Who among us works in radio?

feel so shitty right now. lots of weird conflict undertones going on. tension between student and community factions. volunteers treated badly. i've been there for ten years and i can't really figure out what's wrong right now. got a good relationship with the GM and we're gonna talk soon but it just sucks. good DJs are leaving. ten years (11 actually) is longer than any job/house/relationship i've had.

if anybody has more specific info regarding FCC policy around student/community ratios and volunteer requirements and such I would love to hear more or get pointed towards info. or if any of y'all have been through upheavals at stations before.

I probably shouldn't even be posting this here.

"if anybody has more specific info regarding FCC policy around student/community ratios and volunteer requirements"

can you be more specific? i'm the operations manager at a college/community station and i might be able to help. you can email me using the email in my user profile if you don't want to talk about it in public.

great, thanks.

lol

Important song note:

Have you heard, seen, downloaded, or otherwise considered the song "Did You Say" by stephaniesid? Please DO NOT play the song!

There are EAS tones in this song, used as sound effects at about the 20-second mark. EAS is the Emergency Alert System and it is prohibited by the FCC to use the tones in any circumstance other than a valid EAS issued by the federal, state, or local agency. It is a big deal too, the FCC fined iHeartMedia $1million for airing the tones in a program. You would recognize the EAS tone if you heard it, all radio and television stations air the tone before and after any Emergency Alert message, an example is here via YouTube.

We have not put this track on rotation. The record label is aware and working to get an edited version out.

So again, DO NOT AIR ANY CONTENT WITH EAS TONES!

Hahaha

regarding recent discussions on the DMCA and the prohibition of multiple songs by the same artist in an hour, I thought I'd c&p this message from our station manager regarding "The Current" and their all-Prince marathon:

spoke with The Current and they are indeed streaming this as well as broadcasting over their FM airwaves. I asked about how they're doing it considering the DMCA rules and was told they are disregarding the rules... they said they may be the test case and they are willing to do that (they have good legal counsel and lots of money). To my knowledge there has not been enforcement against any stations disregarding the artist/time DMCA rules, but as more stations do it, I can see enforcement beginning. As mentioned above, the recording industry is ever-lobbying to protect artist rights (and protect the labels' profits), and the DMCA came from that intent. The DMCA is outdated (it was written based on 1996 treaties), as digital technology has changed a lot, but it is still the rule and we still have to follow it.

So yeah, our manager is not willing to be a DMCA test case, hence the restriction. If you hear a station do this, they are technically violating the DMCA. Hopefully this will get resolved/changed in the courts sometime this decade (especially if stations keep flaunting the rules like this).

This is a long, interesting (if you’re interested) artcile on the new prominence of the Adult/Hot AC formats, but which also touches on lots of other general issues in current radio programming — including the reluctance of pop stations to play hip-hip/R&B, and their corresponding decline in relevance (“Have you looked at a Top 40 chart from 20 years ago — the diversity in styles, artists, tempos?” asks a programmer. “We’ve gotten very safe, very homogenized.”); the “tempo” debate (Top 40 playing too many ballads); the “zero mainstream currency” of rock (“with the exception of Imagine Dragons, ‘the Foreigner of this decade’”), etc.:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/adult-contemporary-radio-hits-millennials-724945/

(I haven’t worked in radio for years, and don’t even really listen, but I still find this stuff interesting!)

The way they're using "millennials" seems odd but I think I'm actually in favour of making generational terms meaningless.

Interesting and helpful piece, though.

Yeah, “millennials” seems to be used as just an all-purpose headline hook.

Hm, is this working differently in Canada (or Ottawa)? Fall 2016 ratings for Ottawa seem to show CBC1 (news, talk) way out front, followed by a Top 40 station, an AM talk radio station, the classic rock station, and then an adult contemporary station, just ahead of CBC2 (a few classical programmes and a mix of mid-tempo bland music of all kinds the rest of the day) and an alternative/modern rock station, which is not very different than what I would have expected and not really showing much evidence of a new prominence of Hot AC. I just checked the Fall 2017 numbers and they show the same thing.

not really showing much evidence of a new prominence of Hot AC

or zero mainstream currency for rock (esp given that CBC2 plays a lot of triple A-type stuff).

OK, looking at radio ratings for Boston makes the article make more sense.

Four AC-related stations ahead of the "alternative" station!

Interesting, though: the closest analogue to CBC is NPR, which doesn't even rate.

Here in the L.A. area, the NPR affiliates are KCRW & KPCC, both of which do make the rankings: https://ratings.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb003

(It's actually interesting to me that KPCC rates higher than KCRW, I would have expected the reverse.)

Anyway, the L.A. chart also seems to illustrate this phenomenon well -- KIIS (the market's big Top 40 station) is #4, and look at #1-3...!

I think there were some affiliates on the Boston list too. They just seem a lot lower, compared to the dominant place of CBC. OMG, though, three AC stations in your top 4! 2xp

which I guess I knew re NPR; just striking to see it documented. Tbh, I had no idea so many people listen to CBC2. It's practically a station designed by music critics.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/ariana-grande-revolutionizing-pop-radio-803279/

(It’s not just about Ariana, btw, lol)

Poor pop radio....such an issue

If each of those marquee artists start pushing four or five singles at once, that would make it difficult for anyone new to get major radio play. This can be especially dangerous at Top 40 radio, further decreasing variety in a format that’s already struggling with what one former promoter calls “lack of diversity.” “It’s hard to make room for other artists,” Graham acknowledges. “I have talks with labels all the time: I would love to get to your song, but when Ari is dropping something [or three somethings], or Bruno and Cardi are coming out, those take the place of other new songs.”

I guess the algorithms tell them they can’t play other people

The thrust of the article is that they actually do want to play other artists, and traditionally try to maintain diversity. What’s not spelled out (b/c it doesn’t need to be) is that no PD wants to turn down a new single from an established superstar.

No pd wants to limit airtime each hour for star’s multiple hits

Well, they want to strike a balance, that’s what makes it a challenge when suddenly the big artists are releasing singles on top of singles.

yeah yeah yeah

https://i.imgur.com/Ghyv9yr.jpg

Between writing, interviewing and radio, the latter was the most fun. God I miss it tons. :-(

headed into my 25th (!!) year volunteering at the local college station, I am on now for another hour-plus

www.kwvaradio.org

coming up on my 32nd anniversary of being on real FM (various Oregon stations), and my 39th of being on cable FM (various Indiana stations). Amazingly I still love it.

Congrats

sweet

39th anniversary! incredible!!

Thanks all!

The cable FM stations didn't really "count" as the signal only available in houses/businesses with cable TV, otoh it was a great place to learn because you could do anything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_radio

Eventually the Indiana station (WQAX) morphed into a full FM community station but it was in the 90's after I left. When I finally got on a real microphone at a real station in 1991, I was nervous as hell!

Went to a DJ meeting tonight and the current group of student staff are, I think, the sharpest and most together and most committed staff I've seen in my whole time there. Super inspiring, the DJ director, music dept, sports, marketing, and news all seem really plugged in and engaged. The station's 30th anniversary is later this month. Go team.