How to Get your Music on Local Radio Stations Nationally.

 

It's Your 1st Single Release or Album Push for Radio and Paid Shows

 Ok, your first-ever {Single} is done and the release date is set. But unless you’ve already delivered copies of the disc to local radio stations, you may want to push back that date to give you enough time to ensure airplay goes along with the release Date Also allow yourself enough time to promote the release date and radio stations call letters where the single will be playing. Along with the DJ pools that will be distributing the single to DJ’s. Get your show disc over to booking agents, club promoters and concerts tour promoters. Inform your PR person to do a release and phone calls to media outlets and talk shows for potential interviews or column write ups.

Radio stations are more apt to spotlight music that has an upcoming release date with these promo/PR ingredients in place, so send them advance copies with an itinerary of your marketing and promotions campaign. Do a little research to figure out which stations might play your kind of music – based on listening to their format of music and what staff members to approach about possible airplay.

Public and college stations

Since you’re an indie act, public and college stations are your best bet for getting airplay. These stations are more likely to play a diverse range of music from local and lesser-known acts than commercial stations with corporate interests to uphold. Public stations have a lot of syndicated PBS national programming to run, but may have local programming slots they need to fill with music, generally pop, folk, jazz and classical. Up-and-coming R&B/Hip Hop acts will find more success by approaching local college stations. These left-of-the-dial operations are staffed by students and usually play non-mainstream and newer music from unsigned acts. College radio is generally where new creative and indie acts break into the market. Each station has a music programmer who selects the music that gets played in general rotation, or specialty DJs who select the tracks for genre-specific programs. Find out the contact info for the music programmer by calling the station’s general info/request line and asking for it. If your music will fit into a genre-specific program, call during that program and speak directly to the DJ, who is normally the one who answers the phone. Since these stations are operated by students, they are more amenable to cold calls about getting airplay and, in fact, are actively looking for undiscovered acts to play on their shows, no matter the genre. Once you get the correct contact info, mail your press kit and CD in with a personal note explaining which show you’re submitting for radio letter. Don’t forget to put your contact info on every page and piece of material your send in.

Commercial stations

If you’re just starting out and don’t have professional representation (Radio Play Broker) or a wide U.S regional following, contacting  commercial radio stations might not yield much luck…unless they have a locals-only or indie-specific specialty indie (mix show). Commercial stations generally only deal with agents, promoters and A&R people, NOT directly with artists, and especially not with “unknown artists”. 

It’s the sad-but-true reality of today’s corporate commercial radio stations. However, many of these stations have shows spotlighting locals and the best unsigned acts. If your town’s commercial station has one of these shows, it usually airs outside of prime-time and drive-time, such as late on a Sunday night. Go to the stations website for info

When sending your CD in to any radio station, it’s important to include a note indicating which song is the most radio-friendly. If you do make it on one of these local programs, make sure your fans know about it so they can listen and call the station to tell them how much they liked it, and to request the song again. All radio stations — public and commercial — take note of this kind of listener feedback.

Professional Radio Brokers

There are all sorts of people claiming they are effective radio promoters. Defined Today as (RADIO PLAY BOKER) = “Radio Station Content Provider” Generally these people are a representative with a Professional Entertainment, Music Group or Marketing Company.

Brokered radio play is actually affordable and definitely the reliable source working with Budgets starting at $5,000 to get an indie artist his first “full spin – no skip rotation radio play” on commercial FM radio stations with Mediabase /Nielsen reporting to establish that artist radio history. Artist with a radio play history are more likely to get potential adds from other stations. These stations, will not feel like they’re the first station to give an artist their first spin. Having a radio play history eases the nervousness of other stations to add your single to their play list-Just by knowing you are spinning at other stations

The Best Candidate for Radio Play

An artist with solid Public Relations, Professional Social Media Presence, Accredited Touring Performance Sheets with Professionally Arranged Performance Show Disc, Accredited Song Writer & Producer written Single that’s choreograph with a *story line* message and call to action for the listeners to do something, while listening will most certainly be a shoe in for radio play anywhere in the world at any radio station.