Re: WMWM taking a week off...

[SteveOrdinetz <steveord@bit-net.com>]

Aaron 'Bishop' Read wrote:
>I fight this battle over and over at every station it seems.   LISTENERS 
>DO NOT CARE ABOUT *WHO* IS DOING THE AIR...they don't care if it's a 
>student, or a community volunteer, or a computer.   They don't care what 
>kind of music it is, they don't care if it's formatted, more likely than 
>not they don't even care that the same song just played three hours ago 
>(because, as Arbitron and Kiss108 have taught us, most listeners only 
>listen for about 90-120 minutes).


Alas, egos get in the way here.  A lot of DJs seem to think that they have 
legions of fans, ears glued to the radio when they're on, hanging onto 
every word they say and are in awe of their incredible taste in music, just 
waiting to be exposed to cool new tunes.  Of course, those of us who've 
been in the biz a while know better, but try to tell these future stars this.

As far as the time spent listening issue, someone mentioned that repetition 
would start to become a problem in short order with an automated list.  As 
Aaron mentioned, people only listen for a few hours at a time...for years 
stations have done what's known as "recycling"...ie taking advantage of the 
fact that almost no one who is listening at (say) 12 noon is also listening 
at midnight.  It only makes sense then to re-cycle songs (or even an entire 
sequence) played during the day into late nights/overnights when what 
audience you have is totally different than your daytime audience.



>You've got to do GOOD air first.  Preferably with a live person (to take 
>listener calls if nothing else), but a properly-programmed computer will 
>do.   But if your live DJ's suck, then a computer will be better 
>appreciated by your listeners - I guarantee it.


And better to utilize your live djs during peak listening times (when there 
are likely to be callers) and automate your off-peak times.  This would 
vary by format...CHR or altrock would have different listening patterns 
than an AC or classic rock for example.