Music radio

Music radio is a radio format in which music is the main broadcast content. After television replaced old time radio's dramatic content, music formats became dominant in many countries. Radio drama and comedy continue, often on public radio.

Music drives radio technology, including wide-band FM, modern digital radio systems such as Digital Radio Mondiale, and even the rise of internet radio and music streaming services (such as Pandora and Spotify).

When radio was the main form of entertainment, regular programming, mostly stories and variety shows, was the norm. If there was music, it was normally a live concert or part of a variety show. Backstage sound engineers who jockeyed discs (records) from one turntable to another to keep up with the live programming were often called disc jockeys.

With the mass production and popularity of records in the mid 1940s, as well as the birth of TV, it was discovered that a show was needed to simply play records and hire a disc jockey to host the program. One of the first disc jockeys (later called DJs) was Dick Clark. Others followed suit and today music radio is the most numerous format.

Format

The radio station provides programming to attract listeners. Commercial radio stations make profits by selling advertising. Public and community radio stations are sustained by listener donations and grants. Young people are targeted by advertisers because their product preferences can be changed more easily. Therefore, the most commercially successful stations target young audiences.

The programming usually cycles from the least attractive item, to most attractive, followed by commercials. The purpose of this plan is to build listener interest during the programming. There are several standard ways of selecting the music, such as free-form, top-40, album-oriented rock, and Jack. These can be applied to all types of music.

Because dead air does not attract listeners, the station tries to fill its broadcast day with sound. Audiences will only tolerate a certain number of commercials before tuning away. In some regions, government regulators specify how many commercials can be played in a given hour.

Jingles are radio's equivalent of neon signs. Jingles are brief, bright pieces of choral music that promote the station's call letters, frequency and sometimes disc-jockey or program segment. Jingles are produced for radio stations by commercial specialty services such as JAM, in Texas. Jingles are often replaced by recorded voice-overs (called "stingers", also depending on region more often "liners").

In order to build station loyalty, the station announces time, station calls letters and frequency as often as six to twelve times per hour. Jingles and stingers (liners) help to give the station a branded sound in a pleasant, minimal amount of air-time. The legal requirement for station identification in the U.S. is once per hour, approximately at the top of the hour, or at the conclusion of a transmission.

News, time-checks, real-time travel advice and weather reports are often valuable to listeners. The news headlines and station identification are therefore given just before a commercial. Time, traffic and weather are given just after. The engineer typically sets the station clocks to standard local time each day, by listening to WWV or WWVH (see atomic clock). These segments are less valued by the most targeted market, young people, so many commercial stations shorten or omit these segments in favor of music.

While most music stations that offer news reports simply "tear and read" news items (from the newswires or the Internet), larger stations (generally those affiliated with news/talk stations) may employ an editor to rewrite headlines, and provide summaries of local news. Summaries fit more news in less air-time. Some stations share news collection with TV or newspapers in the same media conglomerate. An emerging trend is to use the radio station's web site to provide in-depth coverage of news and advertisers headlined on the air. Many stations contract with agencies such as Smartraveler and AccuWeather for their weather and traffic reports instead of using in-house staff.
Fewer radio stations (except on medium and major market, depending on daypart) maintain a call-in telephone line for promotions and gags, or to take record requests. DJs of commercial stations do not generally answer the phone and edit the call during music plays in non-major markets, as the programming is either delivered via satellite, or voice-tracked using a computer. More and more stations take requests by e-mail and online chat only.

The value of a station's advertising is set by the number, age and wealth of its listeners. Arbitron, a commercial statistical service, historically used listener diaries to statistically measure the number of listeners. Arbitron diaries were collected on Thursdays, and for this reason, most radio stations have run special promotions on Thursdays, hoping to persuade last-minute Arbitron diarists to give them a larger market-share. Arbitron contractually prevents mention of its name on the air.

Promotions are the on-air equivalent of lotteries for listeners. Promotional budgets usually run about $1 per listener per year. In a large market, a successful radio station can pay a full-time director of promotions, and run several lotteries per month of vacations, automobiles and other prizes. Lottery items are often bartered from advertisers, allowing both companies to charge full prices at wholesale costs. For example, cruising companies often have unused capacity, and when given the choice, prefer to pay their bills by bartering cruise vacations. Since the ship will sail in any case, bartered vacations cost the cruise company little or nothing. The promotion itself advertises the company providing the prize. The FCC has defined a lottery as “any game, contest or promotion that combines the elements of prize, chance and consideration.”

Programming by time

Most music stations have DJs who play music from a playlist determined by the program director, arranged by blocks of time. Though practices differ by region and format, what follows is a typical arrangement in a North American urban commercial radio station.

The first block of the day is the "morning drive time" block in the early morning. Arbitron defines this block between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., though it can begin as early as 5 a.m. (though usually not later than 6), and end as early as 9 a.m. or as late as 11 a.m. This block usually includes news bulletins and traffic and weather advisories for commuters, as well as light comedy from the morning DJ team (many shock jocks started as or still work on drive-time radio). Some stations emphasize music, and reduce gags and call-ins in this period.

The midday block (defined by Arbitron as 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., though often extended later to about 5 p.m.) is mostly music, and in many places is at least partially voicetracked from another market. For a period around noon a station may play nonstop music or go to an all-request format for people eating lunch. This block is often occupied by a "no-repeat workday;" stations that offer this feature usually target captive audiences such as retail workers, who have to listen to the station for long periods of time and can become irritated by repetition.

In the early evening, or "afternoon drive" (defined by Arbitron as 3 to 7 p.m.), the evening rush-hour programming resembles the midday programming, but adds traffic and weather advisories for commuters. Some stations insert a short snippet of stand-up comedy ("5 O'Clock Funnies") around 5 o'clock when commuters leave work, or play specifically selected "car tunes" ideal for listening while driving.

The evening block (defined by Arbitron as 7 p.m. to midnight), if present, returns to music. Syndicated programs such as Tom Kent or Delilah are popular in this shift.

The overnight programming, from midnight to the beginning of drive time, is generally low-key music with quiet, if any, announcing. Some stations play documentaries or even infomercials, while some others play syndicated or voicetracked DJs. Complete automation, with no jock, is very common in this day part. It is not uncommon to play more adventurous selections during late night programming blocks, since late night is generally not considered significant for ratings, and are not subject to federal restrictions as stringently as during the daytime. Stations are permitted to sign off during this time; in areas where AM radio is still significant (especially in the United States), local stations may be required to either sign off or cut to low-power to protect clear-channel stations.

Weekends, especially Sundays, often carry different programming. The countdown show, ranking the top songs of the previous week, has been a staple of weekend radio programming since 1970; current hosts of countdown shows in various formats include Rick Dees, Ryan Seacrest, Jeff Foxworthy, Kix Brooks, Bob Kingsley, Crook & Chase, Randy Jackson, Walt Love, Al Gross, Dick Bartley, and (via reruns) Casey Kasem. Other types of weekend programming include niche programming, retrospective shows and world music such as the Putumayo World Music Hour. Stations may carry shows with different genres of music such as blues or jazz. Community affairs and religious programming is often on Sunday mornings, generally one of the least listened-to periods of the week. In addition, weekend evenings are particularly specialized; a dance station might have a sponsored dance party at a local club, or a classical station may play an opera. Saturday nights are also similar to this; request shows, both local and national (e.g. Dick Bartley), are very popular on Saturday night. The longest running radio program in the country, the ''Grand Ole Opry'', has aired on Saturday night since its inception in 1925.

Many music stations in the United States perform news and timechecks only sparingly, preferring to put more music on the air. News is often restricted to the talk-heavy commuting hours, though weather updates are still very common throughout the day, even on these stations. ABC FM News is an example of an American news network that is designed for music radio stations. The BBC
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