If I hear a song from their latest CD on the radio, I’m going to think, “I’ve had the CD with that song for nearly three years.” Hearing yet another single won’t convince anyone to go buy a second copy.

It may keep their name on the air and indirectly benefit concert attendance should they come to your area. It may even become a number one song on the chart, so there is some minor benefit, sure. If that benefit doesn’t translate into sales, though, what’s the point? If I were an artist, I’d want my stuff to be on the air everyday, too…but if radio would offer the option of Super Heavy rotation for surrounding my CD’s street date and medium to light rotation thereafter, that’s definitely what I would want to have happen vs. the current model that hangs most of my hopes on the first single.

I think the classics/light list should either be huge (300 songs or so), or better yet, a list of 25 or so that’s completely swapped out once a week. I love “Midnight Cry,” but if you’re playing something as old as “Midnight Cry” once a day, then you’re short changing all the other wonderful classics that have come and gone.

Most songs, including currents should be on the medium list.

I hate heavy rotation. :o)

Still, that being said, the goal of radio is to please their listeners, not sell CDs…but wait, selling more CDs, in theory, should add more listeners. So, it seems to me the goal of record labels and radio stations should be to do whatever it takes to tell listeners, “Hey, you really ought to buy this new CD by the Hoppers.” Then, the next month, push another great artist who has a new CD. Or if several new CDs are releasing around the same time, push multiple singles by the same artist for two or three weeks rather than a full month.

So, I think it would be beneficial to the industry if an artist was played once every hour for a period of one month or so when they have a new CD…heavy rotation, but it’s a really short list if it’s just one artist.

Among that chunk of “currents” we have: a heavy, medium and light category.

As you can imagine, the heavy category is for a select few.

To keep a sound that is not focused too much on one artist, you’d have to limit an artist to one song in the heavy category.

If their second single was in a medium or light category at the same time, their heavy single would always usurp the right to be played first. Heavy is given priority. If the heavy song plays every 3 hours, more than likely, that artist would not be allowed to play much outside of that one song, without generating a rotation error.

If it did allow the second single to be play, it would negate any of that artist’s classic songs from the past.

So… the focus would be 100% on the artist’s two NEW songs with almost zero chance for that group’s classic/recurrent/gold songs to play.

Hour 1: SONG A
Hour 2: SONG B
Hour 3: SONG A
Hour 4: SONG B

at this rate, we’re playing that artist once per hour. Any more than that is probably oversaturated. Note that there is now no room for any other song by that artist. If you’re a two-hit wonder, that’s good. But if you’ve had huge success in the past, say goodbye to that brand recognition.

The risk there is this: we KNOW that Gold City’s Midnight Cry was and still is a huge song. We’re “not sure” about the next single they send out. *We* may like it, but who knows if will have the staying power of a Midnight Cry with the audience.

We’ll take a chance on a good single to give it a shot to make an impact, but…….

Radio is going to bank on Midnight Cry as being a song we can count on getting a good reaction. Putting something else on with such exclusive airplay in place of Midnight Cry is a risk.

(having said all that, sometimes risks are worth taking!)

I still like your idea; it’s thinking outside the box, outside of the current system, and asking the right questions. I think if radio thinks outside the box, too, we could find a way to adapt.