WSCA Station Handbook and Training Manual - Prometheus Radio ...

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IV. WSCA MUSIC DEPARTMENT
A. Overview
1. WSCA’s music department is guided by the desire to provide the community wih an
alternative to commercial radio. WSCA features artists that the commercial stations
overlook or ignore, thus providing something different and unique to the listeners.
2. The majority of our new music comes from promotional companies or labels. They will
keep sending new music only if we keep playing it! The new music in the studio at
WSCA is tracked and reported to College Music Journal (CMJ). Large commercial
stations report their playlist to Billborad magazine, most non commercial and
community radio stations report to CMJ. Therefore the Music Department encourages
playing new music whenever possible and Music Policy at WSCA requires DJ’s to play
30% new songs per hour.
3. “Specialty shows” are programs which focus on a specific musical genre, style, or even
specific band. These shows add interest and texture to our schedules. While these
shows may be exempt from the new music requirement, dj’s are welcome to discuss
with the music department collaborative efforts to support their programs by
contacting record labels in search of new music.
B. New Music Library
The music library stored in Studio A is considered “New Music”, that is, it is generally
music released within the last two months. The music industry generally promotes charts
and supports a recording for a period of two months. A recording is tracked by the number
of “spins” it receives each week. It cannot be stressed enough how important it is for the
DJ to record these “spins” by placing a check mark on the white sticker affixed to the back
of the CD or LP before returning it to the stacks. Every week the Music Director creates the
WSCA Top 30 by counting the “checks” on CD’s and LP’s in the new music stacks.
C. General Music Library
Two months after the station receives a new release it is rotated into the general library. If
at the end of that time a recording is still getting significant “spins”, it is at the Music
director’s discretion to keep it in the New Music library. Music that the station receives that
is not a new release will be filed directly into the general library. In early days of
commercial radio these were often called the “back stacks”
D. Music Filing
Our music library is divided into genres (see attached list)and filed alphabetically by band
name or artist’s last name. These genres are each designated by a single letter which is
found on the third line of the label on the front of the recording. Both the new music stacks