I've changed the format of Artisan Radio multiple times in the past year. I've done copyright free book readings, OTR and most recently, music.
I've been finding the all music format too much the same old same old. So I've started to switch to a more hybrid format.
I've added OTR (old time radio shows), mostly crime noir along with some adventure, back into the mix in the time slot 9PM to 6AM Pacific (that's midnight to 9AM Eastern).
Right now, that's just a start. I'm thinking of replacing the jazz with music/variety OTR in the time slot 6PM to 9PM. I will also be adding some book readings, but just have to find a place to put them, likely somewhere in that 9PM to 6AM slot. Also lost in the shuffle was Blare on Air, and the same thing applies - I just have to find a new place to put it.
I plan on keeping Billboard Hits, Lost Jukebox (although I may cut the time slots for both down a bit) and the various hosted shows. Those include Wilson Beach Radio, Teenage Dreams, Beautiful Sounds, 101 Below and Rock Around the Rockpile, as well as Tim's Oompah Hour.
I think that this will give the station a well rounded mix of music, old time drama and talk.
I too am in the works of doing more old time radio shows(OTR) along with Suspense. I am thinking Gunsmoke radio series which the TV show was adapted from and I will get 100 episodes and either they will run at 10:30 PM right after Suspense so an hour of dramas every evening or I may just mix them together in the one folder so every night at 10 it will at random either be a Suspense or a Gunsmoke episode. Then I will do CBS radio Mystery Theater and get 100+ episodes of that and those will run 1 or 2 a night between 1:30 AM and 3 AM so I listen to them in bed. I was thinking of the radio series of Twilight Zone but they are similar to CBS RMT and the narration by E.G. Marshal is so much better.
So I will have a good mix of the golden age of radio OTR shows and oldies music regular programming the rest of the time. I also thought of an old TV show to run with just the audio so it's like a radio drama. After all radios did come with TV sound bands to be listened to without seeing it. You use your brain to make the pictures.
So my daily line up will be music, then every day at 9 PM Artisan's Teenage Dreams show followed by Suspense and/or Gunsmoke, then back to music till say 1:30 when CBS RMT will come on. I like the cigarette commercials for Chesterfield in the Gunsmoke episodes. One thing I like about the Suspense series is the people that did it were not unknowns. Well known actors/actresses did these. Everyone from Agnes Moorehead to Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra, Vincent Price, Judy Garland, and many more well known actors/actresses did many episodes. Who needs TV? Paying cable companies big bucks. Video didn't kill the radio star here!
Using the program material available to us is the necessary starting point, but the next big step is how to best arrange our programs to attract listeners and keep them from tuning away. Then comes the self-bias from our own reaction to what we do... since we're around it all the time, more than even the most devoted listeners, we might tend to get bored quicker than someone not so close to the situation. I was thinking about holding the Annual Playlist Awards to give a prize to the station with the best playlist. It would turn out that the winner uses the SHUFFLE feature to program his station.