Song Tags

[Jay Nunley]

We never have any real radio discussions anymore, so I thought I would start one.

I'm noticing more and more stations (mostly AC formats) doing song tags. This is where a voice over announces the artist and title at the beginning or end of every song. This is not air talent back selling or front selling. It is a voice over.

With RDS and streaming you already get a "song tag" of sorts and it is a VERY popular feature.

One of the most common complaints about radio has been we don't identify song and title enough.

With all that said, I don't know what I think about these song tags. What do you guys think?

[fearpeddler]

I got a new car a few months back and noticed a feature thats new to me, the "info" button, I noticed all the stations around here kinda use it, but theres a few who actually keep it updating with artists/titles, not just the stations call letters. As long as I could punch that button and find out what I was listening to I could honestly care less about it being actually announced via a voice.

[Bob Campbell]

I'm not sure what listeners think, but from a talent/programmer's perspective, I despise it. I'd rather have a live jock doing it, giving a different read (inflection, emphasis, tempo, etc.). I hate recorded voices doing it. It just sounds so lifeless and soulless to me.

[fearpeddler]

live vs taped I'd prefer a live person...

[genlock]

Isn't it sort of like having a fireman on a diesel locomotive?

[Dave Allen]

Lifeless? Souless? You just described 95% of all radio in 2010.

[Ace Purple]

Lightning 100 here in Nashville does something cool where they will tag a song on the front and back end if it's on their "New Music List" on the station's website (where they test songs from what I imagine is mostly a core of P1s and/or frequent listeners). It's a dual purpose: it draws attention to the new song, and it also promotes the station's New Music List program.

I recall hearing song tagging from CD 106.3 (WCDA) in Lexington circa 2000 and liking the way they handled it. For new music I can see it being helpful.

[Cameron]

...so when IS Lynn starting that on the So. Charleston station, Jay?

[AmpedNow]

Lightning 100 here in Nashville does something cool where they will tag a song on the front and back end if it's on their "New Music List" on the station's website (where they test songs from what I imagine is mostly a core of P1s and/or frequent listeners). It's a dual purpose: it draws attention to the new song, and it also promotes the station's New Music List program.

I agree. I like it for drawing attention to new music. But not for announcing the same old songs everyone knows. I'd rather hear a real voice, or no voice at all.

As for song tagging through RDS and HD, I'm honestly surprised that this isn't considered mandatory in the 2010 broadcasting world... These features are rapidly becoming standard in most new receivers.

[Scott Reppert]

The listener should be told what every song played is and who it is by at some point by a live human being or, at worst, a live human being who has walked into the studio from where the song is being played and recorded a voice track.

If the song on the air originates from outside the building with the call letters on the side, that's not radio.

If the announcer has never walked into the studio of the building with the call letters on the side, that's not radio.

If you can't go from a live event back to the CORRECT programming that is supposed to be on the air (which I have heard for two weeks in a row on a local FM), that's not radio.

If you can't prevent the studio mics being open to two hosts talking over a spot that is playing which has another spot playing over top of it (heard recently on a local AM), that's not radio.

If you don't realize that 20 (yes, 20) :30 spots DO NOT fit into a TWO minute break (heard recently on a local AM), that's not radio.

If you can't prevent 6 minutes of dead air during morning drive (which I heard this morning on a local FM), that's not radio.

If you don't air a legal ID at the top of the hour for 3 weeks (which I am currently in the middle of hearing on a local AM), that's not radio.

Bottom line? A bunch of you all have never been in radio, now, have you?

[Big Media]

I remember when WTCR used to image itself on the air as being the "only station in town that gives you the title and artist of every song" or something like that.

I have heard this tag on V100 and, to be honest, I think it sounds ridiculous. That's why you have air talent. Tagging every song should not be left to the voice over talent and the computer. Which, oddly enough, the tags that V100 is using sounds like a computer.

[Jay Nunley]

Without seeing any perceptual data it would be a hard call for me to make. Relying on my own thoughts and opinions (or that of other radio nerds) is a fool's game when it comes to stuff like this. I think these tags are a feature that will be embraced and adored by radio users, but I don't know that for sure. I don't give a damn about how a segue sounds with them or "ruining sonic intergrity" or any of that crap. Radio users don't know or care, so I don't.

A live announcer is ALWAYS preferable. There's nothing to argue there. I don't like the idea of eve a live annoucer "tagging" every song.

I'm fairly certain this is the audio eqivalent of Real Player, Windows Media Player, stream players, Ipods, and music videos displaying title and artist.

This would be a moot point if RDS was ubiquitous to radio stations and all radios.

[Jay Nunley]

...so when IS Lynn starting that on the So. Charleston station, Jay?

I don't think they are, but I don't know. Ask Hoover.

[Clay JD Walker]

The problem that comes with most of us begins with how we started in radio...I know that I haven't been a 'typical user' of the product (radio)...we listen for things like segues and trainwrecks (which is all BS), legal IDs and other production, etc, 'posting' records and all of it. It took me a long time (and still bugs me at times) to realize how an average consumer of our product uses us. Watching my dad listen to radio, my mom, my neighbors, even the damn dog proves to me that there are some things we spend way too much time analyzing, while the other, more important things go unnoticed.

Now, is good production value worthless...no. However, 'good production value' and other things in which we radio geeks speak has very loose definitions...especially in the consumers of our product.

Song tagging isn't that new of an idea...I did get to hear it on V when I was through CHS last weekend...very interesting concept, and honestly, a ballsy move...how many AC stations have you heard be 'innovative' aside from the 'at work network' in 1987? Or, radio stations in general...

including mine...so there.

[Lester]

I would question that move on *EVER* song. If, for an example, an AC station is playing a song that is 10 years old... and you feel the need to tag it because your listener might not know who it is... then maybe it's a little too obscure for your playlist.

This would apply to about 2/3rds the music Jay plays as well.

My $.0025 cents.

[Jay Nunley]

I would agree with Lester on that 100% if it weren't for the tens of thousands of times I've encountered people who had no idea who was the artist or title (or one or the other) on iconic, high familiarity songs. So, I agree with him about 75%.

This is specifically when considering my station. Somewhere near 80% of my quarter hours come from P1s and Super P1s. Those people know the artist and title for the majority of the songs we play. This is why I rely so heavily on TSL. The fight for cume is too expensive and too dicey or I would be looking for ways to get more quarter hours from transient P2s and maybe even P3s which would necessarily include identifying songs more often and song tagging may be the fastest and most effective way of doing so.

What Clay had to say about production values and all that is absolutely correct. To simplify it, the majority of users do not care at all about what radio nerds, audiophiles, and engineers care about. They DO care about anything that "ruins" the audio stream for them. This could be anything from static, to overmodulation, to clutter. That is something to consider with song tagging. There is a good chance that users (especially rock listeners) may perceive song tags as clutter.

I would need to see a well done local perceptual before pulling the trigger on this.

[Scott Reppert]

Given the state of how people and radio are in this day and age: if I was a sixteen year old boy and the station I was listening to didn't tell me that "Never Been Any Reason" was by Head East the first time that I ever heard it, I'd do all the drugs I could, hike to the station with my gun and blow somebody's head off.

Oh, that's right. My bad. Nobody is at the station...

[AmpedNow]

Whether or not tagging every song would be as redundant as announcing every song is a good point... I never thought of it like that.

Perhaps formats like CHR and Active Rock that rely heavily on new music would benefit more from tagging than gold-based formats where the majority of the listeners already know the music.

Personally, I just see the info/song tagging functions of RDS and HD as a "value added" deal to the total broadcasting package. Again, with these receivers flooding the marketplace, many listeners will come to expect seeing something in the scroll. After all, satellite radio and webcasting does it all the time.

If tagging every song is too much work, or not possible because it's coming from an analog source, then just put the name of the show or calls there... But something should be there, imho.

[StopSet]

Listeners don't listen. Even if you tell them who sang a song, they want to know who sang that song. Listeners still think Easton Corban is Geo Straight. Radio is Audio Wallpaper for thousands of radio users everyday.