most intriguing Reddit AMA ever! "VP of Programming for large US radio corp"

[Darren Dirt]

most intriguing Reddit AMA ever! "VP of Programming for large US radio corp"

IAmA VP of Programming for a large, American radio corporation. I oversee the content (including DJs, music, etc) that many of you hear on your local radio stations. I'm familiar with all things radio/the music industry and I'm one of the guys that gets blamed for "ruining radio". AMA.

https://archive.is/mPfNc https://en.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/vqshb/iama_vp_of_programming_for_a_large_american_radio/


What makes this AMA especially engaging and fascinating is this guy's honesty. Such as this representative quote (found about halfway through, but worth reading the entire, very lengthy thing).

"...Overall, though, things have been relatively steady. The big concern, however, comes with the next generation coming up that is growing up without radio being a mainstay in their lives. We're doing very little to recruit this generation and that scares the hell out of lot of us."


Dude does not hold back, he does not act as a shill apologist for a hated industry, instead he acknowledges the many mistakes the megacorps have made especially since the 1990s and post-Internet... and seems to sincerely want to fix things before it's too late.

Plus it's fascinating some of the "stories" he shares on certain topics. The feeling I got reading this AMA is similar to the feeling I got while watching "Brave Dave's freight train ride across Canada". Like a curiosity since childhood getting a bunch of questions addressed that I didn't even fully know I wanted answered.


ALSO, PS: this AMA was from 5 years ago. But still pretty damn relevant, because I enjoy "local" radio in my 20 minute car rides all over the damn place. But I have thought and felt many of the things the Redditors mention in this AMA. Lotsa food for thought there.

[Mr. Analog]

Will definitely read later

[Darren Dirt]

Put on a long mix of Floyd in the background and have at 'er!


Seriously fascinating "behind the scenes" info buried amongst his calm and civil responses to the same 10 complaints from hundreds of Redditors.

For example:

" Certain songs you can play unedited and a lot of stations do. Some of the best example of this are The Who "Who Are You" ("Who the @%&# are you?") or Alice In Chains "Man In The Box" ("Shove my nose in @%&#").

If a song's lyrics are deemed generally common-knowledge, then it's OK to air it. Everybody knows that Pink Floyd says "bull@%&#" in "Money", so it's kinda silly to hide it. I don't know if the Rage song would be considered familiar enough with most people, though, to allow it. We edit it on our stations but do not edit the other three. "

Always wondered about that apparent inconsistency (Rage Against The Machine, vs. Alice In Chains etc.) #TheMoreYouKnow

[Mr. Analog]

Back in the 90s 100.3 FM (The Bear) used to air unedited music in the evenings which was nice (again, from Pink Floyd - "Lost For Words" unedited). They gradually morphed over the years and were eventually bought out by new corporate overlords (at least twice if memory serves) and has been a bland dump for years.

I first got exposed to some very weird rock through them in the early 00s, right at a time when I was big on collecting records. I had never heard of ELP or Max Webster really - granted both were part of the all-request-nooner but they had it and they threw it on anyway. Before you could easily search lyrics and crap it took me a while to figure out who some bands were but eventually they'd pop up and I'd go down that rabbit hole for a long time.

There's a lot of great music happening, the radio gets maybe 5% of it and repeats it forever

[Darren Dirt]

Because even when hardcore music fans are asked "okay then what ELSE do you want to hear on our station?" the majority have no answer... according to this radio porgramming VP (and he personally HATES that fact -- so as a default most radio plays what 5-minute tune-ins find familiar. Especially the key consuming demo of under-40 females. Essentially.)

[Mr. Analog]

Because even when hardcore music fans are asked "okay then what ELSE do you want to hear on our station?" the majority have no answer... according to this radio porgramming VP (and he personally HATES that fact -- so as a default most radio plays what 5-minute tune-ins find familiar. Especially the key consuming demo of under-40 females. Essentially.)

The thing with that though is we expect human DJs to have a wider exposure to music and then share that with their listeners. We see this kind of behavior on YouTube and other social media platforms where you have a very small % of trend-setters and a lot of followers that can grow a thing. So one good blogger / DJ can invent or share something that becomes a whole genre unto itself. Instead of having music trend-setters spinning discs we have media corporations working with analytic data to try and discover talent that fits what should maximize profit. The problem with that is its a closed loop, "what made money last year will make money next year" thinking leads to next year's pop music sounding more or less like last years.

When I look at a decade like the 60s where record company execs basically said "@%&# it" and at expense to themselves printed a lot of oddball music that shouldn't have worked but did and created a Renaissance of sound in a very short time and then I compare that to the last 20 years of near identical pop music I die a little.