• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Does your CCM station edit or shorten songs?

WPHA said:
As I said... MOST of the time, those edits come directly from the Record Companies, themselves.

In my case, it was actually VERY FEW songs that required this editing on my part.

I was the Music Director for WFIF for 17 years. With a very small staff, I was also the Morning Announcer, Chief Engineer, Traffic Manager, Production Manager, and phone-answerer. I talked to a good number of listeners. They very much appreciated the sound and style of the music we played. It was also the decision of my bosses, and they were pleased with the job I was doing. For about 16 of those 17 years, they basically gave me almost complete autonomy over the music. The listeners loved it, so Management was pleased.

If that isn't a win-win, then I'm sorry.
Click to expand...

Christian labels have commonly serviced stations with singles that have many different edits and mixes (Intro, edit, Bridge edit, guitars down, etc.). The mainstream side does it as well, but CCM does it to an extreme, sometimes trying to get songs to chart in 3-4 different formats (CHR, Rock, AC, INSPO).

It's kind of ridiculous, IMHO.
 
joelr said:
Christian labels have commonly serviced stations with singles that have many different edits and mixes (Intro, edit, Bridge edit, guitars down, etc.). The mainstream side does it as well, but CCM does it to an extreme, sometimes trying to get songs to chart in 3-4 different formats (CHR, Rock, AC, INSPO).

It's kind of ridiculous, IMHO.
Click to expand...

I remember that - in the CD's the labels sent to WAPN. We occasionally could make use of the rock cut - but we ended up making many trips to Orlando to Long's Christian bookstore - screening music there, and spending our own money on CD's. The labels were already pushing lukewarm praise and worship stuff on Christian stations in the early 90's. It sure left the remaining REAL ccm stations and Christian rock stations scrambling to find music that fit our formats. It paid off, though, in fantastic ratings - we beat the local top-40 in our timeslot - even though the station was useless preaching and praise & worship music the rest of the time. It is really telling when people purposely tune in a station they ignore the rest of the week for one radio show. We resisted the praise and worship movement until a new Hot AC CCM station signed on in the area.
 
joshzz said:
Not all songs are shortened by the radio stations. We oftentimes choose the radio edit version that the record labels send us.

The ideal song will last 2:50 - 3:40. Oftentimes the album cuts you download on itunes, etc., are just too long.

When I was a kid I remember the Beatles song, Hey Jude lasted about 7:11. I don't remember any station playing the full version.
Click to expand...
The radio station I listen to most played a shortened version of "Hey Jude" on the morning show. After Mike Huckabee's three-minute commentary at 8:30 they have three or four commercials and the weather, then the six songs called the Six-Pack, usually the six moist requested but sometimes the Name That Tune and the other five requested songs. Then more commercials and Henry Mancini's "Mr. Lucky Theme" if we're lucky, though the morning DJ, who owns the station, usually talks if there is time after those last commercials. There's not time for John to scream, for which I am grateful, though I've only heard the song twice in all the years I've listened.

I would like to know what watered down Praise and Worship sounds like because I don't even think i would like that. The most contemporary songs I know of that I can actually like are "El Shaddai" by Amy Grant and, while it's too touchy-feely for me it is the type of music I like, "I Can Only Imagine".
 
vchimpanzee said:
The most contemporary songs I know of that I can actually like are "El Shaddai" by Amy Grant and, while it's too touchy-feely for me it is the type of music I like, "I Can Only Imagine".
Click to expand...

Amy Grant is about as mellow as we would ever play - but when I did a show for a friend of mine, I did an Amy Grant special that impressed the station owner so much, he insisted we send a copy to Amy. As for "I Can Only Imagine" - great lyrics, awful musical score. It did not fit our format. Most of the songs on so-called CCM stations for the past 16 to 18 years are praise and worship. CCM before that was rather closely aligned musically with secular top-40, perhaps a step down in tempo. The few CCM stations that bucked the trend to praise and worship got no support from record labels and even less (in our case) from station owners. Now - the stranglehold of praise and worship is beginning to weaken. The internet and streaming gives people a choice, plus the pioneers in the Christian rock movement survived and thrived for the most part. Some pioneer stations like WCIE have been destroyed, but others have sprung up to take their place.
 
I may have been thinking of "You Raise Me Up". Whatever I heard it was on the Muzak in a store. I don't like touchy-feely, but it was my kind of music.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I may have been thinking of "You Raise Me Up". Whatever I heard it was on the Muzak in a store. I don't like touchy-feely, but it was my kind of music.
Click to expand...

I've got nothing against praise and worship music - it has its fans. But, not on my show. Christian rock and Hot-AC formats are aimed at younger audiences that are un-reached by praise and worship music, and therefore the vast majority of CCM stations. I have yet to find a single young person that preferentially listens to praise and worship music or P&W CCM stations. But my latest "adopted" kid listened to NGEN for half an hour in my car and loved it. Even to the point of wanting an aftermarket HD radio to get it, but I showed her how to stream it on her phone.
 
I love that song. Selah does an awesome version of it. Plan on playing it.

Dan <>< (R.D.P.)

P.S. Unless I like the remix version of a song better, plan on playing the album version of every song you'll hear on WPJB-LP.
 
rbrucecarter5 said:
No. He said he heard it on muzak, I guess it is awful enough it was actually suitable for muzak play.
Click to expand...
The store gets its music from "corporate". I don't know that they get it from Muzak. Usually the store plays Mainstream AC but I seeem to recall the music being softer on at least one occasion. Still, Josh Groban is quite a surprise. And he seems too serious to be the wacko on "The Crazy Ones".
 
Off the top of my head, the only song I can definitely confirm hearing was edited for radio (either that was recorded by my parents before I was born or myself) was a WXRI playing of Servant's "Surrender" around March 1986 (cutting the instrumental break and de-emphasizing the drums toward the end of when the chorus is sung the first time).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom