darcyh wrote:

Who or what selects the songs that a station plays? I cannot imagine a real person doing this given today's automation. I am guessing it is a computer sort of on random play that is following a program to make sure the song is not played too often and meets cancom. Do the announcers (if there are any) have any saying on what is played? 

Thanks for your comments. 

At a more macroscopic level, it's whoever gets the payola.
 

RadioAaron wrote:

Yes, it's scheduled through software. A basic structure is set up so every hour contains the desired proportions (For example, three 80s songs, two current songs, five cancon, etc).

The software can automatically schedule the whole day, or a human can do it manually or any combination of both.

Announcers (on commercial stations) virtually never pick any music.

The stations that care at least somewhat about the sound will have someone who "massages" what the software spits out to ensure a good music flow. Again though, companies that have the same corporate brands can spit out one playlist for all the stations in that brand to further homogenize the programming and reduce the number of bodies needed. 
 

Further, the biggest mistake Stingray has ever made was not hiring someone who can truly replace Wayne; Someone who has the time and autonomy to spend all day working on the next day’s music.

No disrespect to the morning show host in Sudbury who’s been doing it…that’s an impossible task.

RadioAaron wrote:

Further, the biggest mistake Stingray has ever made was not hiring someone who can truly replace Wayne; Someone who has the time and autonomy to spend all day working on the next day’s music.

No disrespect to the morning show host in Sudbury who’s been doing it…that’s an impossible task.

I'm not sure a replacement exists. Are there dedicated music directors anymore, much less for one station? I don't see how that could be more efficient than a well-oiled software with all of the variables accounted for

Last edited by torontostan (July 27, 2026 5:47 pm)

Talk about having big shoes to fill.

From Sept. 2025:

Alex Hindmarch to take on boom 97.3 MD duties

cash wrote:

For 97.3 and Q107 it seems to be the same 300 songs or so. Not that tough of a job. 

The order still matters, especially in those formats if the playlist ins't huge.
 

boom boy wrote:

The amount of comments, speculation and assumptions in this thread about boom, is amusing.

How so?
 

The question was who picks the music. The answer is that it's primarily based on music testing. In essence a few hundred people are asked to listen to hooks of each song and rate them. They may also be asked if they are tired of the given song which is when the song is consider burnt. Once they put all the data together they take all of the songs that scored high enough and that becomes the station's universe. Typically an MD in a larger market doesn't have the freedom the deviate from the given universe and will edit the log to ensure there isn't clumping which ensures that you don't end up hearing 7 ballads in a row. The MD will also ensure that songs are playing in the best rotation possible and make sure everything is timing out properly.

UnSub wrote:

The question was who picks the music. The answer is that it's primarily based on music testing. In essence a few hundred people are asked to listen to hooks of each song and rate them. They may also be asked if they are tired of the given song which is when the song is consider burnt. Once they put all the data together they take all of the songs that scored high enough and that becomes the station's universe. Typically an MD in a larger market doesn't have the freedom the deviate from the given universe and will edit the log to ensure there isn't clumping which ensures that you don't end up hearing 7 ballads in a row. The MD will also ensure that songs are playing in the best rotation possible and make sure everything is timing out properly.

Who are these few hundred people? Hopefully not the same ones who for decades decided which television shows got renewed or cancelled.

RadioActive wrote:

In a coincidental moment of timing, a Champagne, Illinois newspaper columnist and radio man issued a story on just this topic, talking about how his station changed formats - and how they decided on a playlist. 

"I spent December into January looking at hundreds of music lists and listening to radio-station recordings from around the country, in addition to doing test runs on Selector. Yes, I was very anal and did a lot of over tweaking."

 Not sure if others would do it this way, but here's what he
Explaining the art of picking music for the radio

I would have never guessed Genesis to be the answer to the trivia question.

I receive an email from Q107 once a year or so asking me to take part in these "love it or leave it" surveys.

They have my email from a contest I entered ages ago.

UnSub wrote:

mace wrote:

Who are these few hundred people? Hopefully not the same ones who for decades decided which television shows got renewed or cancelled.

Typically a company is hired to find participants and ensure they are in the demo and are the right mix of males and females.