Hi folks, got caught up in some library work and forgot to mail this out
yesterday.
This week's playlist winner is Alina Graiznova, host of The No Name Show,
Wednesdays 4-5 PM. Alina played a track from Kitty Prozac's new album (#240 on
the playlist) and wins a CD from the promo box.
Keep exploring the playlist for underheard and underplayed albums. Playing
music not being played by other DJs is a great way to keep your show unique and
interesting!
--
For this week's programming tip, we're going to look at using charts to help
your programming, where to find them and what they are used for
When we say the word "charts" in reference to radio, we're almost always
talking about popularity charts, that is, charts that are published by stations
and publications like Billboard or Earshot, that represent the most popular
albums or singles at the time the chart is published. Charts are used
everywhere in the music industry. For commercial radio stations, they usually
publish the most popular singles played or requested on their station over a
week's time. For campus radio, the charts are almost always album charts,
focusing on the most popular full albums or EPs at the station at that time.
Publications like Billboard has charts like the Top albums, Top singles, plus
charts for dance music, country music, comedy albums, etc. The point is that
charts have a vast amount of information that you can tap into, but accessing
what that information means might be a bit confusing.
First, let's talk about how charts are created. In commercial radio, charts are
usually compiled by the most popular songs of a given week, as picked by the
DJs playing the songs, or by requests from listeners, or both. Billboard
compiles its charts from radio airplay, and airplay from streaming services
like Spotify and Youtube. In campus radio, there are a bunch of different
models used. The most common is by airplay, so the DJs of the campus station
choose their favourite new albums by playing them on the air, and the music
director compiles charts based upon that airplay, with the album getting the
most airplay ending up in the #1 position. This is what our station does. Other
stations might use a request system, either from listener requests or by
programmers voting on their favourite albums of the week. Some stations use a
hybrid model of DJ play and requests/voting. And some stations will work by the
suggestions of the music director themselves, with the music director choosing
what goes on to the charts. Because every campus station is different, each
station may do something different depending on how the music department works.
Stations need to produce charts to keep music flowing into the station. Airing
music on your show helps make the charts every week, and it also shows artists,
record companies and distributors that the music they've sent to the station
gets played. Ultimately, the chart shows the most popular albums of the week,
in whatever way that information might be tabulated. These charts are send out
to the people that make and distribute music so that our station can keep music
coming in. It's a constant flow of music and conversation between our station
and the music makers. You can see all of our charts on our website at [
https://thex.ca/top-30-charts/ ;| https://thex.ca/top-30-charts/ ] which also ;
has our Top 10 bi-weekly charts in jazz, worldbeat, metal, electronic, hip-hop,
roots, blues and classical. It is updated every week. The charts are also
posted on the bulletin board in the on air booth for your convenience.
Charts are also aggregated (or combined) by services like Earshot Online ( [
https://www.earshot-online.com/ ;| https://www.earshot-online.com/ ] ;) or NACC (
[ https://naccchart.com/ ;| https://naccchart.com/ ] ;), who will take all the
charts from across campus radio and compile them into a Top 50 albums of the
week chart. This also gets updated every week and published on their websites.
The Earshot charts tell you the most popular albums of the week across Canada,
along with charts for jazz, roots, electronic, etc. Earshot is a great resource
to see what's being played across the country and to find out about new bands.
Often, there will be links to social media and to other station's website, so
you can check out what's going on on their stations, and get more information
about bands that might be popular there. Use this information to scout out new
music. You may even want to contact other programmers at these stations and see
what's interesting them in the local music scene, especially if they have a
show similar to yours.
So, how you use the information in the charts is up to you. You may look at a
chart and see a band you are unfamiliar with, and it may spur you to find the
band's music and play it on your own show. For our own charts, if you see a
band on the charts that you haven't played yet, you can seek out the album,
give it a listen, then play it on your show. Find out who played the album on
their show (the logs are all up on our website) and see if they have any
insights on the band. You can also mention their chart position when you play
the album; you can say "Here's (band name) who are at #17 on our charts this
week". Alternately, you may look at our charts and see that something is
getting a lot of play, and move in the opposite direction and choose not to
play them at all, since they're already being played on other shows. This is an
excellent way to keep your show unique and avoid repeating music that has
already been played.
Other station's charts are also a great way to learn about new music. Often,
campus stations are playing local music, music that simply isn't being played
outside of their city. Digging into those bands is a fantastic way to bring
more music into your show, and to keep it unique. Contact the bands, buy their
music, and ask them to send it to our music department so everyone here can
check it out. Always look for opportunities to expand your range and get your
show playing things that other show's aren't playing. It's a vital skill to
learn to keep your show unique and interesting.
Remember the specialty charts too. Our station, as well as most others, produce
jazz, blues, roots, metal and other kinds of charts. The same ideas can be
applied to these charts. Look for albums you haven't played yet in those
charts, listen to them and use them in your show. Alternatively, you could
avoid the more popular albums in the current genre and choose not to play them
in favour or something that hasn't been played yet.
--
Steve Marlow, Programming Coordinator
CFBX 92.5 FM www.thex.ca
Campus/Community Radio for TRU and Kamloops
