[BC] Don't Tax That Dial

[Rich Wood]

------ At 11:02 AM 5/31/2009, towers at mre.com wrote: -------

>Now...if the FCC allowed a clustered approach to front and back sell, that
>might return a different conclusion.  I would go so far as to suggest
>allowing up to 1 song per quarter hour to be pay/play, provided a
>particular label can't have more than one song on the air in rotation on
>any given day and there would be no set minimum plays per day.  That would
>force diversity.

There are a couple of issues here: this would drive both the Traffic 
Manager and the Program Director (where one still exists) crazy. 
Since it's now commercial matter, traffic would have to generate an 
affidavit with specific songs. That require whoever is programming to 
synchronize their scheduling. The automation clocks would have to be 
changed to provide a specially inserted commercial position within a 
music segment to provide proof that a specific song aired as 
scheduled. It would now appear on the commercial log. The traffic 
person would have to schedule the song. It's not impossible but a 
pain in the butt.

It would be the same as a client with dozens of individual spots who 
wants the affidavit to show it as a fixed position with identifiable 
music information.

I don't understand the need to limit labels to one song per day. 
Diversity would be enhanced by allowing multiple songs, perhaps 
limiting the number of plays per day. Since pay-for-play has already 
messed up the programming by forcing you to play songs that might not 
fit the subtle requirements of the programmer's audio vision of how 
the station should sound. It's often those subtle music decisions 
that make one AC station a hit and another a bust.  It's really a 
moot point. I don't believe record companies will pay and keep track 
of every song in every market. To be effective, they'd have to 
include the songs for every station on their commercial schedules 
sent to each station'sTraffic department.

Too much heavy lifting. It would also counter their argument that 
radio doesn't sell product.

Rich