
It would be nice if every music scheduling problem had a fast solution, like a cause and effect. Problems would be so easy to trace. But programming isn’t like that. It’s more complex. That’s why fixing music rotation problems can be tricky.
Mike Shepard and I worked with a new PD at a medium market station. As a first-time PD, he was eager to learn. He came to the meeting with ideas about making his country station more popular.
Predictably, his plan included playing more songs and a larger playlist to reduce repetition. But repetition wasn’t the problem. The station had rotation problems. We had a decent cume, but low TSL (Time Spent Listening). The common thinking was cause and effect. Let’s add more songs!
But the library was huge. It was too big. The problem was horizontal separation.
They needed tighter rotations, more hits, and better rotation management.