Programming

[Rick and Roll]

There seems to be a strong reaction from a lot of listeners about repeat music, and programming on the Moon. There have been a lot of forum threads innundated with this, so I was hoping we could consolidate our ideas into one.

It would be beneficial to see what a lot of others think, please give your opinions and suggestions.

I know I have made these points in other threads, but I want to dump them here and be done with it. Also, I am very interested in what the consensus is, and hope to move forward from this stale topic.

For consideration by Jim and my fellow Moonies:

1) The idea of full-length play is essential to a prog station. A show like Tommy's is needed. Personally, I have issues with the preponderance (sp?) of the same bands (especially the Floyd), but everyone seems to really enjoy it. There should be more of this full-length play. There are tons of examples, but for instance Strangefish's Full Scale record is awesome. No one wants to hear "Oceans Deep" ten times and no others. Play it all. A lot of my favorite CD's lose their magic if cuts are played individually from them.

2) I do not want to see this become a Flower Kings station (like some others) but having people burn out on it is a bad thing. "I Am The Sun" has never been requested by me, but I love the tune. But how about "Serious Dreamers" or a tune like that instead? Take a chance people!

3) I may not like a lot of what's on Progressive Shores, but I love the idea and the show. Even the repeats are fine.

4) The idea of having listeners select a block of music once a month or every two weeks has a lot of upside:

a) The listener party blocks were awesome. You had Wojtek and the classics, Mossy with the more quiet, etc. I especially thought Teerminator's was excellent. I didn't like it at first glance, but the songs were great. There's a lot of listener talent here.

b) There is pressure when a request is made to make it the "best". Personally I only request a couple of songs a week. Sometimes I want to really dig in and pick a different one, but I find myself choosing the "safe" tune. I think this is the main reason for the same songs you hear over and over. Especially the ones who rq every day.

c) Having this outlet, for me at least, will keep down the urge of rq at other times. I would be happy with not rq any other time if I had a block.

d) The requests are dominated by the hardcore Moonies. The variety is limited (see b above), and the "flavor of the month" is present. In order to cultivate new listeners you need variety. Not just different kinds of music, but different ARTISTS.

e) Themes are cool, but can be controlled in a format like this. The morning listeners used to come up with themes and everyone will pick songs to match. A lot of times some mediocre stuff would play, but an outlet like that would be neat. Also it keeps from being an all day affair.

f) Having shows like these would highlight the library - all the music would be culled from the Moon. If the Moon has 11,000 songs, I'll bet we only hear a few hundred. Or perhaps a thousand, but 100 played over and over.

5) I strongly disagree with putting a limit on how often a band plays or someone can request, but by the same token, in order to expand the base we need to be inclusive of others, specifically the periphery listener. No one should be rq more than 3 songs a day, really. It's just not fair. And no one should take advantage of this either. I'm past the point of buying all I hear, but I want to hear it!

6) Another reason you hear these same long tunes is that if you are making a request, you don't want to "waste it" on a 4 minute tune. More bang for the buck. On Stardust We Are, there are a few short great songs. but hey if I can rq, why not stardust...it's 25 minutes...see what I mean? then we burned out on it. Transatlantic - "We All Need Some Light Now" might be the best song on the record - but there are other longer songs and they get played.

7) The program director should have a certain amount of time to have "free programming". Sometimes we've played songs by bands with the same letter, stuff like that. Or random play. I like that. It's different.

8) All new additions should be played in their entierety once. Why not? This is long overdue.

None of these suggestions I am making have nothing to do with limits.....I want to hear a variety! Our individual libraries are for the other motives.

All right everyone....as a certain candidate says.....bring it on!