General radio questions

[Chase]

Hello all,

I'm very new to these boards, though I've lurked for a few months now. I'm a DJ with one of the radio stations on my college campus and I'm really interested in the world of radio broadcasting. I've been wondering several things:

1. How are the various formats defined?
2. What are "recurrent" songs?
3. How are songs categorized by format "flavor"??
4. Who determines how a song is categorized?
5. Which charts are considered the "authorities" as far as music charts go?

I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions. Thanks in the meantime! ???

[tico]

I'll answer #5. Billboard magazine is usually consider the authority when it comes to the charts. Radio & Records is also up there.

[mst3k]

2) "Recurrents" are, simply speaking, songs that are no longer "current". Billboard and R&R have varying recurrent rules for each of their charts, but basically a song that has charted for a certain period of time and has fallen below a specified position on the chart is classified as "recurrent" and removed from the main chart. This is to keep older songs that have already peaked in popularity from clogging up the lower portions of the charts, making room for new currents to get exposure.

[Matt4319]

1. The formats are defined mostly by genre of music and concentration of current songs. For example:

-- AC and Hot AC play mostly light pop and rock music. But the AC format is much more recurrent- and gold-based than Hot AC, and AC plays a narrower variety of currents than Hot AC.

-- Alternative, Rock, and Active Rock all play rock music. There is a large number of songs that all three formats will play, but there are a number of differences.

Active Rock vs. Alternative
Alternative also plays "indie" artists (for lack of a better term) like Modest Mouse, The Strokes, The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, and "punk-pop" artists such as Good Charlotte (although not so much anymore), New Found Glory, Yellowcard, and The Used. Where Active Rock begins to separate from Alternative is their tendency to play more hard rock/heavy music, such as Slipknot, Mudvayne, or Godsmack (although all three of these artists get their share of Alternative play as well). Alternative stations also play a higher percentage of current music than Active Rock stations.

Active Rock vs. Rock
These two formats are rather similar to me, but a subtle difference is Rock's higher willingness to play "heritage" artists, which are artists from the '70s, '80s, or '90s who continue to release new music. However, both of these formats play much more music from heritage artists than the Alternative format. Rock also doesn't play as much of the "heavy" music of Active Rock mentioned in the last paragraph.

AAA
It's hard to figure out where this format goes. AllAccess groups it with the AC and Hot AC formats; we here at Pulse group it with Hot AC, but not AC; and Mediabase groups it with Alternative, Rock, and Active Rock. AAA shares the support of heritage artists with Rock (and Active Rock, to a lesser degree), although they aren't the same artists in most cases. The music on AAA is a mix of Hot AC, Alternative, Rock, and AAA-specific music (this probably makes up the majority). AAA is one of the most self-contained formats after Country (i.e., the songs that first become hits on AAA rarely become big crossovers to other formats; Urban AC is also up there).

[Chelsea Press 2]

This is a very good, helpful thread. This can really help clear up some questions some others may have had in the past.

Just a suggestion, could this thread be pinned as it clears up some common questions?

[Chase]

Thank you all for your help. Here's another useful link that someone sent me...

www.nyradioguide.com/formats.htm

[reception]

How are the various formats in Latin music defined? Regional Mexican, Tropical, Spanish Contemporary, and others I may have missed.

[ryan789]

reception said:

How are the various formats in Latin music defined? Regional Mexican, Tropical, Spanish Contemporary, and others I may have missed.

General radio questions has been helpful. I hope those who have more expertise in radio will continue to post.

[tico]

Regional Mexican: Musical format includes Spanish language artist of Mexican, Latin America and even the local area of broadcast, with a mix of romantica, mariachi and tropical music. It is mainly targeted to Mexican and Spanish speaking residents living within the United States. (tvradioworld.com)

Tropical: Encompasses salsa, meringue and other forms with mostly Caribbean roots. (pollackmedia.com)

Spanish contemporary: The #2 category in music sales is “Pop and Rock,” which encompasses an enormous range of styles from AC-style ballads to various forms of rock to hip hop. These styles also come together to make up the #2 Hispanic radio format, “Spanish Contemporary,” which is something of a catchall category. While almost all of these stations have what you would call a CHR-style presentation, the musical core can vary from Spanish AC to rock or hip-hop leaning.

While the presentation of Spanish Contemporary has a lot in common with CHR, the demographic profile is quite a bit different. CHR’s top demographic cell is 18-24, closely followed by teens. But for Spanish Contemporary, the top two cells are 25-34 and 35-44. Interestingly, taken as a whole, Spanish Contemporary is the most conservative of the Spanish language music formats, playing less current music than either Regional Mexican or Tropical. (pollackmedia.com)

Don't forget about Tejano, a style of conjunto music originating in southern Texas and combining influences from country music, rhythm and blues, and popular Latin styles. (answers.com)