Musician 101 #11- College Radio

Tim Wenger | June 1, 2014 | 0 Comments

What to do to take it to the next level

by the Swami

Back in the 90’s when I had a developmental deal with Sony, I was privileged to have several great mentors. Then the labels still had A/R departments and would look for talented artists to sign and then “train” to be a pro. For me, I was lucky enough to have such encounters. Here in this monthly column I will share with you not only the things I learned from “the big boys” but really from the school of hard knocks and the other school of figuring out what not to do.

Each month I will pick a different topic that I think truly makes the difference between amateur and professional.

How to get your music on college radio.

Getting your music on college radio is paramount, especially for the indie/touring band. First off, whether it’s a radio station run by one student or a faculty run station, be sure they are a station that reports to CMJ (CMJ.com). Promoters watch with keen eyes the CMJ’s popular Top 200 College Radio chart, which is published weekly. These Top 200 charts are compiled each week from all of the individual reporting stations’ Top 30 charts. If you’re going to promote your record nationally at college radio, focusing on the stations that report to CMJ!

Getting radio play is the next tricky area. Simply said, it’s your music that will get you airplay. It’s got to be good and radio-worthy (typically under 4 minutes and hooky as hell). The real trick is how to get the music director to consider you. Many artists who push the college radio circuit use services such as Team Clarmont (teamclarmont.com) or Tinderbox (search it). These type of organizations already have the relationships with the directors of the CMJ reporting stations and can properly and professionally solicit you.

So once you’ve identified a station’s music director, how do you get your track into rotation? The first step – figure out when you’re going to release your record to radio. Typically stations new release day is almost always Tuesdays.

Mail physical CDs and one-sheets to the stations about two weeks in advance of the add date. This way the station has time to review and go over position of your music.

When your add date comes around, you, your promoter or label can start tracking the record’s progress to find out how much it’s being spun, and whether stations are adding it or not. Remember that stations can spin in different rotations (they like it a little or lot!), so the amount of play may vary station to station. It’s still a discretionary piece…hopefully the director seriously likes your music.

Remember, you need to hit up quite a few CMJ stations to even consider charting on the top 200. Following up with the music director won’t hurt either- they are extremely busy and receive many submissions, so make sure they see yours. You can do it – just keep in mind that you must have a worthy song in the first place!

Got a question or a topic to cover? Hit me up [email protected] – I am here to help!