stuart@ssc-vax.UUCP (Stuart Lewis) (06/02/84)
In following the recent discussion on Top 40 music formats, I feel the need to throw out some factual information. Before going to Boeing for better pay, I worked for 4 years as an F.M. album rock jock at 3 different stations. The last station I was at was bought out and went album country so I figured that was the final deciding factor. Anyway.... Music rotation works like this. Every studio has a pie chart on the wall which represents the clock face into which the playlist is divided. There may be up to 3 different charts for different times during the day, i.e, one for morning drive (which is usually the same for afternoon drive), a late morning/early afternoon chart and an evening chart. As far as all-nighters go, the jock usually has a pretty free hand in most of his music. O.K., now you have the guide - what to play. There will usually be a maximum of 5 or 6 super-hot albums that normally get a 2 hour rotation - sometimes as high as 1 1/2 hour or as low as 2 1/2 hour rotation. This works out to 2 hot albums an hour. The super-hot albums right now are probobly the new Rush album, Huey Lewis and the News, possibly the Cindy Lauper album and so on. They are usuallyplayed at the top of the hour and at the bottom of the hour and in sequence, i.ewhen say Rush is played it goes to the bottom of the 5 album pile and is not played until it has rotated up again. Also note, the jock must right down everything he plays so that the music dir- ector can compile a weekly report that he sends in to either Walrus, Billboard, or any of the other music journals that compile and publish best selling lists. This is always done on a seperate log sheet and sometimes on the album jacket itself. A 3X5 notecard is usually taped to the jacket and when it's played, the jock will right down the date, time and cut he played. This is because when the next shift comes on the jock rarely looks at the log sheet past the previous hour. The jacket method prevents the playing of say an oldie twice the same day. Next is the warm pile. There are usually 15 to 20 or so albums in this pile and it is made up of albums new on the scene that the music director expects to rise and albums that have already peaked and are on the way down or off the charts. These records are usually played 5 or so times an hour or a rotation of anywhere from 2 to 5 hours. A good example of our present topic would be the new Sprinsteen album. Then there is a selected group of oldie albums that the stations music director selects. Usually up to 50 albums or so that get a 2 per hour rotation. This pile may be changed every week, every other week or once a month depending on the size of the pile. Last is the d.j.'s choice which is usually only 1 or 2 an hour - 3 if he's lucky. These are taken from the album library which is not on any of the 3 previous piles. The all-nighters usually compile 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour to this grouping however. A typical format goes something like this: Top of the hour station i.d. (required by F.C.C - station call letters and city which must be +- 5 minutes from the top of the hour) A hot cut, jocks choice, warm commercial break warm, warm, selected oldie, bottom of the hour commercial break hot cut, warm, selected oldie, commercial break warm, jocks choice, jocks choice or selected oldie, top of the hour and start all over. As you can see, the typical format is 3 cuts and a commercial break - this is usually in 15 minute segments - listen close next time and you'll see that nearly all F.M. stations follow this format pretty closely. In between all this the jock has to keep 2 or 3 logs. The legal station log which includes a typed format with exact times for legal i.d.'s and commercial spots listing the length and buyer, disc jockey on / off. A music log (not required by law), and the transmitter log which either the jock on duty or a chief engineer must sign. The transmitter readings must be taken every 3 hours and at sign on / off if the station is not 24 hours. This is required by law and any discrepancy must be noted. In addition to thes daily readings, A chief engineer (one who hold an F.C.C. 1st Class Radiotelephone License) must period- ically sign a form stating that to the best of his knowledge everything is in proper working order and that they are transmitting on the proper frequency, etc. In the legal station logs I stated that the exact times were listed for timed or required events, i.e. "12:00 : Legal I.D." "12:15 to 12:16 : Charlies Pizza" "12:16 to 12:16.30 : Larrys Chevron" and so on The jock on duty then has to put the actual times the events occured and initialbeside every event as he does them - if he fails to do so he must explain why i.e. "Charlies Pizza not played due to cart machine failure 'initials'" He must sign his legal name at the top and bottom of each log sheet, time on and time off. These logs must be kept for 2 years before being destroyed. Also of interest, if say the jock has a live person on the phone over the air and that person cuts loose with some obscenities, he must right down the words and the time they were said. Now, in addition to all this, most stations have a recording machine that runs 24 hours a day - this is to protect them in the case of an F.C.C. inquirey. The tape is about 2" wide and the recording head goes back and forth the tape rather than down the middle, and it runs VERY SLOOOWWW. Quality is poor but it's only a safeguard. Well I'd say this is wordy enough so I'll stop. Hope this throws some light on what goes on behind the scenes of radio. Stuart Lewis ssc-vax!stuart
dya@unc-c.UUCP (06/04/84)
References: ssc-vax.174
Oh my God, he's from the Buzz Bennett school of broadcasting. Yes, some
people use hot clocks. This is absolutely what is wrong with radio today,
a carryover from the days of scheduled programmes and such.
Here is a fine example of how radio station programmers have assumed that
"regular as the effect produced by Ex-Lax" programming is what people really
want. Of course, they have been conditioned this way. Of course, I must
disqualify myself, having worked in major market radio too (before deciding
that you can't make money at it...as a jock.)
Hot clocks, three cuts and a commmercial is generally regarded as bad
programming practice EXCEPT for contemporary hit radio stations (and then it
is still a bad practice in my opinions.) Why didn't you mention the obligatory
"drums and call letters" jingles before each song, or those jingle packages
which end on every different note of the scale so that you get a smooth, sexy
transition into the next cut.
My station was the first in the U.S. to run DC-Disco from Drake-Chenault,
which is automated. What was really wild was that they actually advocated
throwing away the book entirely. No hot clocks. Sweep the quarter hours. Long
music sets. No "progressive stimulation" ala Muzak(tm). Other stations in
this market played disco records on a hot clock. The result: the largest
ratings increase in Charlotte radio history in a single book. The station
now runs SuperSoul (medium mix) and is still # 2.
I think that contemporary hit radio stations in general could learn quite
a bit from the experience. There is no "formula" for success, and it certainly
can't be described on a hot clock. Now, there are stations (like WRVQ in
Richmond) which use a computer to select music, but there is absolutely no
proof whatsoever that these techniques can improve ratings.
The shotgun approach to ratings increase never works for long (unless you
are in a major major market where there are enough people to support even a
100 % India-indian format ). Narrowcasting works so well in TV (:-.
I don't doubt that there are stations which still use hot clocks and try
to be as predictable as the motion f the sun. This is obsolete thinking, and
certainly isn't the way to play hardball.
dyamerchant@dartvax.UUCP (06/04/84)
{ Wompa Wompa Wompa }
A few inaccuracies:
If you have an engineer, he tends to keep the transmitter log. Also, in the
FCC's continuing quest to de-control the radio industry, meter readings no
longer have to be kept. However, you need some way to prove that you were
not outside your legal bounds. Some stations do this with an alarm, though
the easiest and cheapest way is to take meter readings. Some stations have
an automatic system for taking readings.
Albums? Albums? What's an album? Top 40 stations tend to avoid albums.
They like singles, and a rotation for a single is a little less fast. An
album will probably have two or three cuts that are being pushed, so it
isn't so much like you're hearing Rush's "Distant Early Warning" every three
hours, but you are probably hearing one of the two or three selected cuts
every three hours. That's how it tends to work at Album Oriented Stations.
Top 40 is very similar. You mentioned a heavy rotation of an hour and a
half for an album. That tends to be avoided except with things that are
both new and hot. A typical (non hit-radio) Top 40 station's piechart
might go something like this:
:00 -- Recent (and probably hot) tune
-- Jocks choice
-- Medium rotation tune
-- Ad Break
-- Music that has "come-and-gone" but isn't a golden oldie yet
-- Golden Oldie
-- Hot tune
-- Jocks Choice
-- Ad Break
-- Medium Rotation Tune
-- Music that has "come-and-gone" but isn't a golden oldie yet
-- Medium Rotation Tune
and we're back to zero. Entirely similar. A hot tune, though, probably
has about four hours rotation (unless, as I said, it's new and hot where
it may be less). Notice, though, the strategic placing of the jocks
choice music so as not to interfere too much. Jocks can't be trusted to
select music. If I go in and play a "Peter Merchant Hit Parade" of all
my favourite tunes, we're leaving out alot of potential tunes that YOU
might like, but I won't play because "Well, gee, I don't like them."
Pretty good job on the article.
--
"We'd be listening to the radio Peter Merchant
so loud and so strong..." -- J. Steinmanab3@stat-l (Rsk the Wombat) (06/05/84)
Y'know, there are an awful lot of stations (let's call them progressive
FM rock for lack of a better term) that don't use this stuff; but still use
somewhat of a formula...
I spent 4 years or so around an NPR affiliate that did rock and jazz
late at night; we tried different formats, too...the one that seemed to be
the least obtrusive was the "Play about 4 cuts or so, run a promo, read the
weather, say something interesting about the next tune, back into music" one.
We did a lot of special things, too...import album shows, and new
releases shows and that sort of thing; sort of broke the monotony.
One thing that the original article had dead on: the logs. There's
a lot to remember and write down, and when you're running the whole show
yourself, you stay pretty busy...*without* answering the phone.
Just for comparison, we kept about 100 new (0-3 months) albums, and
about 300 old albums in the on-air studio.
--
Rsk the Wombat
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