MusicONE Search / Archive

What does an old pro have to say about how an AI does radio?For the middle third of my career, I was an independant radio programming consultant.  Managers and owners hired guys like me to improve the sound and the ratings of their radio stations. One of the things I did was to prepare written critiques of my client station. …

Positioning – The Battle For Your MindMusic radio is a self-taught craft. To be more successful, read all you can find about media. “Positioning – The Battle For Your Mind” was published in the early 80s. It has a big influence on the thinking of radio program directors at the time.  It’s simple lessons can still inspire new ideas about…

For CHR and Other Today’s Hits Radio StationsThe fact is new and unfamiliar songs are the number one reason listeners switch stations.  This is particularly true with teen-to-thirty-year olds, who also are the most eager consumers of new music. These folks like new music a lot.  But they only like the new music that they Like!  The thing they like the…

It used to be a lot easier.When yours was the only Top 40, or only Country, or only R & B station in town, you could afford to make a lot of mistakes.  The mistakes being:  Playing stiffs.  Non-Hit songs.  The songs that cause some listeners to switch stations.  If yours was the only station in town with your music…

Identify Your Station. Identify Your Station. Identify Your Station.At first, saying your call-letters once between the records was sufficient; listeners easily remembered the station when it was the only one in town playing their type of music. Then music listeners moved to FM and there were more and more choices. Then the streaming tsunami and the number of listening options…

It Wasn’t Always This WayIn the beginning, you played a song, you played some commercials.  You played another song, you played some more commercials. In the late 60’s, FM Album Rock stations appeared. They were the anti-Top 40 and their positioning and formatting tactic was to cluster the commercials in one or two Spot breaks an hour. Worked for them. …

1951, Todd Storz and the 45 rpm Record 

There’s this old music radio saying:  It’s what’s between the records that counts.