cold segues

I certainly didn't pay as much attention back then as I do now, but I don't remember stations ever using cold segues, seems there was some element of imaging between every single song, whether that was a jock break, a piece of imaging, or a jingle, and there are still plenty of stations run this way. The question is though, when and why did stations start doing this? They're not as bad as they used to be, but a few years ago, especially at night, my local Hot AC, KPLZ, would play 4 songs in a row with no imaging.

KXXO still uses a lot of cold segues.

That doesn't answer the question. They've always been bland presentation wise, but I don't remember quite so many cold segues even there.

I'm probably not equipped to answer the question as I have not been around the business (and or alive) nearly long enough to see how these programming choices were executed over the years. There are stations out there that elect to fade songs into the next track (which I personally would define as a style of segue other than "cold" as it usually sounds pretty flawless even without imaging). I've heard this more often on rock radio stations (like KZOK). It's definitely not as common as it used to be, though.

Yeah I think I know what you're talking about, and have heard KZOK do this once myself. I do kind of like it, but many stations, like KPLZ, still cold segue even without the crossfading you describe. I'm only a couple years older than you, and as I said didn't really pay attention when I was little, but it appears as if, at least in airchecks that I've heard and from what I remember, stations always used to put some sort of imaging in between songs.

bobdavcav said:

Yeah I think I know what you're talking about, and have heard KZOK do this once myself. I do kind of like it, but many stations, like KPLZ, still cold segue even without the crossfading you describe. I'm only a couple years older than you, and as I said didn't really pay attention when I was little, but it appears as if, at least in airchecks that I've heard and from what I remember, stations always used to put some sort of imaging in between songs.

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Just making an educated guess here, but I would think that (on average) the type of segue that you are talking about occurred more often when stations used cart tapes. It's less involved to go from one tape to the next than to add some sort of imaging. Now that we use software (such as AudioVault), it's easy just to throw in liners between each track without the talent having to do it themselves. It does surprise me that KPLZ still operates that way if they could just as easily add some sort of imaging.

fordranger797 said:

Just making an educated guess here, but I would think that (on average) the type of segue that you are talking about occurred more often when stations used cart tapes. It's less involved to go from one tape to the next than to add some sort of imaging. Now that we use software (such as AudioVault), it's easy just to throw in liners between each track without the talent having to do it themselves. It does surprise me that KPLZ still operates that way if they could just as easily add some sort of imaging.

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This is great: Two 20 year-olds discussing "the good old days"! Sorry, couldn't resist.

DavidEduardo said:

In the era of all-cart operations we were in the diary ratings system. In those days, it was vital to image a station as often as possible.

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While giving the call letters and dial location isn't vital anymore in the PPM world, it's important to BRAND your station. That's the role imaging plays today, and why stations still run imaging between songs. You want to tie your brand to the hit songs your station plays. Today, Program Directors are called Brand Managers. Air talent can be called Brand Communicators. Their goal is not only to get you to listen to the radio station, but also visit the website, engage in social media with the talent, and attend local station events. Consistency is important in branding. Repetition is important in branding. The same tricks that worked in the diary days are being applied now for branding.

semoochie said:

This is great: Two 20 year-olds discussing "the good old days"! Sorry, couldn't resist.

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Another 20 year old chiming in here... David Eduardo is correct in terms of why there were little to no cold segues in the dairy days. Today with PPM, a big goal (from what I know) is to keep everything very music intensive. One way to sweep through the music quickly (and to avoid a tune out) is adding cold segue between songs. This is also why jock breaks have become shorter.

semoochie said:

This is great: Two 20 year-olds discussing "the good old days"! Sorry, couldn't resist.

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Lol I know. David does bring up an interesting point that I often forget though, largely because overall, the sound of radio stations doesn't seem to have changed too dramatically over the past 30 years. What makes great radio today is the same as what made great radio 30 years ago, and not every station cold transitions. If iHeart does anything right, it's this. One cold segue an hour is acceptable in my book. Where it gets excessive is on stations even like WQAL, which you'd think would run pretty hot. Instead, they only run imaging every other song.

In smaller markets, you can get away with more. We use extended song intros to blend our liners, and the intros for DJ talk time. We get our branding, and the music continues to roll. Everyone is happy.

The extended song intros are another thing I'm largely against as well, but they don't, in the grand scheme of things, make the station sound so boring. They aren't exclusive to smaller markets either, one of my local CHRs in a major market used them until fairly recently.

We usually use intros for songs that have cold intros (our time is limited to pull all of the potential songs that would crash into a liner). However, if you have a upbeat segue with a lame (or quiet) intro, it is sometimes a negative. We use it on selected titles.

So yes, there are advantages and disadvantages.

I'd be interested to hear your station, but I hear you limit the stream to your two states. I'm not a fan of the extended intros because to me, they say "we're going to keep the music going at all costs." I don't understand what the issue is with a small gap between songs when a jock is talking? In most stations I've heard, breaks aren't that long, so it shouldn't be too difficult. I'm not even sure how well it works. I remember one time when we were in the car coming back from my grandpa's, listening to the Classic Hits station. A song with an extended intro as it was came on, DJ talking over it. My parents who were in control of the radio, flipped the station before he was done.

We are a high energy Rhythmic AC. Any stop or pause in the presentation would be like running fingers down a chalkboard.

I'm an old radio guy. (My age equals 3.5 twenty year olds.) My musical taste is MOR and Beautiful Music. The stations I worked at didn't use imaging, so if I did a "cold segue" between two songs there wasn't any image thrown in. I didn't segue every set of songs, but only when I pre-announced one song and back announced the second one. The crossfading was an art and nicely done.

Beautiful music stations don't crossfade. They choose to have silence between songs and commercials. I remember other beautiful music stations doing the same back in the early to late sixties when I discovered FM radio.

During the years I had a webstream (Small Broadcasters License) my software of choice did beautiful crossfades (without an image track thrown in). I loved the way it sounded. But then, that's what I wanted. I was old school and proud of it. ;-)

Just my two cents.

You know, that's what I've heard. Did any other formats do that that you know of in that time? I've heard mostly top 40 or mor stations from that era, and there aren't any there. Come to think of it, I couldn't tell you when they started becoming fairly common, but I'm pretty sure it was within the last 15 years or so.

Hi.

I really didn't follow too many other formats. A friend of mine worked at a station that had a Schaefer 800 automation system. The station used it to fill weekends and overnights with music using one of the four tape decks to play "voice tracks" recorded by the weekday personalities. The voice tracks would either be back announced or pre-announced never both.

Later on a local FM station used the same system to play Drake-Chenault's Hitparade ('68 to '70) and then Solid Gold Rock and Roll. These formats were great to listen to (from a broadcaster standpoint) as the songs were pre-announced or back announced and recorded with the music. The 25 Hz switching tones were placed in such a way that back announcements and pre-announcements never stepped on each other even though the next event started playing over the end of the last event.

A few years later, an automated service played three songs in a row with an announcer doing the announcements before inserting the 25 Hz switching tone. I'm not sure how the tapes should've been used, but there were many times, the legal ID at the top of the hour would never play inside that FCC mandated time frame. And that was BEFORE stations would bury the legal ID at :50:00.

Methinks each hour was formatted with stations required to add enough commercials, PSAs, news to fill out the hour. This local station didn't do so well.

One night the guy who was just supposed to "babysit" the automation decided to break format and do his own show. He had to have some help though finding songs that were requested by listeners. The songs were played from these tapes cued to the start of the song even though you heard the previous song fading out and possibly the real announcer identifying the songs.

The beautiful music station I listened to back in the early sixties used there own "automation system." I found this out from a guy that worked for them a decade or so later and were getting rid of stuff. Their music was recorded onto 10.5 inch reels. Silence between selections. Every thirteen minutes there would be a length of leader tape. Spliced into this this "break" would be an ID, length of leader tape, commercial, leader tape. Then the music started again.

During morning drive, at :15 and :45 past the hour, after the commercial played a newsman would do several minutes of news headlines and weather live. At the end of the news the music tape would be faded back in usually in mid song.

Of course, that was before FM radio was popular, so there was no need for fancy equipment. I think they finally went to a more professional set up with programming from Broadcast Programming International. The music was still reel to reel, but now 25 Hz tones separated each song.

And there were announcers playing the tunes. Two of them. Three hour 14 inch reels. When one reel ended the next reel started. I was listening one night as one reel played it's last song. Unfortunately, the next reel started with the song that just played. FM radio was growing up, but programming still had room to grow.

That's about the extent of my memories. Sorry for droning on and on and on. ;-)