking "thats SO not how things are done"

thanks, just a few random questions, I thought would be interesting to hear answers to!
 
Those are similar to the kinds of things I wondered before I got into Radio.

1: These days most stations play music off a computer-driven system that contains all of the music, commercials, and all of the material that is broadcast. There are a few different systems that stations use. Until recent years, stations played everything off of CDs and tape but those days are pretty much gone.

2: Stations pay annual licensing fees to ASCAP and BMI for the music they play on the air. I don't know what kind of dollar amounts we're talking about, but I'm sure someone else on the board would know that. Stations don't have to play singles, but they almost always do. It's what the record companies want and it's what the listeners are familiar with, so it's the easiest and safest thing to do.

3: I don't think I've ever seen a TV show or movie that was even close to being realistic about the goings-on in a radio station. Most are so far off the mark you just have to laugh. Maybe someone else has seen something, but I sure haven't.
 
San Francisco stations pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to BMI and ASCAP for airplay rights.

Most stations do play the "single" from cd releases. Stations like KFOG and Live 105 are the exception and both have independent music programmers who seek out and play other songs.
 
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