At some point along the way one of radio's brilliant programmers decided telling listeners the name of a song and artist was a waste of breathe. Of course that leaves the listener hanging, the artist without any song promotion and, apparently music labels unhappy. And, by the way, this is one of those things you NEVER have to worry about when you listen to music on Pandora, Slacker or any other online service. That information is always there. Always.
This silly programming idea is also a reason why the app Shazam became so popular. How it was decided that identifying the song and artist were clutter and station promos after every song, 8 minute stopsets and unprepared DJ chatter are not is perplexing. And, we challenge anyone reading this to come up with a good reason why that's smart programming. Especially if you program the station with the listener in mind first.
CBS radio President Dan Mason circulated a company memo yesterday that said CBS listeners "should hear an immediate difference in the way we present our day to day programming." The Mason memo was a conclusion he and others inside the company came to after Mason met up with a Los Angeles music executive. Mason wanted to know how CBS could help sell more music. The answer he got wasn't very complicated ?Just give the title and artist of the music you play.? Mason told his people "We shouldn?t just play the music, we should showcase the music."
The executive rightly questioned Mason on how radio's brilliant minds decided dumping that information was a good idea. "He went on to question me as to how the concept of not giving that information ever crept into radio programming in the first place. Having been around programming for 40 years, my recollection was that in the early 80?s that information was defined as clutter - the more music and less talk theory. I didn?t subscribe to that theory, but it was the thinking at the time."
As a result, CBS Radio contemporary, rock, urban and country stations will increase the integration of title and artist information on new music releases in an effort to personalize, and drive sales of the product. CBS will also be expanding our radio play history online as far back as several years, providing a living synopsis of the songs we feature on the air for anyone to access.
Mason says "This is a commitment I feel very strongly about. This is a positive step CBS Radio is taking not only to support the sale of music, but in strengthening our relationship with the artists and those that promote and manage their careers."
