It happened again last week. All through my career I’ve been approached by people who have lost a loved one and they’re upset because the radio station I work for won’t play the tribute song recorded by their cousin/friend/uncle/random stranger.
Every one of these people has a tragic story that tugs at your heart-strings. And every one of the songs is guaranteed pure, undiluted, not-from-concentrate shit.
It’s hard to tell someone who’s in mourning that music doesn’t get aired on radio due to sympathy. In my experience, 99.9% of the time a mediocre-at-best singer/songwriter has capitalized on a tragedy by writing a song for the departed and expecting it to get radio airplay because the lyrics pertain to a death. And the indignation if you don’t respond to their demands – never requests – to play the song on air! They believe righteous grief is enough. They’re too tied to it and it’s too emotional for them to be able to separate it from the fact that the music is horrible.
So again, hoping against hope, I went to YouTube to listen to the song about a young guy who died in an accident that was no fault of his own. As a life event, it’s very sad. This teen’s death could have been prevented. But as a song, it’s just about one of the worst things I’ve heard. A relative convinced a small community station to air it once and that’s given the family fuel to approach just about everyone else with a broadcast signal and expect it to get played.
I told the woman that the only way to get airplay with us is to win our Under the Covers contest, running monthly, and have original songs professionally produced, which is the prize. “But the song is ready now. No one called me back! I don’t understand how a local radio station can just ignore it!”
Free is the only London radio station that actually regularly plays local music and that’s why we created Under the Covers. It requires a bit of effort on the artist’s part but the payoff is well worth it. We even produce a CD every year that features all of that year’s winners, and we give thousands away for free. But something tells me that this “artist” isn’t in the game of putting effort into his “career”. He has put out one dreary, maudlin tune with terrible vocals that feature more echo than a day at the Grand Canyon and is delusional enough to think it’s good enough to play alongside Aerosmith and Van Halen. The teen boy’s death is a true tragedy. But it’s got nothing to do with a radio station that’s out to attract listeners, not drive them away with substandard material.
However, it CAN be done. Listen to our Under the Covers winner Jason Williams and his tribute to his Dad. This is music done right.
Whoa – powerful stuff. A listener (we think) has posted on our station’s FB page that he’s got a song on youtube and has told his friends we’ll play it. And…why haven’t we? I don’t have the heart to tell him on FB that that’s just not how it goes, and that he shouldn’t have assumed this. I hate puncturing his dreams but it makes you (and me) wonder: where do people get the idea that these things can be expected/promised/demanded? Being publicly available as the songs are (on youtube, FB etc.) offers the opportunity for these would-be tunesmiths to be discovered! We have enough restrictions/demands/criteria on what we can and can’t play to keep the masses smiling! Have a serene weekend.