A good programmer has to have great time management skills. This means that if he has “gone to the well” of a certain comp disc company repeatedly and in good faith for a good length of time and there is never any water in the well, well, logic says look else where and save your time.

Trent…. a quick count, and I’m sure that I have missed some, shows that I can receive up to 20 comp discs in a month: Oasis, Daywind, Lamont,Lo,Sims, Gospel Train, HMG (2), Crossroads, Hendix, Heritage, Teresa Smith’s, Rhonda Thompson, Frostbite, Eddie Crook, Journey, Millenium, Sonrise, Kim Hudgins,Airplay, Family, DJ Man, Capital,Resting Place, New Haven, etc…
I’m sure I missed some, and some do not come out monthly, but there you have it.

I hear you… and you have some good points.. I think a good programmer will audition everything that comes in. But finding diamonds in the rough is not his job.. His job is to program music that will get,.. and “keep” the biggest audience possible. If he doesn’t have time.. or just doesn’t want to listen to all the comps.. then he is better off playing the established artists.

More times than not,.. a SG station will get into trouble trying to discover new talent.. or mining for those diamonds.. than if they play it safe.

To me, the main distributors are Crossroads, Daywind, Spring Hill (least, they were, but I think a lot of artists have left them for others–can a PD confirm/deny this), Gaither/Heritage, Rick, and Rhonda. Resting Place, RSI and Airplay also put out discs that normally have some decent stuff on it (anybody else besides me really impressed with the Living Waters Trio?).

You do make a good point about looking for diamonds in the rough, and I don’t know that I’ve got an answer that will completely satisfy you. There’s a couple big reasons it happens. First, I think that PDs in most sg stations wear way too many hats. In addition to programming/music, most are also jocks, production directors/assistants, traffic managers, reporters, and head flunkees, which leaves very little time to go treasure-hunting for a good song on a mediocre comp.

Even after the comps are screened, many stations use programming software to schedule music, and entering music into a database like Selector can take 3 to 5 minutes a song. For a PD that’s stressed for time, that’s 10 minutes of work for a couple of songs that may see 2 or 3 spins a week. It’s not worth it when listeners are just as happy with a classic or recurrent song from a major group. Besides, if you’re programming sg hit radio, you’d rather play a former Gold City #1 than a song destined for maybe a #20 national spot.

Secondly, we also need to distinguish song quality and production quality.
Many people can write a great song, but few choose to spend the money to get it produced to radio standards. With fun gadgets like equalizers, compressors, etc that we use to get a full FM-sound, any minor technical error becomes magnified when its run through this equipment. I remember we got one pre-release from a major group a few years ago that sounded okay in the PD’s office stereo, but when we aired it the first time, we heard low-bit digital hiss, a lazy autotune, and a host of other problems that really made the song sound pretty awful when backed with a professionally mastered single.

In the spirit of the thread, if we’re about raising the quality of SG radio, we nix the poorly produced stuff, no matter how good its written or who its from. When you combine the lack of time with the standard of quality, PDs turn to places where they know they can get the best quality stuff as quickly and easily as they can, and that means they only use the reliable comps. Think of it this way–you can get a decent engagement ring from Wal-Mart, but you’ll find better stuff more easily at Zales. And you sure as heck don’t want to tell your fiance where you got the ring if you choose the former.

Secondly, I find it bothersome that you would receive comps in the mail & never even open them based on past experience. What about that great new group that just singled out their first song on the lesser-known comp? You missed their song, that’s what. OR, if you are so biased about the lesser known comps that you won’t even halfway listen to them when you do open them up, that’s a problem on your part.

It’s plain and simple– if you are not listening to the comp or if you are halfway listening to the comp, you are possibly missing a great song. I can see if 8 out of 10 songs on there stink that you find it discouraging, but what if there are 2 really strong tunes on there and you have discounted the disc because of the other 8 songs or because you’ve not found any radio-worthy songs on this particular comp company’s offerings in the past?

Part of of a DJ or radio programmer’s job is to find diamonds in the rough.

There seem to be a whole lot less comps coming in from AC/ PW / CHR. I think I could count them on one hand. Most of the music comes as singles or via Promonly downloads.

In SG there are way to many comp discs. I think that for some it isn again, if people want to pay to have their songs recorded and sent to radio, someone will step up to take their money. Is it ethical?

I agree, when the slow songs come out, I go deeper into the disc and pick something else or play some SG Gold.

And I don’t think the problem is isolated in SG. I stole a comp disc off the PD’s desk the other day of P&W stuff from a label I’d never recognize, and it was horrendous. Poorly written, poorly produced…basically everything we’ve said here.

Oh yeah, thanks Tim for mentioning the comp discs that are loaded with slow songs. It sucks when it happens, because the industry is also way to slow in releasing new material, so we have nothing but slow songs to play for at least three or four months if we want to feature current hits. But, its also nice when that happens, because I pick out an old album cut that should have been singled and play it instead–torques the PD off everytime, but there’s no way as a drive time jock I’m playing more than one ballad every half hour.

I call these people and these songs “the karaoke factor”: People that shouldn’t sing, singing songs done by people that shouldn’t record. Its something that is unique to Southern Gospel. I don’t cater to these songs or these people. My kids squawk for Happy Meals but I can’t allow that (to often) for their sake. Same principle here.

Daniel makes a great point. If these artists were on American Idol… what would Simon say. He would say “what on Earth?

However, If you don’t have that ear of discernment, it would be best to stick to the stuff that will give you the brand identity and become a “top 40″ SG station as opposed to another cheap sounding station.

Bottom line is to play better music, which is subjective I know. But at the most basic level, even if you aren’t a good judge at what “good” is, then follow the known success stories in SG.

In time, you should recognize the patterns that create successful songs and you can recognize it in other, new, up-and-coming artists too. Don’t try to scout out talent if you really aren’t a good judge to begin with. (And I realize we all think we know best… this is where it’s also very important to look at retail, the marketplace and at research).

We certainly need more of a Simon mentality in what we allow on the air. Too many of us are sweet and insipid when it comes to giving unknowns a chance. Everything these days is so watered down, everybody wins, everybody does a good job and nobody is a loser.

And I’ve been so guilty of letting stuff slide through myself….

I repent.

It has been said that SG audiences are a weird bunch. I agree. The audiences demand a lot of low quality stuff at times. It boggles the mind at what people will buy and go crazy over. But what’s the cause of that mentality? Could it be that if you’re spoon fed stale rice cakes all your life, you may learn to love it so much to a fault where you become turned off and repulsed by the smell of prime rib and roasted potatoes?

Radio needs to lock up the rice cakes and save it for the times of famine and pestilence.

Record/Comp companies and artists need to realize that unless a song is extraordinary, a “10″, “a can’t-live-without -it ” kind of song, if it’s over 5 minutes and slow don’t release it as a single.

It makes me laugh when a newer group sends out a 5 minute single. Show me you deserve 2.5 minutes of airtime before you ask for 5 minutes.

While I’m waiting for the coffee to brew let me rant a bit….

What’s up when a company sends me a comp disc filled completely with slow songs? I’m not in the sleep aid business. A radio show has to ebb and flow, but mostly flow. To much ebbing and the listeners fall asleep driving down the road - not good for building an audience. Dead people don’t count for ratings …unless a democrat is counting :~)

I like the idea of picking singles from a full project to play but I think that it would hurt the industry as a whole. Music is a singles driven business. It’s up to radio to tell people what is good. Southern Gospel more than any other genre needs to put forth a stronger brand identity in the market place. Singles help to do this. Everyone on the same page.

The problem appears to be getting better. Kenny B’s “Lord Have Mercy” is a great radio tune, Three Bridges has had a string of good stuff, and “He Forgot” from the P’s sounds nice and full. But, still, I think he best thing the big 5 could do is to give the jocks & programmers pre-releases of the music and let us pick radio friendly songs. Granted, we get back to the argument of finding jocks & programmers who know what “radio friendly” means, but in principle it should work.

I program music across three formats and chart nationally for SG and AC.I find that SG music can me the easiest or the most difficult music to program.

The easy route is to take about 6 -7 of the comp discs that come in each month and throw them in the trash immediately, without even listening to them.

(Hey, make it really easy and stick with the Big Five Comps and chuck the rest. NO ONE WILL MISS IT, become better by ommission. I’m all in favor of “Southern Gospel Hit Radio” for the musically challenged DJ/MD.)

You and your listeners will never miss the music. You will be able to establish “brand identity” in your market and with your listeners. You will have less of a chance to play a dud. Remember, it’s not radio’s primary goal to give exposure to unknown groups.

The more difficult path, which requires an ear for entertainment (not necessarily an ear for music - there is a difference, you can sing with perfect pitch and bore the socks off of people), is to give these lesser known groups 15 seconds of your time. That’s all it takes to determine if a song has a chance - that’s all the dial scanner listens to before deciding to stay or go. You might find something interesting. Howevere, remember the words of Shrek, “better out than in, I always say”.

The average listener doesn’t need a huge playlist of 1000’s of artists. They would rather listen to groups that they know - friends along the way. To many “strangers” makes people uncomfortable. People like familiar faces.