From Andrew Duke Cognition Sent Thu, Jul 8th 1999, 14:35
From Andrew Duke Cognition Sent Thu, Jul 8th 1999, 14:35
corporate/commercial radio vs. college/community radio in simplest and general terms: college radio programmers play what they want on their shows. corporate radio, however, hires "personalities" who do not have anything to do with the music played during their shows, unless perhaps if it's a specialty show. in corporate radio, if it's not a computer playing preprogrammed selections, than it's the "personality" playing tracks that have been preselected: s/he is given a list and must play the songs in the exact order. ever listen to a commercial station and hear the "personality" announce the time but it's way off (way ahead or way behind the actual time)? ever hear the "personality" backannouncing tracks that haven't actually been played yet? or preannouncing tracks that have already been played? it happens often. that's because with the automation, many "personalities" aren't actually in the station live during their shows: they've voiced all their voiceovers in one go before the show and then the computer plugs each voiceover in at the appropriate time. of course if the "personality" says "it's 12noon and you're checking out HITS 99 FM" and the computer accidentally plays this voiceover at 11:30 AM or 12: 30 AM, or they voice "that was elton john, bryan adams, and celine dion to finish another 40 minute marathon" but this gets played *before* the songs have been played, which happens quite often if you pay attention, then it quickly becomes obvious that the automation is removing the humans even more from the corporate radio process. i know of one "personality" who recently lost most of her hours due to this automation and now has to voice all her voiceovers at home before the show and then turns them in. plus: more and more corporate radio stations are now owned by a smaller and smaller group of owners. here in halifax, for example, 5 radio stations are owned by the *same* owners! and here's the ironic part: these 5 stations are all programmed by *one person*. he's sent the "yes, play it" and "no, don't play it" lists from "head office" and then decides what gets played on their soft rock station, what gets played on their classic rock station, what gets played on their country station, what gets played on their oldies station, and what gets covered on their talk radio station. it's quite scary if you think about it: one person here in halifax is programming 5 of halifax's 6 corporate/commercial stations! one person here in halifax is deciding what 95% of the corporate radio listenerships hears! he's the reason you're hearing ricky martin at such and such a time on the soft rock station and the same person who decides when you'll hear garth brooks on the country station. my alarm is set for 7AM every morning, and it's set to the soft rock station because the college station's receiption is not always clear and i have to have a strong radio signal coming in on the alarm to wake me up. every morning, without fail, the soft rock station plays the backstreet boys' i want it that way and ricky martin and the exact same songs. every morning in the window that that alarm is playing the station before i drag my ass out of bed. that scares me. re: specialty shows: a station's specialty program is usually generated through the same sort of process. here in halifax the local soft rock station has an 80s show saturday mornings and saturdays nights; i assume they figure their target audience would like to live in the past? they also syndicate mc mario's mixdown (a weekly top ten of commercial dance) and play that saturday nights so their audience can, i assume they believe, feel they are "hip" and "down with the current music". unlike other cities, halifax doesn't have any live mix shows on friday and saturday nights to appeal to an audience that is certainly there. it's probably too cutting edge for halifax's programmer: commercial radio used to play chris sheppard's pirate radio/groove station, which, though it's still mostly commercial dance, at least worked in some electronica and was a bit more "ear to the ground". i assume sheppard's show was yanked and replaced with mario's because mario is only playing the will smiths and the aquas, whereas sheppard played the will smiths and the aquas, but at least he also worked in some daft punk, chemical brothers, etc (i'm certainly not sticking up for chris sheppard in any way and/or daft punk/chemical brothers, but you've got to start somewhere) it doesn't surprise me that syndicated shows such as the one i've been doing since 1987 get dismissed by corporate radio; if daft punk is too much for halifax's soft rock station, of course autechre, dan curtin, and innerzone orchestra would be (in their opinion), despite the audience that *is* interested in hearing the program. pardon my bitterness, i had to stick up for what i believe in, and college radio is where it's at in the corporate vs. college radio debate. so, regardless of what you think about college radio, please remember that college radio programmers at least are playing exactly what they want. listen to each of your commercial stations attentively for a day each and you'll see what i mean. then listen to your college radio stations in the same way. then listen to your public radio stations in the same way. it's refreshing that internet radio is available, yes,but don't give up on college radio. thanks. andrew duke :) Moonlight wrote: > >it is about selection: what to choose for an hour-long set among the > seemingly > >infinite variety of music out there, what the DJ wants to share to that > >particular audience on that particular occasion (the same with radio DJs > in many > >ways). > > Except radio playlists are determined by computer. > I read an article (ooh, great ersource citation) that every corporate > station in the US does this, and breaks from this are the rare exception. > Special shows and all. > > I really haven't looked at the possibilities of college radio, though. > Whenever i've checked them out, it's always the flavor of the month > alt-rock. > > _________________________________ > Adam Roesch / xxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx > University of Idaho / Moscow / ID / USA > > Visit my Fila Brazillia/Pork Recordings fan site: > http://dogbert.augsburg.edu/~roesch/pork/ > > "Because success needs killing" TRICKY