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From: rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: How radio stations work
Message-ID: <725@pyuxn.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 6-Jun-84 14:26:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxn.725
Posted: Wed Jun  6 14:26:47 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 7-Jun-84 08:05:57 EDT
References: <480@hou2h.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J.
Lines: 43

> In Stuart Lewis' article on playlists, he says that the disc jockeys and the
> program managers fill keep track of how many times a cut from an album is
> played.  This information is passed on to trade journals such as Billboard.
> If disc jockeys and program managers use the Billboard list to determine the
> station's play list, the process seems to be self-perpetuating.  If an album
> is considered hot, a certain cut gets played alot.  The cut stays on the
> Billboard chart because it gets alot of air play.  The cut gets alot of play
> because it's on the chart, and so on.

Thank you.  At last, a concise understanding of how the "music industry" works.

> Radio stations play music that is selling well.
> But listeners have a tendency to buy what
> they hear.  How does this cycle get started?

It rarely does anymore.  People buy records by artists they already know and
love.  Stations play songs that they think people like.  It is the rare bird
who takes the chance to play something new.  "Thriller" became so huge, in
part, because AOR programmers felt the push to finally play something
different.  (More likely because MTV was told that if they didn't play Michael
Jackson videos, CBS would pull all video product off the network.)  The music
industry will consisstently put out the same pap that sells universally and
globally (lowest common denominator) until even the LCD people get tired of it.
Unfortunately, they are almost never accurate in predicting when that will take
place for a given genre, and they're even less accurate in predicting what will replace it.  They'd rather push packaged, media-hype product than something
new and different (too risky).

> Occasionally, several stations will play
> the same oldies.  Is this a coincidence or are
> they playing "me too"?  Or is the
> decision on what oldies to play made outside the station?

That's something I've wondered about for years.  Sure, WPLJ and every other
AOR station would play "Stairway to Heaven" once an hour (you were able to set
your watch by it!), but when three or more radio stations play "Magic Carpet
Ride" or "Let It Bleed" or some other popular but less universal oldie, it
gets me wondering whether they're in collusion.  I used to live in Princeton,
NJ, where I picked up NY and Philadelphia stations, and it was amazing hearing
the same oldies even across two radio "markets" like that.
-- 
"So, it was all a dream!" --Mr. Pither
"No, dear, this is the dream; you're still in the cell." --his mother
				Rich Rosen    pyuxn!rlr