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:
quoted 24 lines it is about selection: what to choose for an hour-long set among the
> >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 / roesch@augsburg.edu
> University of Idaho / Moscow / ID / USA
>
> Visit my Fila Brazillia/Pork Recordings fan site:
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>
> "Because success needs killing" TRICKY