Although I may agree with you on the idea that radio is over-researched. I'm going to address your points here and perhaps you'll get some answrs. They may not be what you
want to read. but, they will turn out to be the
truth.1) When Eddie Vedder's "Big Hard Sun" was released, I yelled at everyone within earshot that we (the Blitz) should be playing that song. Sure, it was an Eddie Vedder solo song but let's be real, it was Pearl Jam. Now here you are with a station that relies heavily on Pearl Jam's back catalogue and you are NOT going to play the best Pearl Jam song in a decade? Why? It has exactly what every program director should be looking for when you are running a new rock format, a song that is both new, but more importantly, familiar. You don't have to break it, it's broke, it's there, it's fresh while being immediately recognizable. Alas my cries fell upon deaf ears and I turned it up every time I heard 106.7 play it. Reminds me of when I was doing mornings in Baltimore with WIYY the "heritage" rock station and Russ Mottla PD laughed at me when I implored him to add Bruce Springsteen's "Philidelphia" to the place list. You're the "heritage" rock station and you don't add the new Springteen? Who the f**k is more heritage than him? Well, the song went on to win an Oscar and Mottla went on to the unemployment line. Dump research! You don't need research to tell you that if Eddie Vedder puts out a great Pearl Jam song, and you are "New Rock" you play it!
...."great" is your subjective opinion. The reality is, that song isn't doing anything. Anywhere.
No station in America has played the song more than 170 times. It's getting less than 2 spins/day on average. The audience doesn't care. It's been out 4 months and is primarily played at AAA. Not Rock, Not Alternative. Mostly AAA. That means it's not considered a "great" or "new" song by Rock listeners. And, neither was the Springsteen song. Yes, it is a great piece of music. But, it wasn't something
Rock listeners
wanted on
their favorite station. When choosing the new music to play on a Rock station, you must be true to the brand. You
must satisfy the audience's expectations for what they want from your station. That new Eddie Vedder song isn't it. The people have spoken. Nationally. If they wanted the song, it would be getting played. This may not be what you want to hear. But that's how it works. The song got run up the flagpole. Nobody saluted.
2) Think outside of the box and outside of research enough to play within that same format a great "rock" song like Queens of the Stone Age's "Go With The Flow." Sure some may say it's alternative but that line is blurred in this modern age.
Another fine example of narrow-thinking.
Here's the horrible thing you're going to read in this post. We are no longer in the music education business. We are in the mass-appeal business. The masses decide what we play. And Queens...aren't mass-appeal. Nickelback...sells millions. Queens? Not so much. And we cater to the largest audience possible. That's what business does. It serves the largest customer base possible.
Why didn't we play the new Cult?
Because the masses didn't crave new Cult music.
Why didn't we play Kings Of Leon?
Because it doesn't serve the brand of (at the time) The Blitz.
They are as legitimately rock as anything else the Blitz played and more so than The Beastie Boys and Red Hot Chili Peppers that we played too much of. Bottom line, don't let listeners dictate the play list, don't let research dictate the play list, let the music dictate the play list.
Did you really just say this?
"don't let listeners dictate the play list"Just to illustrate the (because I'm trying to be nice) "questionable thinking" being presented with this one statement, I'd like you to read this:
"Don't let the buyer decide the options on their car."
"Don't let the patron choose their meal"
"Don't let people think for themselves"
If we were to actually enact this concept. We'd be programming to the cast of "Hi Fidelity." And all 6 of them would complain we weren't cool enough.
And who wants to buy ad time on a station with 6 listeners?
I agree that we need to make radio cooler. We need to expose new music. But, there needs to be a
balance. People LOVE Led Zeppelin Mo. They LOVE Metallica's "Enter Sandman" We shouldn't deny them what they love. We should do a
better job of exposing them to the
right new songs between the songs they love. The key to doing this, is to hire knowledgeable, music-savvy people. Professionals who can
connect with the audience. Who the
audience believes in to serve them the best music. And who the
audience trusts will only give them what
they want. And will
stop playing the songs they don't. We don't do that. We serve them "ten in a row" and "the most new rock." The audience doesn't really want those things. Those are silly buzzwords that some marketing douche dropped into a focus group, and says "makes us sound hip." No listeners you run into, will ever tell you they listen because you play "non-stop rock blocks." They just want the best music. New? Old? It doesn't matter.
They just want what they want.Sounding hip, and dictating pop culture is
not what radio is supposed to do. it's supposed to be
the place where pop culture goes to be among their own. Somewhere along the line, we stopped
listening to them, and started
telling them what was cool. It
never works like that. We can give them something unfamiliar, and
try to get them to embrace it. But,
we have to accept that
they will only embrace what they want. And when they do...we must give it to them. The audience are the
only people we should listen to.Your concept couldn't be more wrong.
If I heard one more time how the Blitz listeners would go for such a song I was going to throw up. The Blitz listeners weren't going anywhere because that was the only station playing what they wanted to hear, thusly, expand the playlist and the narrow minds of many that listened to the Blitz and tell them, this is a great song, deal with it.
And that line of thinking will get you nowhere. If their only outlet doesn't play what they want to hear, they don't listen. And the people want to hear Nickleback. There's no dictating taste. There is,
serving their wants. That's our job. Hurts don't it?
