what the heck are song tags?

[nmoore6676]

Brother John recorded the KABC-FM programming in 45-minute segments. That way, as opposed to having the music in 60-minute segments, listeners wouldn't be hearing the same songs in the same part of the hour. For example, the Beatles' Octopus's Garden might be the first song in a 45-minute segment. It might air at 10 am; then the next airing might come at 7:15 pm, then the next day at 12:45 pm. If we always heard the same song at the top of several different hours, we'd easily figure out that the programming is on tape.

But we heard the same DJ 24 hours a day and we all figured that out anyway.

Those of us who saw behind the curtain anyway knew. But I once worked at a classical music station associated with a major university in Columbus Ohio. At the time the FM which was the music format was voice tracked by one man, a theater grad student. Listeners would often complain that the "DJ" sounded tired which they attributed to the long hours he was on the air.

I guess they misinterpreted his somber intonation which was almost required of classical hosts in that day to his sleepiness. In fact he did the morning drive time live but VTed the remainder of the day.

In any event the audience wanted us to give the poor man a break and hire some more announcers. Others of us on staff did do the specialty shows which were prerecorded but the main programming was automated. The only live on air people were doing news on the AM side.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

The most annoying song tags I've ever heard were on KOSI's (Denver) 4-months of Christmas music.

Starting Labor Day, The "tag" on every song wreaked with the charming vocal offerings of one nasal-toned nymph who might have been working her way through waitressing school. And don't even ask how I could tolerate 4-months of recycled Rudolph and barking dogs that started playing on a day on which many were still wearing shorts and flipping burgers and home-styled veggie-kabobs on the backyard barbecue in honor of Labor Day. Must be a glutton for punishment.

Now if you'll excuse me, my phone is ringing... Dr Phil returning my call...

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I keep thinking there is some practical, realistic solution to this "tension" within the audience.

Yes, if I were an up-to-date P1 listener I would probably be annoyed that the robot-sounding voice insisted on telling me the obvious!

I represent the other end of the spectrum. I'm just a lit bit older. If there is some decent interview or talk on the dial, I may be all over it. I also live way, way out in the country where I have to pick from a limited number of stations for every day listening.

But now and then I climb into the seat attached to my wheels and go to a meeting somewhere, and find myself with some time on my hands, and find myself in some geography where I can hear things that don't come in at the house. I find no pleasure in listening to 10 songs in a row, none of which can I identify the song name or the artist, and no one is willing to come to my aid and bring me up-to-speed.

Thus we have identified the challenge faced by programmers. How many listeners can sing along with EVERY song they play (my grand daughters do that!) and how many listeners scratch their head in puzzlement and say: "Why, on the worst day of my life, would I ever play THAT piece of music."

So the broadcast owners have to scratch their head in puzzlement and ask: "So how many potential listeners are there out there who don't even own a working radio any more. And they, like GRC, are running around playing audio books, tuning in Terri Gross, or playing a CD borrowed from the library. Could I attract enough of those folks to change the size of my audience?"

In my bedroom are TWO clock radios, neither of which will produce a listenable signal. (They will wake me up, but that is about all of their skilll-set.) Once in a while when in a retail store I go look at their selection (or lack of selection) of clock radios with the thought of buying a replacement. The lack of available models to choose from tells me I am not the only person who listens to radio so little that I won't buy a new one.

I did buy a radio recently. I found a tuner from one of those rack stereo systems of 20 years ago. You can't buy a new one like it today. I paid $10 for it. It sit's here in my office/studio/man-cave and works very well thank you.

Now if I could just find a station that tutors me a little bit, and tells me the name of the song now and then, life would be warm and fuzzy.

 

[cd637299]

I shoulda looked at this thread before.

Yes, back in the 70s (even late 60s?) when Drake-Chenault began their automated formats, there were song tags, but in the case of Hitparade's Billy Moore voiceover, sometimes only the artist was mentioned, and in even rarer cases, only the name of the song (that would be at the start). I suppose that was to give it the live "feel." I didn't pay much attention to their other formats.

There's a Christian CCM network (I think Way-FM) that does the female robot thingy (like a voice read thru a metal pipe*), and also when I DX 106.9, there are two country stations I can hear, and the one near Savannah (Bob FM) has a similar voiceover, so I can distinguish Bob from the other station.

[*This might not be exclusive to Way-FM....may be a satellite service.]

cd

 

[stewie]

It was a big rage in medium markets (Salt Lake City, specifically) about 2-3 years ago. At the end of the song, you'd hear a human imitating a robot, saying "Uncle Kracker ... Follow Me."

It's now TOTALLY gone from the market. Thank heavens.

Clear Channel's "My FM" brand did this for a number of years. It was a female skewed demo with a female announcer imitating a robot. I believe CC used the same voice at many stations across the country.