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Music categories
- Thread starter yasmany
- Start date
That depends entirely on your format. Each format is going to have different needs musically. For example, when I was programming a Hot AC station, we had 10 different categories, each defined by either popularity of song, year, or specific need on the clock.
Think about the kinds of songs your format plays, and what kind of music your listeners will demand. Ask yourself: How much of each type of song will we need to play? When you can make that determination, compare what you're doing to some other stations out there. Do some research on how many spins songs get of different popularity strengths, years, or genres and tempos (as the case may be). That should help guide you in determining how many songs should fill each category so that they get a fair number of spins. If you have access to a service like Mediabase or BDSRadio, then start there and see what you can discover.
Think about the kinds of songs your format plays, and what kind of music your listeners will demand. Ask yourself: How much of each type of song will we need to play? When you can make that determination, compare what you're doing to some other stations out there. Do some research on how many spins songs get of different popularity strengths, years, or genres and tempos (as the case may be). That should help guide you in determining how many songs should fill each category so that they get a fair number of spins. If you have access to a service like Mediabase or BDSRadio, then start there and see what you can discover.
Well, a typical American CHR station is typically going to be very current- and recurrent-based, with only occasional gold categories. You're going to want something that allows you to work in new titles as well as titles that you only want to play at night -- although sometimes, a nights-only current category may not be filled with any titles. Right now there is kind of a lull in the nights-only type of music on CHR, in my opinion.
So a CHR category layout might go like this:
- hottest power currents
- secondary currents
- tertiary currents (songs that are declining but not ready to be enshrined in your recurrent rotation)
- nights only currents (may or may not be used, depending on your need)
- new music
- power recurrents
- power gold
- secondary (filler) gold
That would probably be where I'd start. It's all about determining the need for your format, and splitting things down to more specifics from there. With a format like an AC you're obviously going to have fewer current categories and more gold categories. In an AC you may only have 2 or 3 current and recurrent categories, then 8 or 9 gold categories. With CHR it's the opposite. With Top 40 radio your audience wants to hear fresh, hit music, so the categories should be based mostly around the popularity of your titles and filled appropriately, so that songs in your secondary category are getting fewer spins than your hot currents, for example.
So a CHR category layout might go like this:
- hottest power currents
- secondary currents
- tertiary currents (songs that are declining but not ready to be enshrined in your recurrent rotation)
- nights only currents (may or may not be used, depending on your need)
- new music
- power recurrents
- power gold
- secondary (filler) gold
That would probably be where I'd start. It's all about determining the need for your format, and splitting things down to more specifics from there. With a format like an AC you're obviously going to have fewer current categories and more gold categories. In an AC you may only have 2 or 3 current and recurrent categories, then 8 or 9 gold categories. With CHR it's the opposite. With Top 40 radio your audience wants to hear fresh, hit music, so the categories should be based mostly around the popularity of your titles and filled appropriately, so that songs in your secondary category are getting fewer spins than your hot currents, for example.
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