Topic: What should I play on my radio show? (Read 6179 times)

De_El · « **on:** 25 Sep 2009, 10:33 »

So I am back at college and all that mess and I have the opportunity to return to the radio airwaves (within a pretty tight area of the Twin Cities) in the form of a weekly feature, and I was kinda wondering how I was gonna do it this semester. Last term I played a lot of drone/doom and stoner metal, but I was thinking of departing from that. I've been considering a few options, but am open to suggestion, which is why I'm starting this thread.

So far I've thought about having a show that specializes in noisy, scuzzy, abrasive rock music, maybe occasionally venturing into actual noise. Alternately, I might do a soul show, especially considering, if I don't do a soul show then I don't really reckon anyone else will on the station. Or maybe I will play lots of electronic dance music, because that's what I've been listening to lately. I have a bit of time to work it out before i figure out my time slot.

David_Dovey · « **Reply #1 on:** 25 Sep 2009, 10:34 »

Play it all! That shit seemed to work for John Peel...

Bastardous Bassist · « **Reply #2 on:** 25 Sep 2009, 10:37 »

Quote from: De_El on 25 Sep 2009, 10:33

So far I've thought about having a show that specializes in noisy, scuzzy, abrasive rock music, maybe occasionally venturing into actual noise.

If you do this, you might want to dedicate at least one show to the concert music that paved the way for all of this stuff.

You could do what I did and dedicate one show each to something different, but that gets really hard really quickly (you'll have to repeat, or sometimes you'll want to repeat because you wanted to play so much more than you had time for), plus if you listen to things that are too different for people, you might lose your audience (the audience of my college radio station was indie music, so when I started playing contemporary jazz some days and straight-up rock on other days, nobody listened).

So, I guess I've not been very helpful.

E. Spaceman · « **Reply #3 on:** 25 Sep 2009, 10:39 »

Electric Wizard

the_pied_piper · « **Reply #4 on:** 25 Sep 2009, 10:49 »

Quote from: Bastardous Bassist on 25 Sep 2009, 10:37

Quote from: De_El on 25 Sep 2009, 10:33
So far I've thought about having a show that specializes in noisy, scuzzy, abrasive rock music, maybe occasionally venturing into actual noise.
If you listen to things that are too different for people, you might lose your audience.
So, I guess I've not been very helpful.

Sad as it is i would have to agree with this based on a college radio station. Last year i helped some friends run one aswell and originally their idea was to play only the music that they liked to listen to but they were almost moved to the graveyard slots when this didn't bring in any listeners.

The most important thing is to find a balance between what you want to hear and what your audience will want to hear. I find that the best way to do this is not to tie yourself down to a specific genre but rather to list a lot of bands that you like and then find some slightly more popular bands in these genres (if you don't listen to popular bands already) and add some of their more listened to tracks to your playlist aswell. This idea worked for my friends and they became a mid-range show by the end of the year.

a pack of wolves · « **Reply #5 on:** 25 Sep 2009, 11:03 »

Quote from: David_Dovey on 25 Sep 2009, 10:34

Play it all! That shit seemed to work for John Peel...

This. If you do a show of noise rock, metal, soul and dance music then there is slim chance it will not be awesome.

SWOON! at My Gravitas · « **Reply #6 on:** 25 Sep 2009, 13:36 »

Quote from: E. Spaceman

Electric Wizard

De_El · « **Reply #7 on:** 25 Sep 2009, 13:51 »

Quote from: E. Spaceman on 25 Sep 2009, 10:39

Electric Wizard

I already did that! And International Dopethrone Weekend will be over by the time I start, but that's neither here nor there.

I guess I'm not terribly concerned with my audience, last term I played my Sleep, EyeHateGod and my Bongripper from midnight to 2 am on Thursdaynights/Fridaymornings.
I guess I'm trying to think of a way to play whatever in a way that still has some cohesion. I think a good way to do that might be to take a look at individual geographical scenes, but I don't really know. It really doesn't matter that much; like, I'll probably get a slot. I just want to do it really well.

RallyMonkey · « **Reply #8 on:** 25 Sep 2009, 14:39 »

If you're not going to play music that you like to listen to, what's the use of having a radio show?

JD · « **Reply #9 on:** 25 Sep 2009, 14:41 »

Clutch

De_El · « **Reply #10 on:** 25 Sep 2009, 15:00 »

I'm not going to play any music I don't like, but to just play "music I like" is pretty vague and basically the opposite of focussed.

Bastardous Bassist · « **Reply #11 on:** 25 Sep 2009, 15:01 »

Quote from: RallyMonkey on 25 Sep 2009, 14:39

If you're not going to play music that you like to listen to, what's the use of having a radio show?

There's a difference between playing music you want to listen to that other people also want to listen to, and playing music you want to listen to that other people don't want to listen to. Though, if you're not worried about an audience (we lost the show ostensibly because of our audience, but I think we just offended the music sensibilities of our bosses who were of the "if it's well-performed and well-produced, it's mainstream crap!" mind), then I like the exploring a different thing each day. Whether it be geographical, or genre, or even featuring different instruments! The problem will be, you'll want to repeat certain shows and not just because you might run out of different things to showcase (though, I think the above three ideas could last a pretty good amount of time, depending on how deep your music collection is in each of those areas). You'll want to repeat shows because you won't have played enough of the awesome things that you wanted to play in one show, and that might be problematic if you care about doing one show on each thing.

Be My Head · « **Reply #12 on:** 25 Sep 2009, 17:19 »

Quote from: David_Dovey on 25 Sep 2009, 10:34

Play it all! That shit seemed to work for John Peel...

QFT

John Peel was probably the greatest radio dj of all time.

I'd play everything from Modern Classical to J-Pop to Black Metal, but that's just me.

spoon_of_grimbo · « **Reply #13 on:** 27 Sep 2009, 04:04 »

i suck at american geography, but "twin-cities" refers to minneapolis right? if that's the case, dedicate shows to their finest sons: The Replacements and Husker Du! and their modern-day finest sons: Dillinger Four, Off with Their Heads, and Banner Pilot!!!

look out! Ninjas! · « **Reply #14 on:** 27 Sep 2009, 04:27 »

Play bad early-to-mid-90's pop-rock.

Essentially just play that one song Nickleback did over and over.

Mr. Doctor · « **Reply #15 on:** 27 Sep 2009, 04:56 »

Quote from: De_El on 25 Sep 2009, 13:51

Quote from: E. Spaceman on 25 Sep 2009, 10:39
Electric Wizard
I already did that! And International Dopethrone Weekend will be over by the time I start, but that's neither here nor there.
term I played my Sleep, EyeHateGod...

Dude... you rock, my respect!

You should put some psycho funeral doom... And nothing better than Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale

Hat · « **Reply #16 on:** 27 Sep 2009, 05:25 »

play some shit that sounds good and that people want to hear.

I mean it's cool if you want to be John Peel or whatever but if you make your entire set of obscure shit you are trying to get the kids into, odds are nobody is going to care. As a radio listener, I find most of the times when I've gotten really interested in a song are when something unfamiliar is played between songs I already know quite well. The distinction between the familiar and unfamiliar is pretty obvious and a familiar song primes a listener to like the next thing they're going to hear.

Of course if you just want to show off how obscure your taste in music is to the general public for a few weeks play whatever you want.

Bastardous Bassist · « **Reply #17 on:** 27 Sep 2009, 07:35 »

I do exactly that in bands. In front of unfamiliar audiences, we play more covers to trick people into listening to our original songs.

Brian Majestic · « **Reply #18 on:** 28 Sep 2009, 07:29 »

Your first song every week should be by the Twin Cities' finest: Prince. I'd suggest "Jack U Off"to get the audience in the mood.

Mr. Doctor · « **Reply #19 on:** 28 Sep 2009, 08:37 »

You know what THE MAN says:

BeoPuppy · « **Reply #20 on:** 29 Sep 2009, 13:09 »

Quote from: David_Dovey on 25 Sep 2009, 10:34

Play it all! That shit seemed to work for John Peel...

Another vote here.

Tom · « **Reply #21 on:** 29 Sep 2009, 13:28 »

That's why I listen to FBi, I get a fair smattering of everything.

De_El · « **Reply #22 on:** 29 Sep 2009, 13:36 »

A friend of mine finagled me into agreeing to co-host a show with him. Nominally we will primarily play dance music of various kinds, and the show is going to be called MDMAzing.

AanAllein · « **Reply #23 on:** 29 Sep 2009, 16:27 »

Quote from: Hat on 27 Sep 2009, 05:25

play some shit that sounds good and that people want to hear.

I mean it's cool if you want to be John Peel or whatever but if you make your entire set of obscure shit you are trying to get the kids into, odds are nobody is going to care. As a radio listener, I find most of the times when I've gotten really interested in a song are when something unfamiliar is played between songs I already know quite well. The distinction between the familiar and unfamiliar is pretty obvious and a familiar song primes a listener to like the next thing they're going to hear.

Of course if you just want to show off how obscure your taste in music is to the general public for a few weeks play whatever you want.

Truth. People need to be listening to you already for you to be a John Peel, or you need to be able to find music that nobody else can find. Since you can't do either of these things realistically, train people to like more interesting/obscure music with music they already know/understand/like. I mean, your options are playing to the converted or actually converting - I'd lean towards the latter.

a pack of wolves · « **Reply #24 on:** 29 Sep 2009, 16:58 »

Playing just what you like in the manner of John Peel does not mean an obscurist wankfest. Didn't you guys used to listen to Peel? Sure, a lot of bands he championed became famous only after he started playing them but he didn't drop them when they got some recognition. I believe The Delgados did sessions for him throughout their career, and they had singles in the top 40. Or then there's The Wedding Present, or Pulp, or a ton of others. In one of the last broadcasts I heard him make he mentioned getting a track from hearing it on Judge Jules, and nobody's ever accused him of being obscure. And considering his fan base doing shows where he'd showcase labels like Load was hardly fucking with his audience's heads.

Peel was beloved because he had great taste that was incredibly wide-ranging as well as a real passion for the music he played, not because he was the most kvlt man on the block. Personally I've got no interest in a DJ playing me exactly what I'm expecting, I have a record collection for that and I'll switch off. I want new music and love for the music being played. As for training people to like new and obscure music... that's rather patronising really, and only relevant if your aim is to get drivetime or something. De_El said their last show was doom, drone and stoner. We're not talking about someone doing a top 40 chart show here. Lots of people like an eclectic selection, probably more than ever before I'd say.

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Author Topic: What should I play on my radio show? (Read 6179 times)