Every week, Lund Media’s music and radio programming pros review music software databases for client radio stations. When we first check a client’s music, we can tell how many program directors or music directors have worked on the software over time, resulting in conflicting rules. Stations often forget to clean out old rules that slow the rotations of the listener’s favorite songs.
Make your music software perfect.
All music software works like a funnel. There’s a big opening at the top with all the songs you might play. Songs drip through the funnel restricted by rules, and fewer songs make the grade.
Depending on how many miles you drive, you take your car in for the required service once a year. When was the last time the music software had a check-up? If it’s been a year, you’re overdue. Give your music software a tune-up. Here are six tips for better music scheduling:
- Clean out unneeded rules. You probably no longer need those “boy band” or Lady A rules you had when you played many new songs by those artists. Find rules that duplicate or conflict with each other. Examine your artist, special artist, and group separation rules.
- Review your tempo controls. Most software programs offer numerous ways to control the pace of your music. It’s best to avoid jarring shifts in tempo and swaths of slow songs. Some PDs prefer to start each sweep or hour with tempo and use rules to stay within a specific speed range. It may be best for the person who schedules the music to establish the tempo coding for consistency.
- Stretch your library. Consider gold recycling from midday to the next overnight. These day parts are largely exclusive listening periods, and you can drive the perception of having a larger library without impacting the rotations of your currents.
- Don’t ask for the impossible. A scheduling rule that says no male artists back-to-back may sound like a good idea for variety, but not if your library is 80% male. The same goes for tempo and genre restrictions. As with tempo, sound coding should be entered by the one person who is responsible for scheduling to achieve consistency.
- Find artist repeats and conflicts. Check your spelling and spacing on artist names, solo versus group artists like Rob Thomas and Matchbox Twenty, and artist collaborations with other artists. Do not use overly long-duration artist separation.
- Refresh your library, especially if your station plays the same songs this week as you did last year. This is essential for gold formats like Classic Rock, Classic Hits, and Classic Country. If you play current music, not all Currents deserve to become Recurrents, and not all Recurrents are strong enough to become Gold.
Regardless of your format, play the hits listeners want to hear.
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John Lund is President of the Lund Media Group, a radio programming consulting firm with specialists in all mainstream radio formats. Did you find this article useful? You can leave a comment below or email John at John@Lundradio.com.