Perhaps every person in our listening audience imagines that a particular year was the highlight of their life. So how do we target people whose music tastes were formed by their experiences that could have been laid down in any year of the last 60? You can’t really!
The best that a presenter can do is play a variety of music that is generally ‘middle of the road’. The problem is that this can translate into a boring mix – neither fish nor fowl!
The presenter’s taste is usually apparent and that is almost inevitable. Also, it is incredibly difficult to cater for the ethnic mix of the station’s total audience.
Usually the best that the presenter can do is inject the occasional song in a ‘familiar’ foreign language. What follows is the method used by a specific presenter when selecting music for a Breakfast Show:-
Select a theme. I select a theme for a month or two. Currently it’s ‘Songs from successful musicals.’ So, every 5th or 6th song is going to be from a musical.
I start the program assembly by listing songs from five musicals. For example (A).
(A)
1. Musical – male singer
2. Musical – female singer
3. Musical – mixed chorus
4. Musical – female chorus
5. Musical – a ‘quirky’ song.
Then between each Musical song I insert four or five songs selected from the following genres
(B)
Country Female Australian Rock Country Male
Male singer Female singer Rhythm and Blues
Etcetera, etcetera.
I mix the selection sequence up to reduce the incidence of contiguous songs of the same genre. Note that I occasionally insert ‘wild card’ songs – perhaps in a different language, or purely instrumental or even humorous repartee.
Finally, I bring my sense of humour into the studio so if everything goes ‘pear-shaped’ I can survive without getting stressed. After all there is only so much that a strong cup of coffee can do!
The best that a presenter can do is play a variety of music that is generally ‘middle of the road’. The problem is that this can translate into a boring mix – neither fish nor fowl!
The presenter’s taste is usually apparent and that is almost inevitable. Also, it is incredibly difficult to cater for the ethnic mix of the station’s total audience.
Usually the best that the presenter can do is inject the occasional song in a ‘familiar’ foreign language. What follows is the method used by a specific presenter when selecting music for a Breakfast Show:-
Select a theme. I select a theme for a month or two. Currently it’s ‘Songs from successful musicals.’ So, every 5th or 6th song is going to be from a musical.
I start the program assembly by listing songs from five musicals. For example (A).
(A)
1. Musical – male singer
2. Musical – female singer
3. Musical – mixed chorus
4. Musical – female chorus
5. Musical – a ‘quirky’ song.
Then between each Musical song I insert four or five songs selected from the following genres
(B)
Country Female Australian Rock Country Male
Male singer Female singer Rhythm and Blues
Etcetera, etcetera.
I mix the selection sequence up to reduce the incidence of contiguous songs of the same genre. Note that I occasionally insert ‘wild card’ songs – perhaps in a different language, or purely instrumental or even humorous repartee.
- Musical – male singer
- Country Female
- Rhythm and Blues
- Australian Rock
- Male singer
- Musical – female singer
- Male singer
- Something strange – a Jacques Brel song in French for example
- Jazz number
- Female Group
- Etcetera….
- Musical – mixed chorus
- Musical – female chorus
- Musical – a ‘quirky’ song
Finally, I bring my sense of humour into the studio so if everything goes ‘pear-shaped’ I can survive without getting stressed. After all there is only so much that a strong cup of coffee can do!
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