Radio stations

[decode reality]

Someone I know who's involved in music management was telling me something about radio stations recently: On some stations, the presenters have absolutely no say over the songs the play to the public? They have to submit to a syndicated playlist (sounds a bit 'mafia-ish'!)

You can probably see how this can be to the detriment of hearing music that isn't just the same old. There are presenters that will tolerate the sistuation, whilst for others, it's a pain. The presenters with a bit of integrity and independence eventually leave.

[yozhik]

I worked in radio for over 20 years.

Of course the playlist isn't the personal choice of the presenter!
Of course it is tightly controlled, managed and dictated.

Radio stations are a commercial entity; they are there to make a profit.
The way to do this is to maximise listening audience in a specific advertising demographic/psychographic.

Without a tightly controlled music profile, you can not focus on a specific sector of the available audience.

The listeners are the fish ... the advertisers are the sushi eaters ... the radio station is the bait.
If the advertiser demands a banquet of tuna, you have to use a specific bait, which invariably comes down to a specific genre of music and a tightly managed list of songs.
If you aren't tuna and don't like the bait ... there will be another radio station for you somewhere else.


There are presenters that will tolerate the situation, whilst for others, it's a pain. The presenters with a bit of integrity and independence eventually leave.

Well for those presenters who are either too fucking stupid, ridicuously naive or too fucking arrogant to understand "the real world" ... ooops ... I mean have a "bit of integrity and independence" ... see ya!
Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
There are plenty more where you came from.
The presenter is NOT bigger than the radio station ... with very, very few exceptions.

Surveys,studies, research ... all come up with the same answer; the presenter is far bigger in their own mind than in the listener's mind.
The #1 reason for listening to a music station is ... (drumroll) ... the music.
Entertainment, News, Weather, Local information, even the time ... ALL of these elements consistently rate higher in terms of the reason for listening to a radio station.

Welcome to commercial reality.

[decode reality]

I worked in radio for over 20 years.

Of course the playlist isn't the personal choice of the presenter!
Of course it is tightly controlled, managed and dictated.

Radio stations are a commercial entity; they are there to make a profit.
The way to do this is to maximise listening audience in a specific advertising demographic/psychographic.

Without a tightly controlled music profile, you can not focus on a specific sector of the available audience.

The listeners are the fish ... the advertisers are the sushi eaters ... the radio station is the bait.
If the advertiser demands a banquet of tuna, you have to use a specific bait, which invariably comes down to a specific genre of music and a tightly managed list of songs.
If you aren't tuna and don't like the bait ... there will be another radio station for you somewhere else.




Well for those presenters who are either too fucking stupid, ridicuously naive or too fucking arrogant to understand "the real world" ... ooops ... I mean have a "bit of integrity and independence" ... see ya!
Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
There are plenty more where you came from.
The presenter is NOT bigger than the radio station ... with very, very few exceptions.

Surveys,studies, research ... all come up with the same answer; the presenter is far bigger in their own mind than in the listener's mind.
The #1 reason for listening to a music station is ... (drumroll) ... the music.
Entertainment, News, Weather, Local information, even the time ... ALL of these elements consistently rate higher in terms of the reason for listening to a radio station.

Welcome to commercial reality.

Thanks for your insights there.

There must have been a time historically when it wasn't so tightly controlled?

[yozhik]

Thanks for your insights there.

There must have been a time historically when it wasn't so tightly controlled?

When there weren't as many radio stations!

With deregulation came a LOT more radio stations fighting over the same advertising revenue ... so they had to get smarter, sleeker, more focused and forget about being "all things to all people".

Deregulation pretty much brought an end to the bigger than life radio personalities and ushered in an era of over researched music jukeboxes.

Ask most large companies and they will know their target market inside out; and a lot of them specifically target the HHS (household shopper), who is invariably a 25 to 40 year old female.

That's very generic, but you get the point.

This is where the bulk of the advertising budgets are targeted, so of course, the bulk of the radio stations will focus on getting as many of this variety of fish as they can ... hence they all sound the same! There is an incredible amount of research done re: song lists ... and whether we like to hear it or not ... a radio station will have a playlist of around 300 to 600 highest rating songs, specific to that targeted audience ... and of course the song lists for two stations fighting over the same audience have a high probability of being very similar, because research is research ... this is why you hear a lot of the same songs on opposing radio stations.

You can find other industry sectors targeting other demographics, e.g 18 to 30 males (beer, mobile phones, cars, insurance, internet services, etc) ... which is why you will find younger music stations with a rock slant to the music ... the music is the bait for a specific kind of fish to feed the advertiser.

Radio stations are essentially pimps.
Listeners are the working girls.
Advertisers are the Johns.

Thats taking it right back to basics, but its the same with ALL media.
If you want the advertising revenue, you have to serve up the right kind of working girl to satisfy the Johns.

... and there is a LOT of choice ... that's why management of the offering is crucial.

[Ian2day]

Myself based on what I have experience of, would say that the major stations in the UK, are creating playlists dependant on who is getting the mechanical rights etc. There is 3 big ones, more than likely linked to record labels as well. Its all a racket, controlled by organised crime, who are into some real sick shit.