It All Sounds The Same

[MikefromDelaware]

Thank you GRC.  It is complicated.

[nitnitr]

Thank you GRC.  It is complicated.

It is complicated, so that is why our station is licensed through a licensing agency as an Internet station under an umbrella license. If we ever get big enough, we'll go to direct licensing, which likely isn't all that far off, humbly speaking.

Podcasts are handled differently, and will cost more, as a per download instance, as another member posted.

SOG is a fine program though, and I love Larry Wayne (KLOVE talent), and more often than not, he hosts the show. Gator Gaynor hosts the rock shows. Gator is a former EMF employee, and now residing in New Mexico as a PD at a local station in Farmington.

As for the original topic, there is a lot out there that sounds the same. Many of the Indies have a different sound, one of which I love out of West Virginia, called Sons Of Thunder, a recent group I came upon. Their music is Christian Rock or CHR, and outside the mainstream AC sound, but they are solid with the sound, and also with the lyrics. They are always God honoring. Check them out if you ever have the time, or you can contact me if you need their info.

The issue with Indies, more often than not, is the production of the music. Small studios often are not up to par with what the major studios can produce, and the sound engineers, though often excellent, are limited to what they have to work with. I know this from my own experience. You can only do so much tweaking.

Personally, I hate the homogenous sound from mainstream AC Christian radio, but deal with it while programming LMTTRR. I get in more indies than most, and also more outside the "norm" as it pertains to AC Christian radio. Wish other stations would do the same. There are some real gems that don't get heard, and likely more than I will ever find. So much good music out there, besides Chris Tomlin, Casting Crowns and the like (not dissing them), but there is so much good Christian music many have never heard, and we need to expose for the glory of God!

[jhguthlac]

I, like many people, have grown so tied over the years of stations with a limited playlist.  Smooth Jazz killed itself withsuch a policy.  AC CCM can suffer the same fate, unfortunatly.

[WPHA]

I, like many people, have grown so tied over the years of stations with a limited playlist.  Smooth Jazz killed itself with such a policy.  AC CCM can suffer the same fate, unfortunately.

K-Love already drove my Wife and I away with the constant repetition. It is as though the station is deliberately programmed for people who seldom listen. We love their airstaff, they are excellent! We just got so TIRED of the SAME SONGS over and over, ad nauseam, for such extended amounts of time! I've not listened regularly to the station since October. Just the other day, I tuned in for about 15 minutes. It was as though I was still listening in October.

When you hear the exact SAME SONGS, every three hours like clockwork, that's just too much. Even my Mom, who ONLY listens while driving to/from local errands, has gotten tired of the repetition! She loves the music, but is sick of "the same songs all the time".

[Rick Rose 2.0]

This is often the case of people saying one thing and behaving another.

Tight playlisted, constant playing of the hits is what draws the most audience. I tried the variety of Salems XM Fish years ago and the wide playlist gave us many poor songs. I kind of gave up on the local fish because they are ac and i prefer hot ac/chr and i know they follow the tight playlist formula along with industry standard KLTY.

[xmusicmatt]

This is often the case of people saying one thing and behaving another.

Tight playlisted, constant playing of the hits is what draws the most audience. I tried the variety of Salems XM Fish years ago and the wide playlist gave us many poor songs. I kind of gave up on the local fish because they are ac and i prefer hot ac/chr and i know they follow the tight playlist formula along with industry standard KLTY.

Exactly -- the Majority wants only the hits and the hits repeated... I know there a few out there that feel different but the majority wins... I face the same thing with my internet station, I have a wider playlist and play some indie stuff (great quality but not Toby, Chris Tomlin every hour..) and honestly listenership suffers due to it.

[MikefromDelaware]

Problem is, each of us have songs we really like, some we'll tolerate, and other that make us station surf.  The fly in the ointment is that list is different for each listener with common songs on everyone's list.  Those consultants tell the stations which songs those are and that's what they play.  Those of us who prefer a wider variety make terrible demos as we just can't stay with one station all day long.  After a while that station's music is repeating and we change stations, but apparently the majority will sit there and listen (makes you wonder are they really listening??) to the same songs over and over day in and day out.  It is what it is.

[brian.marchand]

I agree. I do not understand how people can listen to the same few songs over and over year after year. I am thinking of Air1 and K-Love especially. In the past I could only listen to Air1 a couple times a year and hear the same songs. For over a year I only listen to classical music now. 

[WPHA]

My point is that the repetition is TOO much, and for TOO LONG! 

Yes, I like certain songs, and it's nice to hear them a few times a day for a while... but not for OVER A YEAR! That's what K-Love is doing with some songs... you hear them over and over again, every day, for a YEAR or so.  My Wife is VERY tolerant of hearing the same songs over and over... and even *SHE* got totally sick and tired of the constant repetition after a few months. 

The key to the wider playlist, is making sure you don't have any "poor" quality songs! Surely, playlists have been archived for YEARS and so have the songs... why not mix-into the "currents" library, oodles of "top 30" Christian songs from the past 20 years? All hits... but with a WHOLE LOT more variety!

I work for a station that is playing currents *AND* songs from years ago. Our listeners constantly tell us how much they love the variety! (The station only started playing currents more often in the past couple of years, and listeners have expressed their appreciation!) 

[nitnitr]

Air 1 and KLOVE do repeat a lot, but it works for them, or they wouldn't keep doing it. These folks have money for research, so know their target audience. I applied for a job there recently (live in the Rocklin, CA area, and didn't get the job, but came close-a shameless plug) but know KLOVE is targeting the female audience in the middle age range, so if you don't like that music, there are plenty of stations on the web that will satisfy your need for Christian music.

On another note, I am like XMusic, in that the station I program isn't a cookie cutter station, or in the mold of a station only catering to the music charts. LMTTRR is more of a hot AC/CHR station, which is what I like, and being on the Internet, can do some improvising with the format. It works for us, and so will stick with it. There are plenty of indies in rotation, plus a lot of the current charted music too.

Listeners are fickle too, and channel hop. It is nice to have loyal listeners, but that isn't always the case, so repeating the hits, so to speak, will allow the channel hoppers to hear the current music, even though that isn't what I like myself.