Don Henley on radio

[Paul Hopfgarten]

BTW: I did one of those "auditorium tests" for WGIR-FM (Rock 101) Manchester
NH about 10 years ago...

(And ironically, that's probably the last time I listened to Rock 101 for
any more than 5-10 minutes at a time...execpt when they cover NE Patriots
games early season when AM610 is still doing SOX games)

-Paul Hopfgarten
-East Derry NH

-----Original Message-----
From: boston-radio-interest-bounces@rolinin.BostonRadio.org
[mailto:boston-radio-interest-bounces@rolinin.BostonRadio.org]On Behalf
Of DonKelley@aol.com
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 5:33 PM
To: mixer@zoso.net; paul@03038.com
Cc: boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
Subject: Re: Don Henley on radio


The earlier posts are correct.  DJ's choosing their own music went away with
the payola scandal of 1960.

Stations doing call-out and auditorium testing became the norm in the early
80's, and playlists reflected what listeners really wanted to hear.  Almost
without exception the stations that executed this best are the ones that
were most successful.

The DJ...known these days as the Air Talent...is not hired for his or her
ability to choose songs.  The ability to perform on the air is the criteria.
When a hire is made it's a casting decision.

It's no different in television or movies.  The actor does not decide who
lives or dies and who gets the girl at the end.  The actor performs the
lines and breathes life into them.  A great radio Air Talent does the same
thing with liners.

What Henley just doesn't get is that corporations do not dictate playlists.
Certainly not in major markets.  Stations go to great pains to put together
their own playlists with the aim of playing what their own listeners want to
hear.  True, labels can hype an artist onto the charts (Clay Aiken being a
great example) but the listeners are the ones who ultimately decide what
gets played.

When an artist isn't getting airplay it's usually due to a lack of listener
votes...either for the artist or for the stations where they do get airplay.

Don Henley's album "Inside Job" got little airplay.  This was not due to any
corporate conspiracy, it was because the album wasn't that good.