On the radio.

[Brian Krashpad]

Has everybody here been on the radio before?

 

Either having your songs played or doing interviews or stuff live?

 

I guess those of you making the bucks in cover bands don't have as much call for that.

 

I've been really lucky with that sorta thing. We have one mainstream rock channel, which has a weekly locals show, and an alternative rock channel, which has both a locals show and a punk rock show, so whenever our band has a show coming up there's a good chance something of ours will be played on the radio. I've done a few live interviews too, though never played live, which would be difficult because high-energy punk rock and roll doesn't really lend itself to in-station performances. I've always had a good time talking with DJ's though. The trick is to keep talking and be over the top, as if you were onstage at a show.

 

The last time we went in me and my bassist bought a sixer and had a couple on the way over, then of course shared the remainder with the DJ.

 

Of course that wouldn't fly with some corporate rock stations, but this was an evening show on the weekend at the "alternative" station, and we were pretty sure we could get away with it. We left him the last one when we left too. And we brought a "prize pack" of a CD and a bunch of junk (stickers, pins) that we could give away to some "lucky caller" too.

 

Good times.

 

Tell your radio stories!

 

BK

 

[fastplant]

I've had two of my bands' songs on the radio. One band had 3 songs played between two stations (well, one was a college station, hehe). but we had 2 tunes played on a pretty major station around here for about a summer. It was pretty cool at the time to be driving around and have my song come up.

 

My other band had a few tunes played that were recorded before I joined, so it was my band, but I wasn't on the recording.

[zookie]

A trio I was in during the mid 1990's was interviewed on a radio show and played a couple of songs in NYC. It was pretty surreal having a conversation with the DJ and then having our friends comment on what we'd said later.

[cherri]

A N. Mi radio dj had a Sunday night show called Local Liks, and all he played were local and regional bands. We were regulars on that for about a year. He ended up folding it because he couldn't get enough decent material to mix up the song selection every week. You'd think he'd be buried in demos, but he got a lot of the same old schlock, badly covered cover tunes, and people recording their voices over karaoke tracks. The originals he did play were from all genres from folk to heavy metal.

 

We currently receive regular airplay on a couple Michigan public radio stations that host blues shows. When we last appeared in Grand Rapids, the public radio station in GR played a CNV triple-shot. The joint was packed, but several people did comment that they were inspired to come in and see us live because they heard us on the radio.

[BndGrl]

Originally posted by zookie It was pretty surreal having a conversation with the DJ and then having our friends comment on what we'd said later.

 

I had a friend of mine who's band were the guests on a "live" radio show a couple of weeks ago. Since I'm not in the area, luckily the station had a webcast so I was able to listen. A few minutes after the show started I get an IM from my friend asking me if I was listening.

 

Apparently "live" meant that the people in the studio were breathing because it had been taped 3 days before.

 

But it was quite hillarious having a conversation with someone while they were "live" on the radio. "Hold on, brb, I have to go sing..."

[wmxmbd]

if you haven't been on the radio before, and you'd like to get your music out there, go ahead and send it into our station. i can't guarantee how much it will be played, but we'll be happy to add it to our library... we report to cmj and will add your cd/demo to the stacks as long as it is at least semi-professional looking and most tracks are fcc clean.

 

chances are good that you'll get more play if you're doing the whole indie rock thing, but we do have a niche for most anything you send us.

 

send them here:

WMXM 88.9FM Lake Forest College

Attn. Nick Rennis, Box 395

555 N. Sheridan Rd.

Lake Forest, IL 60045

[vanlatte]

A couple of our songs have been played on the local licks section, which means Sunday night at 11:00 PM. Gotta start somewhere, I guess.

[Brian Krashpad]

Originally posted by vanlatte A couple of our songs have been played on the local licks section, which means Sunday night at 11:00 PM. Gotta start somewhere, I guess.

 

Hey, that's a lot more than a lot of bands get! Most stations, especially commercially-oriented ones don't go out of their way to support local bands.

 

Almost all the times my bands have been played on the radio have been on locals shows, plus my main band has been played on the punk show (playing mainly big bands and some locals on one alternative station.

 

And someone told me the alternative station has actually played us during regular rotation, though I'm sure those have been very few and far between-- and I ain't heard it.

 

 

BK

[ulank]

Originally posted by wmxmbd if you haven't been on the radio before, and you'd like to get your music out there, go ahead and send it into our station. i can't guarantee how much it will be played, but we'll be happy to add it to our library... we report to cmj and will add your cd/demo to the stacks as long as it is at least semi-professional looking and most tracks are fcc clean. chances are good that you'll get more play if you're doing the whole indie rock thing, but we do have a niche for most anything you send us. send them here: WMXM 88.9FM Lake Forest College Attn. Nick Rennis, Box 395 555 N. Sheridan Rd. Lake Forest, IL 60045

 

Nick,

 

Thanks for the post. We've been sending our CD out all over the place, but I don't think we've sent one to you guys yet. Therefore, you can expect something fairly soon. In the meantime, if you want to check out our stuff, please see my sig below (Driving Forward), and let me know if you think it would fit any of your programs/playlists.

 

Thanks!

[BillyCorgan]

One station plays our whole album + an interview on the local hour. They also play some live stuff. A major station plays our "single" on weekends or when it's requested.

[ulank]

Regarding getting air play, we were recently played during the Sunday night local show on a now defunct station. Over a year ago we were mentioned a few times on that station, along with a 4-second snippet of one of our tunes, in promotion for upcoming shows that we're sponsored by the station (MOBfest stuff usually). I know we were and are on a few Web radio stations - I think one based out of Oregon, one other one and one out of Chicago for sure.

 

Some international stations have contacted us and some guy in Argentina wanted to do an interview with us, but haven't heard anything back on that.

 

It's a battle for sure, but you just gotta keep pimpin the {censored}.

[ulank]

Originally posted by BillyCorgan One station plays our whole album + an interview on the local hour. They also play some live stuff. A major station plays our "single" on weekends or when it's requested.

 

Buy you guys haven't had a new album in years?

[SpacedCowboy]

We've gotten played on a local radio station on their "local acts" show at 9:00pm on sundays. Even did a few radio interviews with 'em.

 

First time in, we were trying to appear "professional and serious" and sounded as stiff as a 10 day old corpse.

 

Next time, we brought in the Natty Light and the Boones Farm...MUCH better interview.

 

They STILL play our stuff from time to time, which I am eternally grateful.

 

 

I'm at that stage where I take NOTHING for granted, since so many local bands submit their CDs to be played to that station and there are so many others that deserve airtime, the fact that they still find a way to sneak our stuff in there is a blessing, indeed.

[THB]

I'm getting airplay on KMOD, a ClearChannel station in Tulsa. Hippydj, a forumite here, does a Sunday night blues show and loves to play good music and doesn't much care where it comes from. He's been playing two of my songs regularly for a while now and I've done a couple "hotline" interviews on the air.

 

 

KMOD.com

 

Smokehouse Blues show.

 

[JBJ]

radio a couple of times.

 

done a gig/ interview for some scottish executive funded video that got sent to every school in the country to show during social ed classes. I'm not even sure what it was for and we done absolutely nothing cept looked pretty and did a short gig but it was pretty cool having kids approach me in the street saying "hey you're the guy in the band from the video aren't you?" if i had a publisher at the time i'd have made a small fortune from that one.

 

did something for a local tv station that ran for a year or 2. i can't remember what that was in aid of either but we jammed a 12 bar blues and asked us who wrote it. i told them i didn't have a clue and my old guitar teacher showed me. when the thing aired the prompt came up "12 bar blues by john henry" which was pretty cool but worrying from a legal standpoint.

 

midge ure was doing some promo work a few years ago at a studio just down the road because he grew up round here and since we used it and were pretty much the best band around at the time the organisers asked us to do a short gig for midge, have a chat and jam with him etc... we got a short clip on the scottish national news that lunchtime and evening which was pretty cool. we got nabbed dogging school to do it cause all of the teachers saw us on the telly on their lunchbreaks

[BillyCorgan]

Originally posted by ulank Buy you guys haven't had a new album in years?

 

It came out this year

[Greg Bogoshian]

Our Christmas CD typically gets airplay here in Rochester. Two songs from it were in regular rotation with a nationally syndicated jazz station and one other song was featured on one of the more popular stations here as well. They said they want to do more with us this Christmas season because our work is so different. Boggs

[LateGreats]

Did a lot of college radio way back when. One band had our music played on two local stations, and did an "interview" with one of them. We had a big gig at one of the sheds with a couple of other bands playing second stage for a Large Metal Band. The dj who was broadcasting live kept saying that another band that wasn't even on the bill was the 2nd stage act, completely blowing off the rest of us. So I found him at the station's setup and corrected him on the air. I was very nice about it, even though I was seething because I knew the other band had put him up to it, and it actually turned out to be a very positive interview.

 

As for TV, does Cops count?

[jrm27]

we've been fortunate enough to have some really decent radio play (as far as I'm concerned). We took second in a national Christian music competition last year and as a result one of our songs got out quite a bit. I think at one point we were tracking ourselves on 50 or so radio stations across the US! Pretty sweet! Locally we won a battle of the bands last month and have been getting regular rotation on the biggest (I think) local radio station. Pretty awesome to have a friend call you up from across the country and have him say he heard your song on his favorite radio station...

[geekgurl]

Yes, I've had material played on stations (college and commercial), been interviewed on stations (college and commercial), and actually played in an orchestra live, in-studio at a radio station (public broadcast) ... and that performance was satellited to 7 other stations across the nation (but this wasn't my band or compositions, I was just an orchestra grunt).

 

My 15 minutes of micro-fame are pretty much up, I'm guessing.

[fastplant]

Worthyjoe and I also were used in a TV commercial this summer for a bar near us. That was pretty cool as well.

[Scafeets]

A little bit as a session guy. And (file this under "where were you when we needed you!") recently, a local station has been playing the hell out of my old band. Too bad they waited until we broke up.