• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Why do PDs jump on some singles but not others?

seatownmedia said:
When I programmed in a century that started with 19, the songs that made it on the air was highly a radio/record collaboration that featured record companies offering “promotional” opportunities such as concert tickets, music product, etc.
Click to expand...
That was the peak, the summit, the pinnacle, the apex era of "independent promotion" where record companies contracted out some promotional activities. This allowed the record companies to be "clean" at a time when more and more labels came under fewer and fewer international consolidators.

So the independents were still free to send a goon to "adjust" a PD that had not fulfilled a promise. And they did things like providing the station stickers or van wraps or boxes of tees in compensation for being part in the promoter's "advisory panel" or some other artificial construct.

"Play my record" became "youse betta play my record". And the advent of FedEx and UPS overnight gave us coke-o-grams, the envelope from a record company with no record release inside. And accounting wondered why boxes of single edged blades were being ordered every few months.
 
seatownmedia said:
It meant “lunar” and meant it only got played in the middle of the night so the record company could officially claim the add.
Click to expand...

That was probably before monitored playlists. These days the charts actually monitor stations, rather than believe the submitted playlists, and overnight spins don't count for as much as daytime spins.
 
DavidEduardo said:
"Play my record" became "youse betta play my record". And the advent of FedEx and UPS overnight gave us coke-o-grams, the envelope from a record company with no record release inside. And accounting wondered why boxes of single edged blades were being ordered every few months.
Click to expand...
I'd LOVE to hear more on this...
 
MrJohn said:
I'd LOVE to hear more on this...
Click to expand...
I was not "in country" during most of that. But look at this:


This is a search of Broadcasting Magazine during the 70's and 80's and you see that there were 299 different articles with that single word during that 20 year period. Click a few and you can see how much time was spent on the subject.

You can also search for Joe Isgro both there and via Google; Joe was apprehended for having a person beaten in a parking lot in some part of LA over an "airplay" issue.

Here is one of the Isgro reports: https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/I...12-11-OCR-Page-0038.pdf#search="payola isgro"

There is a book waiting to be written about all of that...
 
Last edited:
Hmm, worked top 40 as a jock and PD for 20 plus years and was never offered anything illegal. Now, alcohol was legal , and free drinks were nice. Just to put some real experience here.
 
seatownmedia said:
Hmm, worked top 40 as a jock and PD for 20 plus years and was never offered anything illegal. Now, alcohol was legal , and free drinks were nice. Just to put some real experience here.
Click to expand...
Depends on the market. And the station.

I can’t even count the times I was offered some kind of “incentive” for an add. I used to write a file memo for each occurrence with a description And have it witnessed by my accountant or office manager.
 
MrJohn said:
Also, remember the guy skateboarding to Dreams (Fleetwood Mac) with the Cranberry Ocean Spray or whatever? It can't be my imagination that that's gotten more airplay in the past year or two.

Add the fact that the 18-34 demo today loves, loves, LOVES Fleetwood Mac...you have a song from the Carter administration going viral!
Click to expand...
Thanks to that video, "Dreams" actually reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #2 on the Rock chart in 2020.

Another viral video revived Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight"; it hit #9 on the Rock chart in 2020.

"Break My Stride"'s viral revival charted in some European countries in 2020, but not in the USA.

"Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" reached the Spotify U.S. Top 200 early this year, but did not make it to any Billboard charts.
 
kevtronics said:
Thanks to that video, "Dreams" actually reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #2 on the Rock chart in 2020.

Another viral video revived Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight"; it hit #9 on the Rock chart in 2020.

"Break My Stride"'s viral revival charted in some European countries in 2020, but not in the USA.

"Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" reached the Spotify U.S. Top 200 early this year, but did not make it to any Billboard charts.
Click to expand...
I also remember the teenage girl singing "Dreams" going viral.
 
Man, that ava max song is stalling. It's 27 on the pop charts, but has really only been getting night/overnight play most places!
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom