I couldn't possibly disagree with him more. "Play more music. Shut Up. Quit playing so many ads" That's what radio consultants and "industry experts" have been saying for 50+ years.
I've done a morning show now for 28 years that in 3 hours contains maybe 6 or 7 songs, all pre 1975, most about 2 minutes long and one of two of 'em were never even minor hits. A full hour of that time contains me carrying on about whatever comes up. The rest is news, sports, interviews, programs, etc. According to him, this is awful. Yet ratings continue to climb, sales continue to climb. I just hate when THAT happens.
Play more music. Play more music. Play more music. Don't talk more than a minute. Hell, people who want nothing but music turn on their digital music players and listen to mp3's these days. Listening to nothing but music gets pretty boring after a while.
We have a regular rotating music library of several thousand songs. Too bad that doesn't work. I'll tell all the listeners that they're wrong, and they really can't comprehend that many songs. Hell, we've got more Christmas songs ready to go in the library than he thinks we should have in the whole library.
Maybe if your goal is to compete directly with a big gun music station in a huge city, maybe. Maybe.
Interesting. Play more music, becuase that's the only thing that will make you successful. Oh, wait. Depends on if you want income or listeners. But, while you're playing all that music, the magic piece of programming that should take up 95% of your broadcast day, because that is the only way to be successful, don't forget to complain about how much it costs you to pay for the rights to that music. That YOU think it should be free, or cheaper, but that it's the only thing that makes your business on the air successful. So it's not really WORTH anything, but it's the only thing you can offer that will get ratings.
I can point to a hell of a lot of successful stations who are the opposite of this article.
But I only have so much time to rant about this.
TIB
There is a difference between a pop station and a Progressive station. And yes there is Progressive Country just as there is Progressive Rock or Album Rock. A Progressive Country station plays only the album versions of the song never off the single. If it wasn't on an album it don't get played unless it was a 33 inch single and not sped up to fit the 45 record making it sound like crap. Album Rock has more than 200 songs in their library and that is what makes them a HUGE success. WLUP in Chicago was one of the best Album Rock stations I've heard as well as Yes 95 in Atlanta, Ga back in the 70s to early 80s. Some Album Rock stations had morning shows and yes their news stories were short and moved right along. They had humor, but it was not a whole half hour of Bob and Tom and some bubble headed bleach blonde laughing at every joke the DJ told rather it was actually funny or not. I've heard this on some stations and it got boring having to listen to ha ha ha ha ha when the DJ said one liners and some of the one liners were not funny at all. You could predict what they were gonna say. Some DJ's would talk about boobs, and make tons of sexual comments you probably heard 100's of times. Howard Stern was actually funny at times. If your pop I guess that is fine for the teens and tweens, but some of the more uppity folks it won't work. Knowing your markit is a plus. You couldn't put an Album Rock station in the middle of crack town and expect it to be a success. But put a hip hop or Rap station there and it would be a huge success. On the other hand putting a Rap station in the middle of say Beverly Hills may not be successful depending on how far it went and the type of people in the neighborhood. Detroit went through a shift in market where their Album Rock stations failed because that entire city went more hip hop. There were a few in the cities of Bermingham, Toledo, and the little cities outside of it but Detroit was changed. Now part 15 stations aren't trying to make a huge income. And most do it for a hobby. So setting your station in the right community may make it a success. If I had sight and could drive this is what I would do: Being Album Rock I'd set up a part 15 station near a Audiophile store that sells very expensive stereo equipment. We are talking Macintosh, Bang & Olfsen, Luxman, Carver, Yamaha, separate component systems with XLR cables. Now some of those places do have tuners and tune their Radio's into a local station when the salesman is not next to the systems to make sure no one is trying to steal. If they knew about my station they would tune to it. Why? Because I have a library that plays and unless otherwise requested won't repeat the whole day. This allows one to hear the dynamic range of the system. Also allows the true Dxer to hear a good station.
Its all about location location location and your setup. And if you use automation its your software too.
I got the response I wanted. Good "talking" points Tim.
In Greeley, CO we have an LPFM that is just fun to listen. Here's a story about their good ratings and here's the site for the station.
I haven't figured out their non-commercial status but they have plenty of sponsors. Can anyone shed some light on this? Does the station just need to spend everything they bring in to be considered non-commercial?
The on air personality was just as important to me as the music. Way back when in the late 50s to the end of the 70s when I spent most of the time listening to radio the on air DJ was more of a factor in what station I listened to then the music. All the hit parade stations were basically the same music but the one that got me as a listener was the more entertaining DJ. Wolfman Jack and Cousin Brucie in the 60s and 70s were among the best and are classics in the radio world.
Now with part 15 or BETS(as it's known in Canada), it's mostly the music because I'm no good as a DJ other than station ID's and little things like that.
My set up is similar to kc8gpd and I did a lot of the station I'd's for his station.
Mark
what we need is a return of the 50's 60's style AM jock and the freedom they had back then. that is the only thing that will turn around the demise of terrestrial radio. radio was is as much about the show as it is about business. the bean counters and consultants currently infesting radio have forgotten this fact.
Back in the early to mid 80s I was listening to CFNY in Toronto mainly because of their on air personalities - Pete & Geets were classic, but there were many others. They were intelligent and funny - not overly loud and obnoxious like most DJ's were starting to trend towards, and it's even worse today. I didn't even like the music they played (80s new wave & alternative, mostly) but they kept me on the channel and that genre is now one of my favourites.
When I listened to CFNY, it felt like the music was just the bridge between DJ segments, as opposed to the main focus.
My Slightly Bent show (scheduled very irregularly on Artisan Radio) is somewhat a tribute to Pete & Geets. They were the ones that introduced Circular Impression by the Extras to their listenership, as well as If I Had a Million Dollars by the Barenaked Ladies (the original off their cassette EP) and such great local Toronto fare as Sex Gorilla by National Velvet.