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Why don't they tell you whose being played?
- Thread starter Phedeks
- Start date
N
nocomradio
Guest
If its like most stations these days, its probably voice tracked, so there isn't anyone to know what is being played.
nocomradio said:
That might be the case now and then where the station just doesn't want to go to the energy and cost of programming the automation system to do the intros, outros or whatever.
My assumption is that surveys, auditorium tests, etc. have told programmers that many listeners do not want to hear the repetitive info. The fans of radio who are "music nuts" already know that info. There are a lot of other programming decisions that signal to us that the "I don't need info that I already know" listeners are numerous and are driving the programming decisions. That is why news is not a biggie with most stations. That is why most weather info is so elementary and bland. That is why we don't hear the county agent giving any farm or even yard information. That is why we don't hear even short little three-minute-long public issues commentaries. Music lovers want music. Music lovers know what music they want. Music is not "announced" because music affectionados find that beneath their dignity.
For those of us who are listeners who do not eat, sleep and live music and are very casual listeners when it comes to music will remain very casual because it is frustrating to listen to music programming that does not "teach you anything" as you listen. We are NOT the mass audience.
Go to your local NPR and NCE stations. They are more likely to tell you who the artist is, who the composer is, and that the piece was written during the stormy third marriage of the composer just before the king had him beheaded. But............. you may not like their choice of music.
nocomradio said:
A person doing voice tracking today knows exactly what elements each of their tracks will be between. When it is music to music, they even can hear "tips and tails" to get a feel for the tempo and mood of each moment.
Good voice tracking simply avoids the need for the talent to sit through every commercial and ever song to make a short comment. Think of it as putting a show on fast forward, so a 4 hour shift's announcing can be done in 20 minutes.
Phedeks said:
Lotsa' research has been done on this. While nearly every listener says they want to hear the song info, what they really mean is that they want to know about the songs they, individually, are not able to identify. And they don't want to hear, repetitively, the artist and title of songs they know.
So most stations just identify the newer adds to the playlist, and don't do much about the older songs. To do so will annoy most of the audience most of the time.
Not announcing artist and song title is nothing new. There's a document on the Reel Radio website that was written by the KYA Program Director in the mid 60s. It gave their live and local DJs strict orders only to mention title and artist when the song is new, or there is some kind of promotional tie-in with the station. Once the song has been around a few weeks, the DJs were instructed not to give the information. I believe the rationale was - it's boring - everybody who wants to know the artist and title should know it already. Say something interesting, instead.
Most stations have websites now that list what has been recently played, and IIRC - most of them list the titles and artists played on that entire day, so if you heard the song in your car, you can check it when you get home.
Failing that, if you can remember just a couple lines of the lyrics, type them into Google, and you'll get the song title back in a jiffy. If the song has been covered by multiple artists, figuring that part out takes a little longer.
Most stations have websites now that list what has been recently played, and IIRC - most of them list the titles and artists played on that entire day, so if you heard the song in your car, you can check it when you get home.
Failing that, if you can remember just a couple lines of the lyrics, type them into Google, and you'll get the song title back in a jiffy. If the song has been covered by multiple artists, figuring that part out takes a little longer.
Youngest son rides with me occasionally and is exposed to Oldies and Classic Rock. As he is just 24 he doesn't know a lot of the artists unless the song was popular on commercials or in a movie. He has an app on his phone and if he is interested in knowing the details he just fires off the app and it will "listen" to the song and identify it. I've even used it on occasion when my "oldie" memory has lapses. That being said however I don't find that the DJ identifying the song title or artist is annoying even though I know most of what I listen to.
But then, apparently, I am "unusual". ;D
But then, apparently, I am "unusual". ;D
landtuna said:
The very fact that you read and post to a radio broadcasting forum makes you unusual. Thus your tastes likely don't match the general audience. Most people do not care about DJs or song titles, and do not have loyalty to any station. They listen to what they like and tune elsewhere when they don't like something.
This is very different from the mindset of people who login here, where radio junkies do care about DJs, song titles, and stations.
DavidKaye said:
I have had a love of radio since I was old enough to turn the dials. Went through the usual youth oriented stuff like crystal sets, kits and DX. Tried out to be a DJ as a sophomore in high school but lost out to a college kid. Then went into the Navy where I became.....a Radioman, what else?
Now I am just a listener but am still interested in the business of commercial radio and the technical aspects that are new to me so I guess you could say it is just a hobby. But it's been a long, long road.
DavidKaye said:
You are the last in a long line of posters who have told me that. ;D
DavidKaye said:
On OTA radio I am just a listener now mostly to Oldies/Classic Rock. I have other genres in my personal library but they don't track too well with what's being played over the air now days.
In my younger days I met and talked with a variety of on-air talent and just recently have looked up a few who are still alive and online so my attachment is a bit more than the average I think.
I used to be fiercely loyal to KOOL for the past 20 years but I rarely listen to them since they got rid of several of my favorite DJ's and are migrating their playlist into more recent fare. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of pop songs I like played in the past 20 years.
DavidKaye said:
Sure, if I was in the biz I would know more of them and probably be even more of a radio junkie too. I've had lots of time to learn the titles and artists of my Oldie songs but not so much on Classic Rock so it is still interesting to me when the jocks there identify what they play.
landtuna said:
Landtuna - What's that app called? I want it.
FYI - how I found out you could Google song lyrics and get the title: when I got my first MP3 player, I had a 500 song head start by downloading my oldest daughter's MP3s (she was about 27 at the time). She and I have very similar tastes in pop and rock. In fact, she's more into 50s Oldies than I am. Being less...uh....anal retentive than me, she had not entered the artist and titles for about 150 songs, maybe half of which I liked, but either had never heard before, or couldn't remember.
It took me a few hours, but I would listen to the song, then type a line of the lyrics into Google. Within a few seconds, I would get back the song title and links to those many lyrics websites. If multiple artists had recorded the song, I'd have to figure out which artist it was, but that was fairly easy.
Unfortunately, my daughter also likes surf music (Dick Dale, etc.), of which there were about 25 cuts, and I couldn't identify those because they were instrumentals. It sounds like the app you mention might solve that problem.
Lkeller said:
I've found that the tagging feature in Winamp works pretty well for things like that. Open the file in Winamp, select "view file info" (alt-3) and hit the button that says "Auto-tag". Give it a shot.
Dave B.
DaveBayArea said:
Thanks Dave and 'Tuna. I'll check these things out.
Lkeller said:
I discovered another one last night for the PC. It's called 'Tunatic' (no relation) and it seems to work pretty well although it isn't near as fast as son's 'SoundHound'.
I've never put in a song that SoundHound couldn't diagnose but Tunatic seems to work better on newer songs rather than the "mouldy oldies".
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