Rotations/Library

[wknd92]

It is something that has become glaring over the last 2 months (and I thought a music test for the fall book would shed some new titles into the mix); but Lite and Coast have WAY too tight a library. I am hearing the same titles in same dayparts day after day. I know it is hard; but it seems like both libraries are maxing at 400-450 titles when they should be at least 550-600 with maybe another 200 songs to drop in now & then. The burn factor on the library year to year has got to be huge for both stations...
When I hear on Lite-Natalie Cole/Everlasting Love within 4 hours (today, an obvious oversight; but fresh in my mind), Elton John pretty much every hour and on Coast Rob Thomas/Matchbox 20 at the same rate, I wonder how much testing has changed and why, with both stations being an A/C format (Coast trying to be more Hot A/C) the libraries aren't larger.

Pro and Fun aren't out of the woods on this either...being CHR, they get a little leeway with tighter rotations; but when you have Justin Tmberlake's Love Stoned playing 5 minutes before Timbaaland's Give It To Me and then Nelly Furtado's Promiscuous 5 minutes after that....it doesn't make sense.

I've been there and I know...back in early 90's when all we had in our powers at Pro was 2 Mariah Carey songs, 2 Rod Stewart songs, a Bryan Adams song, a Sting song and the All For Love song from Bryan/Rod and Sting, programming got a little sticky (and to boot, we moved one of the Rod songs to recurrent and Boys II Men got moved up and they were on one of the Mariah songs in the heavy rotation.AIIIIIIIGHHHH!)
It is enough for me to not have much hair left (yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

Sigh....hot in here...needed to vent....I'm much better now

 

[wc3434]

Wknd 92, YOU ARE 100 % RIGHT!
Drives me nuts too! And I've spoken to listeners OVER and OVER and OVER again who say,
Why do you play the same songs so often!
I've snuck a few from my home collection on , in the past. "Gee what ever happened to
that song"! etc. They NOTICE and LOVE it.
How about 800 to 1,000 ! Walter.

Great post.

 

[Moonstruck]

Walter if you snuck in songs from your own collection you must be working in radio on another planet. Anyway one problem is that everybody is dead afraid to think for themselves so testing shows females love Rob Thomas in spite of the fact that out of his last 3 releases 2 were basically stiffs (Streetcorner Serenade and Little Wonders). OK to play them while they're fresh but dump them later. AC has always had its separate playlist but there was a time when it also had to have been a CHR hit to stay on the playlist as a recurrent or gold. The others were played when they were currents and that's it. Basically they were stiffs. No one but no one doing AC just looks at a new release and decides it's right for the station and just plays the damn thing when it's new. Bubbly is on PRO-FM. I don't know if it's on Coast or Lite but it should be and it should be now! There was some recent study that showed the tune out factor wasn't really that high during stopsets. I forgot if it was broken down by age or format but that being the case why does everyone think the tune out factor is high for certain music if the audience will sit through the obnoxious spots this market is flooded with. Don't even get me started on crappy production. Luckily I doubt we'll see the new Matchbox 20 on AC in Providence.

 

[Skynet74]

Small Libraries is something that every station deals with and I don't quite know why. I had always thought that EVERYONE would like more tunes in rotation. So if that's what listeners want than how come most stations don't do it?

I worked at WSAR the final two years that they were a music station. We were Adult Contemporary with lots of oldies thrown in. We played two new songs per hour and the rack with new music totaled about 12 Carts. The songs were color coded with Dots. Red was new music, Green dots was Music released within the past 10 years and Blue Dots were Oldies "Basically everything else". We didn't have a strict play list. We could basically choose whatever songs that we wanted to play as long as we played a certain amount of each color code per hour. At the top of the hour we started with green, then played a couple of blues, then played a red and then played a couple more blues. etc..... I don't think that it really mattered all that much what we played anyway. The same people seemed to tune in no matter what. But that is the system we used.

I do remember wishing that we had a larger selection of new tunes to choose from though. If I can only play 2 new songs per hour, please give me more than 12 songs to choose from. So there were a few times I took it upon myself to just slip some new songs into that Red dotted New Music rack. One time it was a song called Shattered Dreams by a group called "Johnny hates Jazz." It was probably in the rack for three days until the PD at the time (Dave Smith) asked me if I put that song in there. I said yeah.... it's a good song. So I figured I would add it. He said well I don't think it's all that good myself, so I'm going to take it out and keep it in my desk. If it hits the AC charts then I will put it back in the rack. Now I knew by his tone of voice that he didn't believe there was a chance in hell that a group called "Johnny Hates Jazz" would make the AC charts. So I just said OK. No problem. Then a week later I'm reading Billboard Magazine and guess what song showed up in the AC Chart. SHATTERED DREAMS by JOHNNY HATES JAZZ. I looked and laughed and then I looked and laughed some more. Then I walked into Dave's office and said Hey Dave. Guess what song hit the charts this week? He had no clue. When I said Johnny hates Jazz he looked like a kid who just got his Ice Cream cone stolen away from him. He was in shock. He then opened his desk drawer with a disgusted look on his face, took out the cart he had removed from the rack a week earlier, handed me the cart and said...... Here.

Every week after that happened I kept putting new songs in that rack and never again did he say two words about it. Tunnel of Love by Bruce Springsteen. He said nothing. Check it Out By John Cougar Mellencamp he said nothing. Electric Blue by Icehouse. He said nothing. "Like The Weather by 10,000 maniacs and again he said nothing. I think he trusted my insticts after the Johnny hates Jazz situation. Johnny may have hated Jazz, but my PD hated Johnny! lol. I miss that guy. I had the best program Directors at WSAR. Art Berluti who hired me was truly awsome and Dave Smith who took over for Art was such a cool guy!

But anyway.... that is my experience with tight play lists.

 

[wc3434]

"Walter if you snuck in songs from your own collection you must be working in radio on another planet."

And NEVER got caught!