Playlists

[Nick]

If I recall, evening DJs are a usually little way out of the reach of their radio station playlists. Moving to the afternoon, albeit on a more 'relaxed' radio station, have you found your music choices becoming more restricted?

What're your thoughts on playlists?

Cheers

Nick

[djmahone]

I think you have to accept that if you move into a daytime slot you have to cope with a playlist.
Any station has a core 'sound' that they want to enforce so that the channel has a musical identity people can latch on to.
At 6, it hasn't been a problem as a lot of the things on the list are things I would want to play anyway. My reservation initially with 6 Music was that it was a bit young-white-guitar-band-centric and I still think this is something we have to watch. It's very important to have breadth for me - having said that today we played John Lee Hooker, The Doors, Sparks, The Velvelettes, Love, The Band, Johnny Cash and the 6 o'clock tea works whistle dance tune from Chigley! So no-one could complain about not having freedom there. And we had Eliza Carthy on Monday, and very sad news about her uncle Mike of course. Sympathies to all family and friends.

To be honest, it would be so time consuming trying to hand pick every record for a three hour daily show that we are glad that there's a playlist really.

When I was at Radio 1 with Lard there was a bit of a battle - they wanted to play more dance music than we wanted to - as our lives didn't really involve 'clubbing'. We thought they were playing tunes that might have sounded great at a club at 4 in the morning but didn't really work on daytime radio. To be honest, I think we were younger and more beligerent back then and could have conceded with a little more grace, but then again, it was the battles we fought for editorial freedom that made that show what it was. ****! Ha. Only kidding...they were great days...and so are these.

[Albie]

I think playlists are so narrow, that's why I struggle to listen for any length of time to music radio when at home. If I do listen to radio when out of work it is R4 or R4X.

R2 seems so bland now when we put it on at work. The new(ish) controller, I don't know, he seems to be pushing towards blandness and safeness. The daytime is a wasteland musically, and no Johnnie Walker, Stuart Maconie or Mark Radcliffe sitting in for the daytime regulars any more.

Having said that, obviously playlists work for many listeners, and presumably it is the safeness and familiarity of the output that keeps the likes of Heart FM, and Kerrang so popular, and why R2 continues to get big numbers.

Unfortunately 6music is not an option at work.

PS I liked the story in  Margrave of the Marshes, when Peel was asked by a Beeb Exec to make his first half hour or so a little more mainstream and listener friendly so as not to be such a shock, and Peel agreed and said he would do that - then did nothing differently. A month later the Exec thanked him and said it was much better.  

[Nick]

...having said that today we played ...

and to prove the point, as I type this you're playing Pink Floyd's Echoes  

and thanks for the Chigley by the way! You can never have too much Brian Cant I say.

I take a radiostations' playlist to be a bit like the adverts on a commercial station - you grow to expect certain things will come along at certain points in each programme, and the rest of the time you can concetrate on listening to the programme itself.

Re 6Music's playlist; for the most part the current crop of listed music is fine, it fits with the style of the station as a whole and that style fits with what I want to listen to (obviously, otherwise I'd have a CD or some other station on the headphones.) And for those bits I'm fed up hearing, I'm happy to take them as prompts to disappear off to the kitchen and put the kettle on.

I guess we'll all be happy, listeners and presenters, as long as what you want to play outweighs what you have to play. Now if I can just persuade one particular American customer to have an extra hour in bed I might get to listen to the end of your show as well as the beginning...

Cheers

Nick

[Jules Gray]

A great question from Nick, and an interesting response from Mark.  I hope Mark continues to find the time to play as much non-formatted-playlist music as possible.  The alternatives are beyond dreary.

Jules

[YaBB Master (Colin)]

When 6 Music started I listened a lot, but they seemed get stuck playing punk-britpop-indie and that soon got surprisingly boring. Radio 2 is much more diverse.

However you will be delighted to know that stalking you around the networks has brought me back to 6 Music and it does seem a lot more diverse now.

However I don't really understand why all networks seem to stick strictly to the play list by day and only let the really intersting stuff out at night.  

[Albie]

When 6 Music started I listened a lot, but they seemed get stuck playing punk-britpop-indie and that soon got surprisingly boring. Radio 2 is much more diverse.

However you will be delighted to know that stalking you around the networks has brought me back to 6 Music and it does seem a lot more diverse now.

However I don't really understand why all networks seem to stick strictly to the play list by day and only let the really intersting stuff out at night.  

Neither do I with the Beeb, although I assume with the commercial rubbish stations it is to keep the advertisers happy, so they can aim at the target audience. Does that sound right

[Nick]

However I don't really understand why all networks seem to stick strictly to the play list by day and only let the really intersting stuff out at night.  

On that point I'll repeat what I said earlier...

and to prove the point, as I type this you're playing Pink Floyd's Echoes  

Yep!

Cheers

Nick