Bill Gavin – Page 2 – Motor City Radio Flashbacks

GAVIN REPORT: THE DJ UNDER RADIO CONTROL . . . MARCH 30, 1963

From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1963

The Bill Gavin Newsletter March 30, 1963

Radio Management Policy Dictates How DJ Ultimately Swings

From the Desk of Bill Gavin Billboard Contributing Editor

MANAGEMENT AND THE DISK JOCKEY: Last week we had things to say about what makes a good disk jockey. We said very little about the problems and limitations surrounding the deejay, curbing his freedom of action. The circumscribed area within whose boundaries the disk jockey exercises his talents is known as “station policy.” This is simply another way of saying “what management wants.”

Station policy controls the kind of music to be played, the range of disk jockey discretion in programming his own show, the amount of humor he may-or must-use, the handling of time, temperature and weather announcements, the use of production gimmicks, the frequency of call letter and personal name mention, and so on. As most of our readers know quite well, these requirements vary considerably from one station to another.

In the “early” days (pre-1950) of the name disk jockey, he was pretty much his own boss. The main considerations were his ratings and the amount of revenue they attracted. He selected his own music and was expected to be a specialist in the field. The man preceding or following him often played a different kind of music. Each disk jockey set his own music policy, within very broad limitations.

Top 40 changed that. One by one, the big name disk jockeys found it impossible to hold their ratings in the face of a solid challenge from a pop station whose music was dependably the same day and night. The concentrated power of the top hits was too much for stations that had no over-all music control.

MUCH THAT WAS CREATIVE was lost to modern radio with the passing of the big name disk jockey. Much that was stereotyped – almost ritualistic, and certainly sterile-replaced it. But this was apparently what the people wanted. The top 40 disk jockeys was almost a robot, with little to do besides time, temperature, the chart number of the record, and an occasional pick “destined for future popularity.”

As top 40 outgrew its early childhood, a handful of progressive program directors began to realize that while the mass audience wanted the top hits, they also preferred having them presented by human beings rather than automatons. The disk jockey began to re-emerge as a vital factor in program appeal.

Little stations and big ones are now trying to solve the problem of how to adapt the personality disk jockey to a carefully controlled music policy. There is endless experimenting going on.

Disk jockeys are encouraged to be “personalities” – to sparkle with clever sayings. Some disk jockeys have their own private gag files. A few stations have libraries of wit and humor, from which the air men are expected to draw. There are syndicated gag services in circulation. Some stations, I’m told, employ feature writers to supply disk jockeys with clever material. Apparently the humor factor bulks large today in the thinking of station managers.

The function of the disk jockey in building his own show is, of course, much more restricted on top 40 than on “better music” stations. But even in the latter, we find a growing trend toward a “must play” list of singles, which have to be incorporated with some frequency into every disk jockey show.

AMONG TOP 40 STATIONS, opinion seems divided as to requiring the disk jockey to prepare his show in advance. Some feel that he operates better through the exercise of spontaneous choice as he goes along. Others believe that a planned show is more likely to be smooth and well balanced. Among smaller stations, particularly, the requirement of writing out in advance the order of records to be played compensates somewhat for comparative inexperience of the staff. In a few cases -successful, I might add – the music director himself programs every disk jockey’s show, and deviations are permitted only in exceptional cases.

Even in the early days of top 40, management noted one difficulty: Disk jockeys with no responsibility for picking the records were losing contact with the music world. As they lost touch, they also lost interest, and that’s just how they sounded on the air. To correct this shortcoming, many stations instituted the weekly staff meeting.

The music director plays a group of new releases for the assembled disk jockeys, who vote yes or no on each nomination. Only those sides receiving a big majority (two- thirds or more) could be included in the new playlist. The system is anathema to most promotion people, who would prefer to focus their efforts on a single arbiter rather than on a group. Weekly meetings may be cumbersome and inefficient, but they do give each disk jockey a sense of responsibility for the new music selected. END

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(Information and news source: Billboard; March 30, 1963)

BILL GAVIN: SOME POINTS ON PROMO PITCHING . . . MAY 11, 1963

From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1963

The Bill Gavin Newsletter May 11, 1963

From the Desk of Bill Gavin Billboard Contributing Editor

WHAT IS PRICE PROMOTION? From the standpoint of the music director of PD, the price is pretty high, in terms of the hours he spends listening to promo pitches. If he is conscientiously working at his job -auditioning new records, making up the survey, making out the playlist and other chores -he doesn’t have much time to spare.

Recently, several big stations in important cities have tried to protect their music men against such time wasting. Promotion men express some resentment over their restricted activities, but the restrictions are a natural outcome of just too much promotion.

Printed below is a portion of a letter from a music director at an important Eastern station. I’m withholding the name in order to avoid harassment to the station. Here is the letter:

“WHEN IS THIS GREAT AMOUNT of product going to quit? It would seem that the accent is on quantity rather than quality. One of our local distributors had 86 releases in 12 days. This is just one distributing company. How can 86 new things be listened to properly? Often I must hear things several times – all the way through – to really judge them, and I just can’t find the time.

“Besides, when can all these things be played? It’s ridiculous to play anything just once or twice, so I don’t play things until they can get some concentration.

“Along with this deluge comes a tremendous number of phone calls. I can think of one record where I got a call from one of the writers, the producer, the national promo man, the regional promo man, the artist, plus the local promo man’s pitch. And to my ear the record has nothing. (I forgot to add – the artist’s manager called three times to boot.)

“Now, I know each individual is trying to do his job, but can’t there be some co-ordination? Shouldn’t the national promo man’s business be with the local man – not me? I can’t stand people calling me and quoting sales figures in Dallas, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Atlanta or Philly. I couldn’t care less, and furthermore I don’t believe most of them.

“Another funny bit this week: The local promo man was here one morning – left his record – gave me his sales talk – and really pitched on record. That afternoon he returned with the New York promo man, who gave me a pitch on the record. While these two were talking, I received two long distance calls – both about this same record. What can my attitude be? I wanted to break the damned thing in little pieces.

“AM I UNREASONABLE? Do people have a right to consume my time like this? I try to he fair and considerate with everybody, but I find I’m getting cross and short.

“Another thing I can’t tolerate is the guy on the phone, somebody I’ve never met, who comes on with a lengthy weather forecast for his city, and how’s the weather where I am? How’s my family? What’s new? Five minutes of conversation before he gets to the point – and that’s to play a record I’ve already been hyped on and don’t like anyway.

“Where does it end? Am I a stinker if I refuse phone calls and deny admittance to promo men? Am I hurting the station? I guess all this activity should made me feel important – but I’d feel better if they let me have time to listen to the product and get my work done.

“I know of only one national promo man who has sense. He has told his regional man to lay off and put his efforts in an area where they are needed. He has the happy faculty of calling or writing just when you want information. He can look at sales figures from this area and tell if I’m missing the boat and he acts accordingly. To me, this is the greatest – promotion where promotion is needed – not just promotion for promotion’s sake.”

THANKS TO OUR CORRESPONDENT for an illuminating insight into the problems of coping with record promotion pressures. I hope that record people who arc pushing too hard will find wisdom and guidance in these comments. END

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(Information and news source: Billboard; May 11, 1963)

GAVIN REPORT: MERIT RATING IS IMPORTANT . . . DECEMBER 5, 1964

From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1964

The Bill Gavin Newsletter December 5, 1964

From the Desk of Bill Gavin Billboard Contributing Editor

MANY YEARS AGO, before radio and television brought the World Series into our homes, some of our metropolitan newspapers would display large scoreboards high on their buildings so that the inning-by-inning progress could be followed by all who cared to wait and watch. Large crowds of baseball fans would cluster around, and as each inning was posted there would be cheers or groans, depending on prevailing sympathies.

The impatient anxiety with which many radio people await each succeeding Pulse or Hooper report is reminiscent of those baseball fans a half century ago. The audience measurement surveys keep the score; they report who is winning; they tell the station manager and his program director whether their programming was good; they tell the advertiser how large an audience he can expect for his commercials on each and every station. There is a saying among radio people that “you live and die by the numbers.”

Of course, there are many people in radio – probably a large majority – who take a fairly detached view of audience measurement reports. They are experienced professionals enough to know, without outside numerical reassurance, that they are doing a good job on the air, that they are attracting a fairly substantial audience, and that their station’s position in the local community and in the advertising world is reasonably secure.

It is demonstrably true that in many cities there are frequent and large fluctuations in shares of audience among some of the leading stations. It is small wonder that such wide swings of station popularity promote strong feelings of insecurity, among the leaders as well as among those whose turn it may be to fall behind. It is also true that in other cities, such frequent fluctuations in shares of audience are comparatively unknown. There must be a reason.

PROBABLY A MAJOR cause of the impatient instability that pervades radio competition in certain cities is the tradition of explosive popularity surges that has become associated with pop format stations. New or vastly improved format operations have in the past moved into a number of cities and have taken over an impressive rating leadership in a few short months. It has become an ingrained attitude in format radio that the right combination of tested ingredients – the right music, the right DJ’s, the right promotions – will automatically produce a winner. it has worked many times in the past. When it fails to work now, the assumption is likely to be that there is something wrong with the ingredients. More money is poured into bigger prize contests and into higher priced disk jockeys. This works for a month or two, until the competition follows the same course, and the rating pendulum swings again.

The obvious fallacy in this kind of thinking is that it fails to look beyond the ingredients. It fails to note that stations holding a fairly stable rating position have built up a large following whose loyalty is practically impervious to the competitive blandishments of big prizes and high-powered disk jockeys. It fails to see that a station’s position of respect and acceptance in a community is based on more long-term objectives than can be met by DJ’s, prizes, records and production.

We expect a good disk jockey to put on a consistently good show. We expect that our contests and promotions will attract a certain amount of attention. We expect that skillful selection of music, plus sharp production, will make our stations more attractive to more listeners. But if we limit our expectations exclusively to what is broadcast on the air, we are neglecting opportunities to build listener loyalty-something that grows out of the station’s non- broadcast activities in the community.

SHORT-SIGHTED MANAGERS conceive of public service only as a certain amount of air time devoted to non-commercial announcements that are placed to their credit by the FCC. More thoughtful managers encourage their air personalities to take an active part in community affairs – to work with schools, churches, charities and law enforcement agencies in all things that benefit the community. They don’t wait to be invited, they create new ways to participate, new activities to sponsor.

Radio has been called “the constant companion.” By definition, we have the right to expect our companions to be something more than pleasant, amusing, exciting or entertaining. We ask also that they be interested in us as people. Too many station managers are interested in their listeners only as numbers in a rating survey, and their stations reflect this attitude in their entire program output. It is small wonder that their brittle, superficial appeal is easily broken by an aggressive competitor.

A loyal audience is a valuable asset. It can’t be bought. It can’t be persuaded. It must be deserved. END

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(Information and news source: Billboard; December 5, 1964)

P.D. ALWAYS PUT ON THE SPOT . . . OCTOBER 19, 1963

From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1963

The Bill Gavin Newsletter October 19, 1963

From the Desk of Bill Gavin Billboard Contributing Editor

SAN FRANCISCO — The music director at a top 40 station in a large city holds his job largely by continuing to demonstrate his ability to select the new records that eventually become hits. Every week, when he makes his top pick or discovery, he puts his reputation on the line.

It occasionally happens that even after his station has been playing his pick of the week once an hour for a week, none of the local stores can report any significant sales on it. Should such a thing happen with any degree of regularity. his boss will start looking for a new music director.

One annoying circumstance arises occasionally: a few weeks after a pick has been heavily played and yet has sold little or nothing in the market, it looms up in other cities and becomes a national hit. This is pretty frustrating. Why can’t the first station to spot a record’s potential break it for a hit?

BECAUSE IN MOST CASES, the record isn’t in the stores. The dealers get customer calls but don’t have it. Sometimes they’ll try to order it from the distributor and find that he hasn’t stocked it. By the time it finally reaches its destination at the retailer point of sale, there may be no further demand for it. The station may have dropped it entirely, figuring that it was a
bomb.

This kicks back at the station, too, in the form of listener displeasure. Those who have tried to buy the record, in the belief that it must be important, have their enthusiasm dampened when they find that it isn’t available in the stores.
Their confidence in the station is shaken. It’s unfortunate all the way around. Everybody loses.

Who gets blamed? Everybody. The retailer should keep up with what is being picked for air play, and he should have the new items in stock. The distributor should have stock on the floor, ready to move it out to the stores at the first sign of action. The music director should make certain of the record’s immediate availability before he picks it. At least, that’s the way everyone involved tries to evade the responsibility by blaming someone else.

A closer liaison between the station and the distributor can avoid such situations. Some of the nation’s most successful music directors always check with the distributor before picking a record. When will stock he available? If the station goes on the record, will the distributor order it? Will he guarantee an initial allocation to key retailers?

IT HAPPENS OCCASIONALLY that two or three versions of a record will appear almost simultaneously. Which label gets the pick? It is not always the version with the better sound. It is often the version whose distributor is known
to be alert and aggressive, and who can be depended upon to get it on the dealers’ shelves.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the distributor must guarantee 100 per cent. It should be enough – and usually is – that he will back up the station’s confidence in his product by making it quickly available to the dealers if they need it.

Most important distributors follow this kind of a policy. It is hard to understand why all do not. It is a weakness more often encountered in factory owned or controlled branches, where stock is controlled by the national brass, who estimate which of their weekly releases are most likely to be in demand. In such cases, the decision of an important station to pick a left field possibility – something that is not considered by the bosses to be a top plug item – is occasionally ignored by the local branch manager.

Station music directors are becoming more discriminating with picks in relations to practical sales prospects in a local market. It is a trend that merits serious consideration by record people, in improving their coordination between promotion and sales. END

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(Information and news source: Billboard; October 19, 1963)

OH, WHAT A LIFE THOSE MUSIC DIRECTORS LEAD . . . FEBRUARY 8, 1964

From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1964

The Bill Gavin Newsletter February 8, 1964

From the Desk of Bill Gavin Billboard Contributing Editor

IT’S FUN, SO THEY TELL ME, to be a music director. It’s the most fun when you’re with an important station in a big city. Big name stars you’ve never met phone you, call you by your first name, and speak in a manner suggesting a lasting, possibly, personal friendship. Even though your own salary is considerably less than that of any disk jockey on your station, national officers of big record companies phone you, call on you, take you to dinner and treat you as a real V.I.P. Which you are.

Even if you’re in a smaller town, you can still be important. You have a sense of power. You can break new records in your area and force the nearby big city stations to he aware of them. Promotion men come to sec you, and they let you know just how much influence you really have. You may even receive pre -release mailings of new records and get them on the air ahead of your big town colleagues. It’s exciting work.

DISCUSSING ALL THE MEANINGLESS back slapping and phony good will that goes with record promotion, the music director is more a part of the record business than anyone else at his station. It is part of his job to know what is going on in the world of records. It’s a fascinating world of show business and it’s fun to be part of it, if only as an observer. The fun of being a music director more than compensates for the daily chore of auditing all those new releases. Those who have never faced this task for any length of time have little notion what a grinding and frustrating experience it can be. It requires many hours every day to listen all the way through both sides of every new record that arrives. Add to this the extra hours that the conscientious music director spends in listening several times to those entries that he considers important, and it makes for a pretty full week in auditioning alone. The amount of trash that must be sifted to discover the worthwhile items is horrendous. Of course, hardly any music director listens to all the sides all the way through. An unfamiliar label by an unknown artist may he tossed out unheard. The first few bars of one side may be so unacceptable that no further attention is paid to either side. And, if he gets too busy with other duties, he may put aside the remaining newcomers in a “file for future reference” category, the limbo of “lost” records.

THE BIGGEST HAZARD that any music director must face is his own ego. The search for fame as a “picker’ can distort objective judgment. There is little distinction in picking obvious hits, such as new Bobby Vintons. Elvis Presleys. the Beatles and Brenda Lee. It is human nature to want to he a hero by “discovering” a hit which others had overlooked. This is why so many music directors spend valuable air time looking for gold under the rocks and ignoring the diamonds lying around in plain sight.

Then there is the music director whose nickname might very well be “Flip.” He frequently takes issue with the record companies on their choice of plug side. One in a while he may be right in his espousal of the flip, but most often he is wrong. Certainly there is no necessity for anyone to accept the infallibility of the record company’s selection of a preferred side. In a list of top hits for any year there are always a few items that were broken by a music director who disregarded the company’s promotion of the flip side. With most music directors the flip pick is an honest judgment. With others it is hero mania. Every music director owes his employer the obligation to use his own best judgment in selecting the side to be played. He should also he ready to admit his mistakes and to correct them. Sometimes, however, the music director keeps trying to prove his point in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary and permits his own stubborn ego to blind him to the facts.

IN ORDER TO BE EFFECTIVE the music director must know his market. While a majority of hit records do well in all areas, certain artists and certain musical sounds tend to do better in one city than in another. An awareness of local preferences is essential in guiding the music director’s selection of new material. Even though record sales are the yardstick by which the music director’s success is measured. his prime concern is not with selling records but
with station ratings. He may he tempted to “do a favor” for his favorite promotion man, but it is no favor to his employer to allow personal favoritism to interfere with the best possible programming. It is worthy of note that the most successful radio stations all have top-notch music directors. Whatever they are paid, they are well worth it. END

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(Information and news source: Billboard; February 8, 1964)

GAVIN REPORT: MODERN RADIO IS NOT PUSH BUTTON . . . JULY 25, 1964

From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1964

The Bill Gavin Newsletter July 25, 1964

From the Desk of Bill Gavin Billboard Contributing Editor

A S T A T I O N M A N A G E R recently said I don’t go along with this modern radio. My station programs for adults. “Let the formula stations entertain the kids.” I did my best to explain that “modern” radio means a lot more than that, but it didn’t do much good.

I asked another radio man what he thought about modern radio. “I’m all for it,” he said. “Our station is really modern, Top 40 survey, jingle package, time and temperature, news highlights every half hour, contests and prizes, keep the deejays from yakking — we’ve got all the modern gimmicks.”

Interesting to note, neither of these gentlemen was speaking for a winning station. Manager No. I claimed that the audience measurement services were phony because he knew “lots of people” who listened to his station. Manager No. 2 is perpetually optimistic that the next rating will move him up out of the No. 4 spot to which his station currently clings.

M O D E R N R A D I O is not teenage programming. Modern radio is not gimmicks, copied from some successful operation. There are so many different opinions about, and explanations of, modern radio that I offer the comments that follow with some difference, realizing that others may have a different and possibly a better description.

Modern radio starts with people. It grows out of a genuine respect for people’s interests, problems, tastes and feelings. Modern radio programming aims first at understanding what people want to hear, and then at giving them that plus something more. A continuing contact with living trends in all the many things it has to offer forms the basis of modern radio. Its program rule is objectivity. This is why sterile imitations of formulas and gimmicks show themselves so often to be vulnerable to aggressive competition. Modern radio, is briefly, audience centered.

Modern radio needs and uses a high degree of technical skill. The average listener seldom notices the expert efficiency with which records and tape cartridges are cued and started. Actually, if the technique is apparent to the listener, something is wrong with it. Skill and planning provide the continuous flow of sound and the feeling of movement that are characteristic of today’s most successful radio.

T O B E P R O F I T A B L E , radio must operate economically. In contrast to present day radio, the standards of the old network days seem incredibly wasteful, with their writers, producers and sound effects men, with announcers killing time while they waited to give the station call letters in between the network programs. The margin of profit is much smaller today, and the average effort required from each employee is proportionately greater.

Modern radio is more than entertainment. It is also companionship. It is a friendly voice in a hospital room, in a car, or in a lonely farm house. To be a companion, radio stations have emerged from the electronic anonymity of relay transmitters of entertainment, and have assumed personality and character of their own. Radio, like a good friend, is dependably there and dependably the same.

Pleasing an audience does not consist entirely of providing what people want. Very often, people don’t know what they like in the way of entertainment until they’ve tried it. Pleasing the audience consists largely in planning something that the audience will like. Surprise, novelty and variety are all part of modern radio. It takes creative imagination. often the combined work of many dedicated people, to keep radio continually alive and interesting. Some people call it showmanship.

Modern radio is the disk jockey. He is the voice of the station. He does much more than play records and talk about them. He may he casual or rapid fire; he may be witty or sincere; whatever he is, he is the key to a station’s acceptance
by the public.

M O D E R N R A D I O is a living part of its community. Whether it’s the support of the symphony or of a children’s hospital or of a high school record hop, radio is doing something with and about the community where it lives. The old promotion idea was, “Listen to us.” Today, radio listens to people. More and more stations are inviting listeners to phone, and the phone calls are being broadcast. Modern radio is successful in this joint participation project only as it demonstrates concern and awareness of its listeners as co-partners in the same community of interests.

BILLBOARD July 25, 1964 — BILLBOARD *July 25, 1964*

News has always been an integral part of radio. Even television’s tremendous immediacy in the coverage of such major events as political conventions and the World Series has not reduced the listener appeal of radio’s consistently broader scale reporting.

The early 1950’s saw the beginning of the trend away from four to five quarter hour newscasts per day to the present prevailing practice of shorter summaries every hour or half hour. The news director in today’s radio is also a public relations director, guiding his station’s participation in community affairs.

Above all, modern radio is music. Practically all conceivable musical tastes can find satisfaction on radio’s AM and FM dials. The music comes, of course, from records. Without the rich variety of music made available by the record business, modern radio as we know it could not survive. A station’s selection of recorded music for airplay largely determines the type and size of its audience. Whether in the field of country music, blues, jazz, rock, pop or concert. Modern radio accepts the principle that listener preference, as demonstrated by record sales and other measurable response, is the guide line to programming.

Modern radio is not the same as it was yesterday, nor will it be the same tomorrow. It is always responsive to new trends, open to new ideas. Within the structure of modern radio there have always been those leaders who are willing to pioneer new concepts and approaches. As long as courage and vision survive among broadcasters, there will always be modern radio. END

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(Information and news source: Billboard; July 25, 1964)

GAVIN REPORT: GOOD MUSIC AND PEOPLE’S CHOICES . . . DECEMBER 19, 1964

From the MCRFB.COM NEWS archive: 1964

The Bill Gavin Newsletter December 19, 1964

From the Desk of Bill Gavin Billboard Contributing Editor

M O R E B A D P R O G R A M M I N G is done in the name of “good music” than in any other form of radio. This opinion is not only my own but is also held by many broadcasters. It does not, of course, rule out the excellent programming being done by a number of “good music” stations in the U. S. and Canada. But by and large the exponents of the so-called “better music” or “non-rock” policies display an abysmal indifference to the basic nature of commercial radio.

“You can’t please all of the people all of the time,” said a disk jockey recently to his program director, in defense of the music he was selecting for his show. The PD’s reply is worth noting: “No, probably not. But let’s try.”

Within its policy limits, whether r &b, country, or whatever, a radio station aims to please as many listeners as possible. At least, this is generally conceded to be radio’s prime objective. In view of such a fundamental guideline, it is amazing how many “good music” stations ignore it.

Ask a “good music” station manager about his music policy. Chances are he’ll say, “We don’t play rock and roll.” Or he might even say, “We don’t play any top 40 records.” He’s also apt to tell you that his station doesn’t program kids’ music. It’s “strictly for adults.” So far, the good music man has told you what kind of music his station doesn’t play. When you finally pin him down to what he does play, it usually turns out that this is left to the discretion of the individual disk jockeys. As long as they avoid the forbidden area of rock ‘n’ roll (whatever that is) they play just about anything they like.

A C O M M E N T O F T E N H E A R D in the realm of “good music radio” is that each disk jockey’s selection of music is an “expression of his personality.” This is probably true. And if we analyze the personalities thus musically expressed on the air, we are forced to classify a good many of them variously as smug, condescending, biased, snobbish, conceited, archaic, uninformed, careless. indifferent and/or incompetent.

A friend of mine once remarked of such a station in his city that “the DJ’s treat the station as if it were their own 50-kilowatt hi-fi set on which they play records strictly for their own personal entertainment.” This may sound like a pretty serious indictment with which to charge a considerable number of stations, yet it is highly probable that each of our readers knows at least one station in his community to which the indictment would apply.

BILLBOARD December 19, 1964 — **BILLBOARD** *December 19, 1964*

It might be observed, parenthetically, that a tendency to program personal favorites can also be detected in fields of radio other than “good music.” There are not a few pop format stations where disk jockeys place personal preference ahead of an objective and informed awareness of community tastes in music.

In the area of “good music” programming, it is not quite fair to place all the blame on the disk jockeys for ignoring objectivity and programming their music to please themselves. Lacking any positive direction from the program department, it is probably better that they use their own taste rather than no taste at all. The common error made by so many “good music” operators is the assumption that by ruling out what they consider “bad” music they automatically achieve effective programming in the non-rock field.

It would be helpful to inquire just why it is that some good music stations enjoy high ratings and comfortable incomes, while others struggle on the brink of oblivion. The answer is to be found, I believe, in the fact that some few items of “good music” are greatly preferred by its followers. As in all kinds of music, there are always a comparatively few selections that stand out in their proved appeal to a large number of listeners, rising impressively above a surrounding environment of drab mediocrity.

S U C H A C O N C E P T A P P E A L obviously involves the classification of “popular” music, and perhaps a semanticist would find this term to be the obstacle that confuses so much of the prevailing thinking about “good music” programming. The idea of popular music implies mass appeal, and there are unfortunately too many programmers who feel that music with mass appeal cannot also have class.

The successful good music stations devote just as much attention to what is popular in their field as do the pop format stations to theirs. All disk jockeys are required to play a certain number of the strongest proven singles. The DJ’s are urged to concentrate on certain LP tracks that have been most effective in attracting listener comments. The music director makes a regular check of the retail stores and distributors to learn of any sales response to new singles and LP’s that are being programmed.

Regardless of his public disapproval of pop format competition, the successful “good music” operator acknowledges in private the practical value of much that his competitor does. Such techniques as short newscasts, tight cueing, bright pacing, frequent time -temp -weather, and minimum 1-1k are usually to be found in the most successful good music operations. The most important characteristic that the happier “good music stations” have in common with their pop format brethren is a rigorous objectivity in the selection of the music. Their DJ’s are encouraged to be good showmen and not permitted to be their own best audience.

Programming of music for radio has certain aspects of effective democracy. Successful music, like a successful candidate, depends on the people’s choice. END

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(Information and news source: Billboard; December 19, 1964)

GAVIN REPORT: THE PD – RADIO’S KEY POST . . . MARCH 7, 1964

From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1964

The Bill Gavin Newsletter (March 7, 1964)

From the Desk of Bill Gavin Billboard Contributing Editor

T H E P R O G R A M D I R E C T O R I S the most important single factor in the success of modern radio. Everyone knows that success is compounded from many different elements: music, deejays, promotion and publicity, news and newsmen, community relations, and production. Each of these elements involves the PD. The way he handles them can make or break a station.

Let us note in passing that the PD may not always exercise decisive control. The station manager determines what degree of responsibility and authority is delegated to the PD. Some few managers find it difficult – if not impossible – to
delegate authority. They control and direct most program functions themselves. In such cases, the title of PD is worn with some discomfort by a man who serves chiefly as both errand boy and whipping boy for the boss.

I know of certain managers who handle the program chores very well. I know of others who make a mess of the job. Most of these problem managers assign responsibility without proportionate authority. They give the PD a job to do but fail to back up his decisions. The manager who wants to direct his own programming should honestly admit it, and should take full personal responsibility for the result. It is unfortunately a not infrequent human failing to pass the buck, and to some managers, the PD is simply a built-in alibi for failure.

L O O K A T A N Y O U T S T A N D I N G radio success today and you will probably find a top-notch program director who operates with 100 per cent management backing. Let’s look more closely and see what qualifies the successful PD needs for his job.

BILLBOARD March 7, 1964 — **BILLBOARD** *March 7, 1964*

His most difficult task is directing his deejays. Stars of opera, theater and movies frequently make headlines with their tempermental tantrums. But as a group their egos are no more fragile, expansive or explosive than those of the disk jockey fraternity. How do you persuade a half-dozen or so talented mike men that they are part of a team, and not just individuals trying to enhance their reputations? How do you build their pride in being part of a winning team in preference to pride only in the ratings of their particular shows? How can you persuade a top rated jock that that your occasional corrections are intended helpfully and not fault finding inspired by jealous envy? While formula radio may be a big thing these days, there is no known formula for answering these questions. The best answers can be found in any of those top -rated stations with an unusually low personnel turnover in the program department.

The program director is the idea man. Constructive new programming ideas are the life blood of modern radio. New features, new promotions, new jingles, new devices and techniques – these are all a part of the PD’s job. This doesn’t necessarily mean that he himself must be the sole originator of all new ideas at his stations. Too many good men have stubbed their toes on that ivory tower philosophy. The important thing is that he stimulate a constant interchange of ideas among the people in his department. Then he must know how to put it to work. While the pd need not he the idea creator, he must be the focal point of creativeness and the instigator of good thinking.

A N Y P R O G R A M D I R E C T O R W H O assumes the full authority for selecting his station’s music cannot possibly have enough time left for his other duties. Some PD’s have an assistant who “screens” the new releases and presents the best for his final determination. Such a course is less time consuming. But it has drawbacks. A good PD is not necessarily a good music man. Selection of the right music is
too important to be just a part of a man’s time. It is better done if it is someone’s full time responsibility in the music department.

One occasionally hears the question: Whose side is the PD on? Management’s? or the DJ’s? Whenever you hear such a question, mark it down as coming from a dysfunctional station. There should be no “sides” within a successful station. The only “other” side is outside: the enemy is the competition. The program director is a constant liaison between the front office and the announcer’s booth. The needs and problems of all parties channel through him. He is not a messenger boy, carrying orders in one direction and gripes in the other. He is an interpreter, whose skill is understanding and whose goal is better cooperation. END

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(Information and news source: Billboard; March 7, 1964)

GAVIN REPORT: LIFE OF A DEEJAY NOT ALL ROSES . . . JANUARY 11, 1964

From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1964

The Bill Gavin Newsletter (January 11, 1964)

From the Desk of Bill Gavin Billboard Contributing Editor

I T I S A M A Z I N G H O W M A N Y young men want to be disk jockeys. It must be that with his record dance hops, his regular air shows, his apparent closeness to record stars and his obvious importance to so many people, the disk jockey appears as a glamorous person. His profession seems surrounded by all the magic glitter of show business. Unfortunately for the ambitions of the young hopefuls, the real contents of the package are not nearly as attractive as the shiny wrapping that enclose it. Being a disk jockey is not nearly as rewarding as so many seem to think.

As a group, disk jockeys are not highly paid. On the average they do not receive as much as truck drivers, machinists, or brick layers. The highly paid luminaries in a few large cities are the exceptions. It is as hard to break into their select circle as it is to make the major leagues in baseball.

Life in Smaller Stations

Most disk jockeys work in smaller towns. They lack any union protection of wages or working conditions. It is not uncommon to find them running errands, cleaning floors, selling time, repairing equipment, writing spots and so on, with no extra pay for extra work. They are not wooed by record companies; they don’t have artists begging to appear at their hops. They don’t even receive many of the important hit records. If they insist on playing certain records, they have to buy them at the store.

T H E S M A L L T O W N D I S K J O C K E Y has only one hope to keep him at his unrewarding job; he might some day land a job in the Big Town. Most, of course, do not. The turnover rate for small-station disk jockeys is very high.

There are a few who make the grade and hit the big time. They have it made now, they think. But they don’t. They learn, first of all, that they live and die “by the numbers.” The listener surveys show each month what percentage of the
audience is tuned in to their show. Let their share drop below the station average and they are finished, no matter how much the boss may like them and their work. They learn to live with insecurity.

The professional disk jockey, even with proved ability, has to take his work where he finds it. If he needs a new job. he must go where the job is. It may he in Minneapolis or Dallas or Cincinnati. Job openings are few, and so he packs up his family and moves. Generally speaking, disk jockeys are among the nation’s most rootless professionals.

T H E D I S K J O C K E Y W H O H A S just come up from the minor leagues of radio into the big city job is often surprised to learn that his salary isn’t as large as he had expected. If he wants to increase his earnings, he has to make it on the outside
with record hops. In this field he usually finds himself in fierce competition with other disk jockeys for any available “live” talent. He may begin evaluating records. not in terms of their merit, but with reference to how co-operative the
promoters or distributors have been in providing his hops with artists. He may even reach a point where his boss considers his behavior unethical
and inimical to the station’s standing with the FCC. That means trouble.

Music Control Gone

The would-be disk jockey’ has visions of playing his favorite records on the air, chosen from thousands available in the record library. How wrong he is. Record programs on almost every pop station are made up from a list of less than 120 titles. The deejay has little or nothing to do with making up that list. He must make up his shows with a majority of selections from the top 30 or 40 on the list. His own preferences have little to do with the case. He learns to “sell” the music he plays as effectively as he sells the sponsors’ products, though he may have as little personal fondness for the one as for the other.

H E I S S U P P O S E T O B E A “personality” but he must also conform to the station’s “sound.” He is urged to be creative and to use his imagination, but the boundaries within which he can operate are rigidly prescribed and extremely narrow. A disk jockey on a formula station needs to work hard to find a continuing challenge in his work. Being a disk jockey is not without its rewards. Those who seek such a career should do so realistically and not as glamour seekers or status chasers. END

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(Information and news source: Billboard; January 11, 1964)

GAVIN REPORT: WHO NEEDS IT? PEDDLING ‘DIRTY LYRICS’ RADIO OBJECTIONABLE . . . JUNE 29, 1963

From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1963

The Bill Gavin Newsletter (June 29, 1963)

From the Desk of Bill Gavin Billboard Contributing Editor

O U R R E C E N T C O L U M N O F D I R T Y L Y R I C S brought several interesting letters from radio people.

Ralph Howard, program director of WOTT, Watertown, New York, comments that “a bad record doesn’t make a bad kid.” He calls attention to some of our old standards whose lyrics can be interpreted in a suggestive vein. “I try to play what sells,” he continues, “and if it does, I’m a winner.”

Steve Joos, program director of WCOL, Columbus, Ohio, writes that his simple solution for the problem of records with unacceptable lyrics is not to play them. He forcefully rejects the thinking that the station has to play a record just because the competition is doing so. He comments that the stations whose ratings are shaky enough to be harmed by the omission of one or two records is in a very bad way.

Jack Sharp, operations manager of KFJZ, Ft. Worth, suggests a “gentleman’s agreement,” among the broadcasters of a community that they will jointly refuse to play an objectionable record. He remarks that this would not be in any sense discriminatory or illegal but would “be merely self-policing that the NAB has been striving for.” “It is no more discriminatory,” he continues, than my top 40 station refusing to play a fiddle-screeching hoedown, nasal, crying-in-my-beer song that has actually sold 4,000 records in my market.”

L E T ‘ S C O N T I N U E W I T H M O R E O F Sharp’s thoughtful letter: “Even if a program director and his competition cannot come to an agreement on a ban, he still does not have a reason to fall back on that tired old excuse that ‘if I don’t play the record, my competitor will, and the kids will go there to hear the record.’

“This, says Sharp, “is the biggest bunch of garbage in radio. The program director who programs strictly because he might lose some listeners is cutting his own throat. I defy that program director to show me a market in the United States where the omission of one record from his playlist will cause the ratings to slip.”

BILLBOARD, June 29, 1963 — BILLBOARD *June 29, 1963*

“One of your correspondents asked the question of where the action should come from, the record industry, or the radio industry. The record industry is far too big ever to police offending labels. So the suggestive records will always show up, and somebody will always play them. The only solution lies in the individual market, and I refuse to believe there are program people out there, anywhere, who will fail to at least discuss the merits of various records with their competitors. They may fail to agree, but they will not fail to listen, discuss and to at least talk.

“After a few bans in major markets, agreed upon in advance by program men, perhaps the offending labels will take a second look at the advisability of attempting to peddle trash. Such is perhaps a long shot, true, but there certainly isn’t any other way to clean up the airways.”

O U R T H A N K S G O E S O U T T O Jack Sharp, Steve Joos, Ralph Howard, and many others in the field who wrote in sharing their views. Obviously, certain other broadcasters are well aware of this problem and are doing something about it. Perhaps their general attitude is best expressed by Bob Osborne, WIL, St. Louis. With reference to an objectionable disk that his station was not playing, of his reply, he says: “Who needs it?” END

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(Information and news source: Billboard; June 29, 1963)

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