[BC] Constructing a format

[JYRussell@academicplanet.com]

It seems to me that there's this wonderful little computer, called a 
brain, that does things a bit more complex than most consultants can 
explain, and it has a way to catch on to things when you try to 
'trick' it.  It might be slow, and imperfect, but it does tend to 
catch on to trends and tendancies, even if only 'intuitively'.

    When you crank up a 'new' format... it sounds "new".
When you stay with it long enough, it sounds, and then 'feels', like 
a format.  A good thing, when done right.
Makes folks trust you, and trust what you're going to do on the 
air.  so they stay, and listen.

    But with a limited (or 'fixed') number of songs in your A,B,C, 
power, gold, etc. categories, it's only a matter of time before 
people's brain begins to figure out that you are trying to use a 
computer program to emulate what years ago only a 'real talent' could 
do.... take a bunch of music and various other elements to 
'entertain, inform, enlighten'...
even if it's not true... they begin to believe they're hearing the 
same song over and over.

   So, you introduce a random element... you tell the computer 
program to pick a 'random song' from the wrong category that still 
fits the format... Bzzzp.  Wrong.  There's no such thing as a true 
'random' in the computer world.
It still sounds like a software emulatiion of what a real jock would do.

   It's like trying to explain how you can know intuitively when a 
person is lying to you, with only a few facts to base your feelings 
on... and be correct a big part of the time....

In some software driven, consultant overseen, non-risktaking radio... 
you're trying to consistantly convince people you have an unlimited 
amount of music... and they already knew you didn't before you 
started, so, they start finding what they're looking for...
a pattern, indicating repetition, indicating a limit to the number of 
songs in your playlist...

  Darned if you do, (stick with the format) and darned if you don't 
(eventually, listeners figre out what you're doing).
Jason
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Why does everyone say you're playing the same 200 songs over and 
over. This isn't the case. This is exactly why I mentioned proper use 
of and extent of the libraries.