Rotation (music)

Last updated

In broadcasting, rotation is the repeated airing of a limited playlist of songs on a radio station or satellite radio channel, or music videos on a TV network. [1] They are usually in a different order each time. However, they are not completely shuffled, so as to avoid varying the time between any two consecutive plays of a given song by either too much or too little. When measuring airplay, the number of times a song is played is counted as spins.

Stations playing new music typically have a short rotation of around four hours, while stations playing "classics" may go as long as eight hours, with a few stations promising "no repeats" where a song is not played again during a broadcast day to allow a much broader playlist (or if there is a purposeful repeat on that type of station, it ties into a station contest for a prize, such as tickets to the played artist's concert). College radio and indie radio stations sometimes have no particular rotation, only the music director's suggested lists for the disc jockeys, or are totally freeform radio. Broadcast automation systems handle a limited rotation quite well, in turn making voice tracking easy. Even if a live person is present, the automation system at commercial stations usually picks the music ahead of time out of the current rotation, thus the DJ becomes only an announcer.

Heavy rotation or power rotation is a list of songs that get the most airplay on a radio station. Songs in heavy rotation will be played many times in a 24-hour period. A reason for playing the same song more than once a day is that many listeners tune in expecting to hear their favorite song, and many listeners don't listen to the radio for extended periods of time. Prolonged listening to a station that places songs in heavy rotation can quickly become unpleasant; such stations are not well-suited for retail environments, where employees must listen for hours on end multiple days a week, and doing so can breed contempt for the music and create a hostile work environment. [2] For formats that are used in retail environments, such as the seasonal all-Christmas music format, a programming formula limiting power rotation to once every four hours, likewise limiting similar songs and cover versions within set time frames, and adjusting the playlist over time can mitigate these issues. [3]

A song placed in "lunar rotation" is one that is only played in off-peak hours, usually late at night. There can be various reasons for this, but such songs are usually not hits and are played because of the personal musical preference of the DJ or programmer, to avoid more stringent daypart-based regulations on music content or to fulfill a broadcasting obligation to carry programming that is not popular with audiences, such as Canadian content quotas or public affairs. (See also "beaver hour".)

Recurrent rotation

Recurrent rotation refers to a group of songs still frequently aired on a contemporary hit radio station several months or even years after the initial debut. It is also used to describe core songs in other radio formats as well. Most charts have special rules to determine when a song has become recurrent, at which point they are removed from current charts (such as the Billboard Hot 100) and placed on special "recurrent charts". Recurrent charts tend to be more static, with fewer week-to-week changes in popularity than current charts.

The Billboard charts include these lists:

Songs that survive in recurrent rotation typically form the basis of radio formats as years advance. A hit song that is left out of recurrent rotation will eventually become known as a "forgotten 45", a name derived from the fact that singles used to be released on 45 RPM records.

Related Research Articles

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.

The Billboard Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales, online streaming, and radio airplay in the U.S.

<i>American Top 40</i> Radio countdown series

American Top 40 is an internationally syndicated, independent song countdown radio program created by Casey Kasem, Don Bustany, Tom Rounds, and Ron Jacobs. The program is currently hosted by Ryan Seacrest and presented as an adjunct to his weekday radio program, On Air with Ryan Seacrest.

Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music, broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock, from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music.

Album-oriented rock is an FM radio format created in the United States in the late 1960s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock.

Classic country is a music radio format that specializes in playing mainstream country and western music hits from past decades.

Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music on their playlists, and generally include some mix of contemporary R&B and traditional R&B. Urban adult contemporary playlists generally consist of many different genres that originated amongst Black Americans including R&B, soul, funk, disco, jazz, pop, hip-hop, electro, quiet storm, gospel, new jack swing, and hip-hop soul.

WDVD is a hot adult contemporary radio station in Detroit, Michigan. Owned and operated by Cumulus Media, WDVD's studios and offices are located in the Fisher Building in Detroit's New Center district near downtown, while its transmitter is located in Royal Oak Township at 8 Mile Road and Wyoming Avenue.

The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by Billboard magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to Billboard by stations that are members of the Adult Contemporary radio panel. The chart debuted in Billboard magazine on July 17, 1961. Over the years, the chart has undergone a series of name changes, being called Easy Listening(1961–1962; 1965–1979), Middle-Road Singles(1962–1964), Pop-Standard Singles(1964–1965), Hot Adult Contemporary(1984–1996) and Adult Contemporary(1979–1984, 1996–present). The current number-one song on the chart is "Lose Control" by Teddy Swims.

Hot Hits was a radio format created by consultant Mike Joseph in the 1970s. That concept, which helped spur the birth of what is now known as CHR, also revitalized the Top 40 format and would play a role in bringing the format to the FM band throughout the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WMYX-FM</span> Hot adult contemporary radio station in Milwaukee

WMYX-FM is a commercial radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US. Calling itself "99-1 The Mix", it was the first station in the U.S. to use the "Mix" moniker. WMYX-FM has been airing roughly the same hot adult contemporary radio format since late 1981. The station is owned by Audacy, Inc., along with sister stations WXSS-FM and WSSP. WMYX's studios and transmitter are co-located in Hales Corners. The playlist consists of current hits and recent hits from the 2000s and 2010s. WMYX is responsible for the activation of the Milwaukee metropolitan area Emergency Alert System.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KCKC</span> Adult contemporary radio station in Kansas City

KCKC is an adult contemporary radio station based in Kansas City, Missouri that operates with an ERP of 100 kW. The station is licensed to and operated by Steel City Media. The station's studios are located at Westport Center in Midtown Kansas City, and its transmitter is located in Independence, Missouri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KEZK-FM</span> Adult contemporary radio station in St. Louis

KEZK-FM is a commercial radio station licensed to St. Louis, Missouri. It broadcasts an adult contemporary radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. From mid-November through the Christmas holiday, KEZK switches to an all-Christmas music format. The studios and offices are on Olive Street in Downtown St. Louis.

WBKV is a radio station in Buffalo, New York. It is owned by Educational Media Foundation and is a part of its K-Love network.

WMSI-FM is a radio station in Jackson, Mississippi, and owned by iHeartMedia, Inc.. WMSI's signal covers a roughly 90 mile radius around the city with an ERP of 100,000 watts. It is Mississippi's primary entry point for the Emergency Alert System.

WGER is a radio station licensed to Saginaw, Michigan, broadcasting a classic alternative format. The station broadcasts from a transmitter southeast of I-675 Exit 6 in Carrollton Township in Saginaw County.

MusicMaster is a music scheduling software produced by A-Ware Software and used by radio, Internet and television stations. Their main office is located in Dallas, Texas.

Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet storm and rock influence. Adult contemporary is generally a continuation of the easy listening and soft rock style that became popular in the 1960s and 1970s with some adjustments that reflect the evolution of pop/rock music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TopHit</span> Radio Distribution, Airplay Monitoring, Charts

TopHit is an internet platform for music distribution, airplay monitoring and chart publishing. Originating from Ukraine and Russia, it now works on global scale. It offers a variety of functions, main of them regular statistical music charts based on data from radio broadcasts and musical internet services such as YouTube and Spotify. Musicians are able to upload their songs and promote them via TopHit. The songs from Russian and worldwide singers become aggregated, tested, distributed and rotated on radio using TopHit's capabilities. Promotion of music videos is also available, as well as donations collecting system for supporting artists. Permanent users and partners of TopHit include over 5700 musicians, music groups, DJs and tens of record labels, including Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, BMG, Black Star Inc., Velvet Music and others.

Country radio refers to radio stations that play country music. Most country radio stations are commercial radio stations. Most country radio stations usually play only music which has been officially released to country radio by record labels. The largest owners of country music stations in the United States include iHeartMedia, Cumulus Media, Audacy, and Townsquare Media. There are more radio stations in the United States specializing in country music than any other format, out of a total of about 15,000 radio stations in the US. Country radio stations are very influential in the country music industry, compared to other genres of music. Until 2012, only country radio stations were counted in the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart's airplay component, and from 1990 to 2012, country radio was the sole arbiter of a song's position on that chart; the same magazine's Country Airplay chart remains limited solely to country radio stations.

References

  1. ↑ King, Darrell W. (2010). This Business of Gospel Music. Darrell King. p. 152. ISBN   9780615410067.
  2. ↑ Psychologists: Christmas music bad for your health. Nexstar Media Group (November 7, 2017). Retrieved November 7, 2017.
  3. ↑ Lucas, Rob (2023-10-25). "Scheduling Christmas Music from a Different Perspective - RadioInsight". Radio Insight. Retrieved 2023-10-25.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.