Get The Music Right

The cornerstone of top-rated radio stations can be summarized in the 3 M's -- Music, Mornings and Marketing. Playing the best-researched music in a correct rotation is essential. Every week, The Lund Consultants review music software databases for stations. When we first look at music for a client, we can often tell how many program directors or music directors have worked on the software over time. Sadly, there is a tendency to add new rules for music scheduling without cleaning out the old and tired ones.

All music software works like a funnel. There's a big opening at the top with all the songs you might play. Before songs drip from the bottom of the funnel to actual airplay, they are squeezed by the narrowing of the funnel. The more rules and restrictions, the fewer the songs that make the grade.

Give your music software a tune-up. The Lund Consultants offer these five tips for better music scheduling:

1. Clean out unneeded rules. You may not need those "boy band" rules you had when you played 15 songs by 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys. Also watch for rules that duplicate or conflict with each other.

2. Use the right tempo controls. Most software programs offer numerous ways to control the pace of your music. Avoid jarring shifts in tempo and swaths of slow songs. Consider starting each sweep or hour at a higher pace, and use rules to stay within a speed range.

3. Stretch your library. Use gold recycling from midday to the next overnight. These are largely exclusive listening periods, and you can vary the actual mix of songs by not recycling currents and recurrents.

4. Don't ask for the impossible. Having a scheduling rule that says no male artists back-to-back may sound like a good move for variety, but not if your library is 80% male artists. The same goes for tempo restrictions.

5. Avoid artist repeats and conflicts. Check your spelling and spacing on artist names, as well as solo versus group artists like Phil Collins and Genesis or Rob Thomas and Matchbox Twenty.

Get Fresh! Follow these suggestions to keep your music sounding fresh.

Recurrent Chute: Recurrents are the songs that change most in callout, influenced by "burn" scores and the power of the "next current" by the same artist. For that reason, and because power recurrents test so differently from their counterparts, the Lund Consultants use a test score system to force the weakest recurrents to the next lower tier or to rest by keeping a constant number of songs. Our Rankers are designed with this in mind. By keeping recurrents loaded with the best songs and forcing the weakest out of the chute each week, overall music quality improves.

Platooning and Resting Policies: Gold categories can be freshened by creating a regular resting program to rotate songs in and out of airplay. We suggest resting the most-played songs in each category for regular intervals. Music Master has a wonderful auto-platoon function for this, while PowerGold and Selector allow for future moves to be made manually after running a "most played" report. Use an objective most-played process to avoid resting songs that someone only thinks are heard too often.

Re-ordering, Spread and Shuffle: Most music software has a command for shuffling songs. This is great for breaking order patterns. Do this around the time of syndicated weekend shows to lessen any quick repeats.

In Book/Out of Book Songs: Some stations run larger libraries outside ratings sweeps, leaning on the proven short list of hits during survey time. This also keeps the best songs from scoring higher burnout levels. Continuous measurement markets require a judicious rest and restore policy.

Consider hiring an independent firm to analyze and tune-up your software.