rdz@ccieng5.UUCP (09/06/84)
"New Music" is only available here, on a full-time basis, on
WITR. This is the Rochester Institute of Technology campus
station and operates at only 1000 watts. I don't think it
even makes it on the Arbitron. A real good mixture of "new
wave", raggae and jazz/blues. 89.7 on the FM dial.
P.S. It's great to have the following scenario with my wife
while riding in her car:
she: Have you heard this new song yet? (while listening to
a "Top 40" [10?] FM station)
me: Yeah, about six months ago!merchant@dartvax.UUCP (Peter Merchant) (09/17/84)
Cough cough.
There are many examples of this. Why?
Many radio stations push to be "the one to break a song." Top 40 stations
tend to wait until a single is released, rather then just playing straight
off the album. "Album Oriented" stations don't bother waiting.
Now, sometimes, information as to what the singles will be is released.
Sometimes you can pick up a clue by looking on the album. ("Contains the
Hits:")
Now, stations that want to have the jump on the competition try to play these
as soon as they hear about them. Example: Van Halen's "Panama". This was
released as a single right after "I'll Wait". But "Album Oriented" stations
were playing it six months earlier.
At the station I was at, when we were playing it on rotation, nobody cared.
As soon as it was released as a single, though, requests took off through
the roof. But, by this time, you've already been playing it for three months.
Possibly your friend just listens to a station with a different format. This
does not make you inherantly superior. You forgot the end of that conversation.however:
(The scene: That song has just ended and the new <insert name of pop star> here
single comes on the radio.)
She: Boy, am I sick of this song!
He: Really? The station I listen to just started playing that...
AOR stations can kind of be snobbish when it comes to their music. Which
means certain artists are ignored until they start doing well enough on
other charts. Rick Springfield's "Don't Walk Away" had been in the Top 40
for about three weeks before any Album Oriented stations started playing it.
Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" was getting pretty good airplay
on the pop stations before the "Album Oriented" stations got swamped with
requests for it.
So let's not be so smug, hmm? There are advantages to both formats.
--
Caller: "Would you play 'Thriller'?" Peter Merchant
DJ: "Only if someone put a gun in my back and made me."