Radio Stations don't really play requests!

[tsjclkt362]

Radio stations do not play requests! I requested a song almost an hour ago and they never played it! They never played it EVEN THOUGH it's a song that gets lots of airplay. All there is are DJs that say they play requests but never do! What are they there for then? Twiddling their thumbs? Thats what I think!!

Its no wonder people retort to illegal music downloading and where is a board that talks about that anyways?

 

[Basnya]

Are you certain the station you called actually had a live person at the controls? Or was it automated and the person who took your request was really the night watchmen?

 

[12 In a Row]

The deep dark secret.

D.J.'s haven't played your requests (unless it's on the approved list and hasn't been played in the last few hours)
since the 50s.

A different thread talks about this.
One person's off the wall request won't get played. Not about to please one person and piss off everyone else.

Try going to McDonald's and place a request Chinese food.

In 30 years of radio, 99% of listeners calling in to make a request fall into these categories:

1. Prize pigs
2. Mentally challenged
3. Same home, different people

I assume you are the 1%.

 

[gunterm]

If I have the song and it's in format I will play it (provided I see the e-mail quickly, if a request is an hour old I probably won't).

 

[flashback]

since radio stations don`t play requests why do they pretend to and give out a "request number"?

 

[oaktree]

For internal research, for one thing. And to give a more than "passive" feel to the radio station ... getting listeners "involved" in some way that means something to them ... "request my favorite song."

Stations of been taking "requests" forever ... and the "music research" of, potentially, one person out of 100 who actually calls a radio station is, at times, an interesting, but not scientific "barometer" of what's hot.

 

[amfmsw]

If a caller is really breaking my balls, and wants to hear the flip-side of Max Frost & The Troopers, I don't engage him/her.

If it's a legitimate request, I first flip back a few hours on the music log, and ahead. If it's not been played, and it's in the studio, it gets played. Dedications too. Everytime, every shift, even frequent callers. If they ask for the same song evewrytime, I suggest another by the same artist or a similar sound.

If an employee of my station was found to be "blowing -off" a listener, I wouldn't let them finish the shift. That listener is the ONLY reason they're there. The LISTENER is the boss, hoss. And don't ever forget it!!

The LISTENER is the one ingredient CC and other chains left out of their business recipe. That's why their cakes won't rise.

 

[davideduardo]

The LISTENER is the one ingredient CC and other chains left out of their business recipe. That's why their cakes won't rise.

The analogy is a club dj. The ones who just play songs take requests. The ones who create works of art with their flow and blends do not.

If you have a great PD, who hears the "sound" of a log on screen and can fine tune every song and segue for the right mix, you do not let listeners alter that work of art.

I realized this when I was manager of WZNT in San Juan. In our first weeks on the air in 1979, I noticed that we got essentially no requests. Yet when we gave away prizes, the phone did the proverbial "ring off the hook" thing. Still, I was worried that the music was wrong, and we just had a few prize pigs listening. When the ratings came out for the first time, in a market with over 30 stations, we had a 22.5 share. When we did some informal research on the street, we found the common answer to the request line calls to be, "well, you are playing all the songs I want to hear so why would I need to call." If you are playing the right songs the right amount, requests are not going to tell you anything you do not already know.

Again, letting a person from the audience change your programming is doing a disservice to the rest of the listeners. There are better ways to please the listeners as a group than altering the well-planned programming. Only when the music scheduling is bad to begin with would requests maybe be better than the station selections.

 

[grantchester]

In the late 80's, with oil at $10, Greg's oil field service company failed. He drove to Austin and slept on his cousin's couch. His cousin's roommate was the PD of the local classic rock station. He gave Greg the job of setting up the remote van.
The PD was in a bind. He needed someone to cover midnight-6 Saturday night. Greg volunteered. He'd never been on the radio before. He took the shift.
Any time anyone called for a request, Greg would talk to them, ask them what they were doing, joke around with them... and then play their request.
Six months later the Austin Chronicle readers poll came out and Greg was #3, most popular dee-jay. An amazing accomplishment in such a cliquish town, even more amazing for a jock who was only on 6 hours a week, in a fringe hour shift, with no promotion. Six months later he was co-hosting morning drive as Bama Brown of Bo and Bama. Within another year, Bo and Bama were tops in their demo.
Two decades later, Bama Brown is still on morning drive in Austin, on KASE-FM. It helped that he was an outgoing fellow and a natural comic, but it never would have happened if he hadn't answered the phone, talked to the people, and played their requests.

 

[12 In a Row]

A great example of all the stars aligned.

Right time, right personality, and the cream rises to the top.
Some of the best radio personalities never intended to do radio.

 

[Basnya]

. That listener is the ONLY reason they're there. The LISTENER is the boss, hoss. And don't ever forget it!!

The LISTENER is the one ingredient CC and other chains left out of their business recipe. That's why their cakes won't rise.

So very simple.. and yet the suits never realized it.

 

[adma]

Or maybe they just chose a different kind of listener that "wouldn't talk back", just like an abusive sleazeball might, after a breakup, choose women that "wouldn't talk back"...

 

[firepoint525]

The risk-takers, like Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern, "rise to the top." But they both got there by constantly "pushing the envelope" and no doubt getting fired from nearly every station they ever worked for. I don't recommend doing it the way they did (because the chances for success are one in a million!), but if you can do it, more power to you!

 

[ruger22com]

Even if it is during a local show where the do play some requests...it is called a REQUEST line...not a DEMAND line..and you ain't the only person calling.

So why not turn off the radio, and turn on your CD player...and listen to that same song over and over again.

 

[amfmsw]

rug...thank you for proving my point so perfectly.

Why not turn YOU off and play a CD? What is wrong with this thinking? You lost the only reason you HAD a job! The LISTENER! Do you realize what you just said? I'm gonna play thses 300 "researched" songs that you're supposed to like...and anything else...screw you listener.

And we wonder why radio's in the toilet. We wonder why CC is satiusfied with VT instead of a human. Robot Radio. If a jock doesn't want to respect his/her LISTENER, STAY HOME and you play your 300 song ipod. Oh wait, it holds 3000 songs! Why? 300 songs are boring, and that caller might just have a great idea!

Of course, you cannot honor every request everytime. But you damn better respect that one person who chose to listen to YOU instead of viewing from 200 channels of TV, paly a video game, play any one of thousands of internet streams, or listen to any one of a possible 50 other AM/FM signals. Do you know how lucky you are to have that person choose you? And a jock wants to blow them off? How arrogant.

 

[ricoontheradio]

The LISTENER is the one ingredient CC and other chains left out of their business recipe. That's why their cakes won't rise.

CC and other chains own some of the most successful radio stations in the country... and those diaries are filled out by listeners, so something in your theory doesn't line-up.

I do understand there are some stories of some conglomerates having too much programming control from the top, but for the most part many of these "other chains" have the resources for research, etc. and ARE servicing the listeners... as a whole, not just the one on the phone.

Just my opinion...

 

[ChrisKMusic]

uh, excuse me? Please?

what's a request?

 

[KFodor]

I have done actual "request" shows...where we played actual "requests" called in by listeners.

However...there is a difference between someone wanting to hear a hit that someone might want to hear...and a record collector who just wants to see how deep your library goes.

I am a big believer in request shows where it makes sense to do them. To do "requests" all the time simply means to turn your radio station over to the 0.02% of the audience that ever bothers to call the station for any reason. And that has proven over the decades to be a receipe for ratings disaster.

 

[Wabbit_Season]

But you damn better respect that one person who chose to listen to YOU instead of viewing from 200 channels of TV, paly a video game, play any one of thousands of internet streams, or listen to any one of a possible 50 other AM/FM signals. Do you know how lucky you are to have that person choose you? And a jock wants to blow them off? How arrogant.

Oh, please. Get a grip.

In any given "request hour", how many requests come in for a song that you either JUST played or is currently playing? How many requests come in for some album cut they heard on a cd that's right in front of them in their cd player?

True story: Friday, I got a call, a guy asking for a Kenny Chesney song, thename which he could not recall. I ask (trying to be helpful), "Can you give me any of the words to the song?" to which he replied, "Here, I got it right here - this one. Listen!" - and he proceeded to play me "Never Wanted Nothing More" off the cd. Are you kidding me?

I can't tell you how many times I've run the board on a NASCAR race and had someone call in a request; half the time they're not even listening to the station when they call!

The "arrogance" you speak of is that of the listener who believes that a 100kw radio station is their personal jukebox. My radio station puts on two "request hours" a day, and the jocks are instructed to use phone calls that address music already on the playlist, or to use their best judgment in playing a song.

"Request hours" are entertainment; they are not a promise.

Let's face it - how many people will tune out if someone called up for, say, Anne Murray's "You Needed Me"? Sure, that one person got their song played, but how many people went looking elsewhere for a tune that didn't make them want to Tru-Coat their car's interior with that day's lunch?

Anyone screaming about how request hours aren't "true" request hours are either disgruntled listeners, part-time jocks with no understanding of programming, or trolls.

 

[ChrisKMusic]

Anyone screaming about how request hours aren't "true" request hours are either disgruntled listeners, part-time jocks with no understanding of programming, or trolls.

LMAO. Okay, that was good. Harsh .... but good LOL.

I've done request hours just as others here have that cover the gamut from "yes these are all requests," to "no, uhhh ... yeah, these are requests," to "yeah, right, these are requests."

Used to love doing small market 9PM request shows in Top 40 in the 70s/80s ... lots of fun "in the day."

Does anyone still do request shows today? I honestly have no idea LOL.