FREE ESSAY ON RADIO PROGRAMMING

RADIO PROGRAMMING

Radio Programming: Both and Art and a Science
Ideally, radio programming should be more of an art than a science. It should be about
what people want to hear and what the disc jockeys want to play. Station managers should
strive to create quality programs, similar to like they did in the old days, before
television was around.
Radio is used much differently today than it was in the past. When it was first invented,
families used to gather around the radio and listen to programs, similar to how families
today watch television programs. Most of the programs on the radio did not feature music,
like most do today. 
Today, radio is mostly turned on to hear news and news information. Personally, I only
listen to radio in my car and I have to change the channel frequently because of all the
commercials that are played. With the digital revolution and the invention of compact
discs and mp3's that are played on the computer, people have less of a use for radio.
They can control the songs they hear by playing in a CD player or on their computer. This
is personally what I prefer to do.
These days it seems like radio programming is more of a science than an art. Program
managers find out what a select group of people like, and most of the time it is not very
accurate. The way that radio stations get feedback is not very accurate or well-done.
They then buy blocks and strips of programming and try to make as much money as they can.
They do not play necessarily what the listeners like, but the same songs over and over
again day after day. 
Disc jockeys are tightly controlled and have certain things they are and aren't allowed
to do. Promotions and contests are done all the time to try and draw in listeners and add
to the listener base. If a station does not like the demographic they are reaching, they
will forget about their listeners and change their format to make more money. It's sad to
say, but the bottom line these days in the radio business is money. 
It's not like the old days in which radio was original and unpredictable. These days,
it's become a science in which it is manufactured in some remote studio with a high-tech
computer system and then sold to the anyone who is willing to pay money for it.
Multi-million dollar companies own many stations across the United State and bring in a
lot of money each year. It's sad to see that radio is becoming more and more of a science
than an art and, in my opinion, that is not a good thing.