Garnish Music Production School

Music in Radio

Music in Radio

“Keep creating”

 

Terrestrial Radio 

-There are 268 radio markets in the United States.

 

-Market rank is dependent on audience reach.

 

-The top 10 largest markets:

1. New York
2. Los Angeles
3. Chicago
4. San Francisco
5. Dallas – Ft. Worth
6. Houston-Galveston
7. Washington, DC
8. Atlanta
9. Philadelphia
10. Boston

 

One of the biggest differences between terrestrial radio and Internet radio is the limitation of the broadcast market. With traditional radio, radio waves emanate from a transmitter and the population within the radius of the transmission point can only hear the signal.

 

Radio stations want to attract a particular segment of the radio audience and broadcast its favorite music.

 

As an ad supported medium, station managers start by identifying audience segments in a given metropolitan area that have appeal to advertisers.

 

They then select a program format expected to attract that audience after assessing whether there is room for them to compete in that segment.

 

Demographics

• Audience Identification & Market Research: audience research based on demographic studies (location, age, gender, economic status, and other characteristics of potential audience.

 

Research methods

• Station Rating: calculated by the % of potential audience listening to station at a particular time.
• For example: If station has a rating of 5.2 at noon on weekdays, that means that of every 1,000 households surveyed, 52 were listening to that station at noon on a weekday.

 

Sets In Use: a count of the actual # of homes w/ radios turned on.

• If the market had 100,000 households and 62.4% of the sampled homes had radios turned on, then sets in use would be projected at 62,400.

 

Audience Share: measures comparative popularity of a program being broadcast at a particular time.

• For example: If a show has a 10.1 share, that means that, of the homes that had their sets turned on, 10.1% were listening to that particular program at that particular time.
• It essentially compares Station Ratings of different stations.

 

Spectrum of Formats

• Commercial radio stations programming music tend to devote themselves to one type of music, which makes the station a destination for the audience segment devoted to that genre.

 

See table 19.2 on page 329 for America’s Top Radio Formats.

 

Pop Contemporary Hit Radio (Top 40) –repetition of short list of popular songs…for teens, young adults

 

Adult Contemporary –broad category w/ many subcategories (ie Hot AC & Adult Top 40)-sprinkles in oldies (usually not more than a decade old), among current hits

 

Country -today, a mix of Pop-Country & Country-Rock…nowadays, found all across the nation

 

Urban Contemporary -music rooted in a predominantly black, inner-city audience (R&B, hip-hop, & rap)…appeal is broader than inner city demographic

 

Album-Oriented Rock -lengthy rock songs & laid-back DJs are its hallmarks

 

Oldies -songs from 1 or more prior decades

 

New Adult Contemporary (or Smooth Jazz)-up-tempo version of easy listening=light insts. & soft vox

 

Alternative Music -popular music that doesn’t fit into mainstream rock or pop formats (ie reggae, techno, & world music)

 

Christian -several variants, including gospel & modern up-tempo music expressing faith/pro-family themes

 

National Public Radio: segment of the FM broadcast band set aside for schools, colleges, civic entities, & others who devote their programming to edu., the arts, & other kinds of nonprofit enterprise

•  Alternative music and lesser-known recording artists are sometimes featured
• Receptive to special programming: classical, electronic, avant-garde, and even campus recitals & faculty/student concerts
• They do not accept most forms of commercial advertising
• Funding: federal, state, city, & private donations

 

How Commercial Radio Stations Work: 

• 1996 Telecommunications Act = consolidation of ownership of stations, management structure
• Staffing-BEFORE the 1996 Telecommunications Act, usually one general manager, PD,  marketing & promotions director for 1 or 2 stations…
• AFTER the Act: one of each of these people now run numerous stations in a given city (book says 6) = media cross-ownership (AND this generates tight playlists, or little variation).
• Programming -songs USED TO land on a station’s playlist based on 3 things: local sales, requests, and music director’s gut instinct.
• Today, music selections often made by a radio group’s corporate branch (the higher-ups).
• Payola scandals (music promoters bribing DJs to play their artists’ music) common up until the late 1950s, less common today.
• In a typical week, 10-15 songs are added into & dropped out of rotation (only a handful of songs are chosen for the prime spots, called heavy rotation-EXPOSURE)
• Clustering -the separate grouping of songs together & the same for commercials (instead of song-commercial-song-commercial)
• Pacing -deals with various sequences of song tempos (ie medium-slow-fast), song style, the type of act (ie solo artist-group-solo artist).

 

Networks and Syndication: when independent production companies package complete programs, then license them to stations.

• ie Howard Stern Show and other national talk show superstars.
• One consequence: a lot of local talent is displaced by syndicated shows.
• Ryan Seacrest:

–https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Air_with_Ryan_Seacrest

-https://onairwithryan.iheart.com/howtolisten/

 

Satellite Subscription Radio -launched in 2001 & now dominated by Sirius XM Radio // heavily geared to the car radio market.

• Over 135 channels, most w/o commercials.
• Abundance of niche music channels (specific music groups or eras of music), as well as mainstream music and talk radio channels.

 

Internet Radio (“Webcasting”) -ie Pandora-streams continuous audio, available around the globe

• Channels range from free (usually w/ ads) to ad-free programming for subscription paying listeners.