Radio Promotion 101
by T. Perry Bowers
If you think you can pop a CD in an envelope, send it off to a radio station and sit by the radio to see if your song comes on, you need to read this blog! If you do, it might save you some time.
Let me start by saying I’m not an expert and it’s been a few years since I did this, but I was in a band who did some radio promotion a few years back and I learned a lot about it. There is a process and if you don’t do it exactly the right way, you’re just throwing your CDs, envelopes, stamps and your time in the toilet.
While radio is not what it used to be, it’s still a very powerful medium. It can take your band to the next level. I am always surprised how many people listen to the Current (the Twin Cities state run, publicly funded radio station). I see Current 89.3 stickers on cars all the time. If you have the opportunity to be played (or actually be on one of the shows live) you’d be silly not to take it. Whatever the radio station across the country, whether it’s independent, college or commercial if you’re being played on the radio, people are likely to take you more seriously.
Radio is regional. It’s not like the Internet and that’s a good thing. If you are being played in a certain town, you know where you need to go to capitalize on the phenomena. If you’re in heavy rotation on a Madison, Wisconsin College radio station, you better get your ass in a van and play a show in Madison. And while you’re at it, drop some CDs to the local record stores. If you’re being played regularly contact the radio station to see if you can come in to do an interview or play live. This is your best chance to create a fan base in a new town. Two fan bases are better than one and this is where your career has the potential to start to support itself. If you can play two towns every month, pack the shows and sell CDs and t-shirts at both shows, then you’ll start to make some money. Add 2 or 3 more towns and you’re really getting somewhere. This is the power of radio airplay. It’s immediate and exponentially larger than just playing a show in a new town.
So, how do you get radio airplay?
The first thing you need to know is radio stations add songs every week on a Tuesday. So think about what date you would like your song added to the radio station’s playlist. When you send your CD to a radio station it should have a sticker on the outside of the envelope stating the “add date.” All of your mailers (to all of the stations you send your CD) should have the same date on them. This date separates the pros from the amateurs. It’s not that radio programmers won’t listen to a CD without an “add date” printed on it. It’s just that they know if there’s no add date, more than likely, you are a garage band with no backing. Radio stations have relationships with labels and the pros go to the front of the line. The stacks of CDs are massive and the competition is huge. So you want to make it look like you are on a label, even if you’re not.
The add date is also important because Billboard magazine publishes the “Top 20 Adds” alongside all the other charts each week. If your band makes that chart, you’ll create some industry buzz. Independent labels want their bands to be on the chart because making the list means things start to happen for the band. Touring becomes more lucrative, bigger labels take notice and bigger agencies want to work with you. But statistically, to get on that chart, a band has to go far and wide with their campaign. So the more radio stations that receive your package, the more likely you are to “chart”.
When our band did our radio campaign a few years ago, we didn’t have the budget to aim for a chart position. So we focused on a regional campaign. Our aim was to get added on stations around the region, so we could tour and capitalize on the airplay. It costs about $15 per station for a radio promotion company to work with your CD. That doesn’t include the actual CD, the press kit, the envelope or the postage. At that time, there were about 500 radio stations across the country with the potential to play our music. We were calling ourselves alternative rock, with a crossover to adult contemporary. So a full 500 station campaign would have cost us $7500 for radio promotion, plus $750 in postage and mailers, $800 for CDs and $500 for full color “one sheets” (press kits). So almost 10K to do a nationwide push. Needless to say, that wasn’t in our budget. Do you want to start an independent label? If so, that’s where your first 10K of capital might go!
So we decided to do a 100-station campaign. We focused on Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa and some other radio stations within a 12-hour drive from Minneapolis. We settled on an “add date,” we put our “one sheet” together and manufactured our CDs. The radio promo company wanted the CD to land on the programmer’s desk exactly 3 and half weeks before the add date. This gives the station ample time to put the record through their process, but not so much time that it has to be stored and potentially lost or thrown out. Every radio station’s process is different, but most of the time the director distributes the CDs to various people in the organization and has them write up feedback. The feedback includes whether they think the record is worthy of adding and at what level of rotation. You could be added in light, medium or heavy rotation. It doesn’t matter for charting – if you’re added, you’re added. The station will report you to the Billboard chart. If you are unknown, you will probably be added in light rotation to see what the initial reaction is. If the listeners respond positively you will likely be moved up the rotation ranks. You’re not only competing with unknown bands, you’re also up against U2, the Foo Fighters, Green Day etc. So if you get added it says a lot about your music. Major and well-known independent label releases do get preferential treatment. You’ll have to do something that makes you stand out. Good music helps a lot, but a good package doesn’t hurt either.
Your “One Sheet” is a condensed version of a press kit. It is simply one piece of paper with all of the necessary information on it. It includes the album artwork, a brief bio of the band and a description of the material, with the single underlined. The single is the song you want them to listen to first. It is very important because they may only listen to one minute of that song before making a decision. You should indicate a second song as well though. If your CD catches fire with the listeners they’ll put the second song into rotation after the first one plateaus. Your one sheet should also include testimonials, reviews and most importantly, all of the credits. The best run sheets have flair and style, are professional and easily read. Radio programmers will look for anything to justify adding your song to their playlist. Even if they like your song a lot, they take a risk if they don’t know you.
This is where credits can help. Can you name-drop anyone who helped with your record? A producer who once worked with Prince? Pull out all modesty because if they are going to add an unknown, they need to have something to talk about. What about your bio? Do you have anything unique about how your band was formed? Have you played any big or interesting shows? Was your father a well-known musician?
Radio promoters also want to read reviews of your CD (or previous work). We can talk more about how to get press later, but let’s assume that you’ve had some published reviews or some well known people have commented on your music. 3 or 4 quotes are great. This gives the radio station an idea what others think about you and how they classify you. The radio station is a box (adult contemporary, alternative, top 40, rock, hard rock, classic rock etc). They want to know if you fit in. A review (especially if it references other artists) will help.
So what do radio promotion companies do for their $15? They put the add date sticker on the CD and envelope (it literally says “Add Date: 7/14/17” in big letters). This ensures that it goes in the right pile. Then they send the CD to the right person. If they are a good and reputable business, their database is huge and up to date. At some stations, the program director receives the incoming music themselves. At others, a different individual or a team of people receive the CDs. Radio promoters also make follow up calls – usually once per week and they know exactly when to call (Radio stations have specific times when they will talk to labels and radio promoters – for example it might be 9am-noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays). This is where the radio promotion company’s database pays off. Trying to do this for your own band is a futile endeavor. There are too many idiosyncrasies in the process – paying $15 for a professional to do it is a no-brainer.
A radio promoter keeps a spreadsheet of all of the stations they sent your CD to. They’ll make notes each week they call. If the station does add your song the amount of rotation will be noted (light, medium or heavy). If it is added only to a particular show, it will be noted. Sometimes, a DJ might like your song and put it on their show even if the station doesn’t officially put it into rotation. After the add date passes, the promoter will follow up every week for 6-12 weeks. You can pay them to do more after that, but if your record hasn’t caught on by then, it probably won’t.
Let’s imagine your single catches on and becomes a hit in a particular market where a radio station put it into heavy rotation for 6 weeks straight. You might think you’ve made it. But really the work has just begun. More than likely the radio promoter will be following up with the station to encourage them to keep playing the song. But the radio station and the promoter will want you to get to their town, play a show and get on the radio for a live performance and an interview. Maybe another station in a different town has you in light rotation. Well, you might as well make a stop on the way and see if you can boost it up there too. This is the formula. It’s how bands make it. Yes, the Internet has changed things. And yes, you can make it with YouTube hits. But, the world of independent and college radio is still a very powerful tool. If you are serious about your band, it needs to be part of your efforts. To do it right is not cheap, but it can be very effective.
