Most programmers know how important it is to get the math right in music rotations. And few would argue against playing the right songs as judged and expected by the target audience. Right? Right. But there’s more to creating a music identity, especially when every programmer has their own sense of how songs fit. Setting up perfect music categories goes a long way to creating balance for a station.

This article explains how to establish perfect music categories on a radio station. Including:

  • Start with the unique(core) brand identity.
  • Build multiple categories sorted by genre. 
  • Subdivide by era.
  • Sort again by song strength.
  • Build format clocks to accommodate the structure. 
  • How to check and recheck that it’s working properly.

Perfect Music Categories