I’m going to set the record straight one last time with regards to radio playlisting. I just find it extremely amazing how I have to explain this in this day and age of readily available information. But for some reason…Namibian artists hate readily available information. Namibian artists would rather sit in their controlled environment and spew some conspiracy theory about how Namibian radio hates Namibian music. A whole radio station and equalizing structures must hate an artist? Lol, ok.
A radio station is a business. Forget about this community radio station nonsense. The mere fact that Namibia is classified as an Upper Middle-Income country by the World Bank means the community radio station model is not sustainable. Even the notion of “It’s the national broadcaster, they must do free things” is redundant. Hence why the national broadcaster has been on an aggressive commercial drive in recent years.
That said…any business has a target market, right? To appeal to this market a business will structure itself strategically that will appeal directly to that target audience. It’s no different from a radio station. One of the key factors for a radio station is sound. The sound is what will help a radio station target its identified audience. The sound comprises the jingles, sweepers, presentation style and music. Music has genres. Radio stations know this, radio stations will strategically align to certain genres that they believe speaks directly to an identified target audience.
For example…if a radio station targets a rural Otjiherero speaking listener…will it make sense for this radio station to playlist Coldplay and Maroon 5 all day every day?! So before you submit your music to a radio station…ask yourself…does your music identify with that said radio station’s target audience? It honestly does not matter whether you have won a Grammy…if your music does not fit the targeted sound of a radio station, your music will not feature on that station. Stop being ignorant about how the radio business works. No radio station has a vendetta against you. The radio business bases its decisions on research and development. The radio business works with cold hard facts that will help it enhance the bottom line. This is the last time I am going to address this.
Until the next Loop, we say #GMTM
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