The past few weeks have seen a flurry of activity on the boards about programming ideas. I'd like to say that in my opinion, AM is almost perfect. Everyone can make a request once per hour. Therefore, everyone gets to have the same imput as to what the station plays. Then the problem started. Someone(s) who volunteered to be the Flower Kings/Transatlantic cheerleading squad began abusing the requests, forcing the rest of us to listen to the 30-minutes tracks by these bands every day. The quest for a solution began. It got WAY off the point (which I am guilty of as well) - the point being solving over-requesting, or over-playing, of certain songs.
In the spirit of solving this one simple problem, I again propose the simplest solution I can think of, using the KISS method (Keep It Simple Stupid).
Lenghten the time between plays of the same artist from 2 to 3 or 4 hours. If TFK are request at 8, 9, and 10 by one listener, they can currently play at 9, 11, and 1. Changing this to 3 hours would make those requests play at 9, 12, and 3. Changing it to 4 hours makes those requests play at 9, 1, and 5.
The Benefits:
- No artist, repeat NO artist, can get overplayed that way.
- More artists will get played to fill in the gaps left by over-requested artists.
- ** These two benefits combined contribute to the overall better mix so often longed for by many.
That one simple change will solve 99% of the problem.
Thanks, and I'm through for now.