My very first experience with radio - that is, communicating with a deejay who had a radio show - involved requesting a song. I told that story on the blog a while back. If you don't want to read it, here's the show version: I requested a song, the deejay did not play it, & when I called to request it again, he lied to me & said he'd already played it.
Requests have almost certainly been a part of radio since the beginning. Early rock & roll deejays measured the success of a song by how many times it was requested. & it certainly is something I have experienced in my many years of deejaying. I can usually tell when the listener hasn't really been paying attention - or has never heard Self Help Radio before - & requests a song which has nothing to do with the theme. In general, though, if I have access to a library, & if I can find the song, I will play it for a listener.
There are always caveats. Many's the time I'm on the air during the day & can't play songs with bad words. & I've mentioned, if the show has a theme, & the requested song doesn't fit the theme, I also won't play it.* & of course if I can't find it, I won't play it. Some folks will tell me "it's on Spotify" & some even send YouTube links, but I worry about quality from such sources. I prefer to browse through a physical library, not the treacherous digital ones.
There was one listener in Kentucky who seemed so fearful I might not play his request that he referred to them as "suggestions." "Thanks for the request," I'd say, & he'd quickly correct me: "It's not a request, it's a suggestion." I would always wonder which deejay had hurt him so much.
The radio culture has changed since I started in 1994 & it seems that calling a show for requests is not a common thing - or maybe I should just say, not in Portland. One listener called last week to ask if I'd played a certain song that fit the theme. I said I hadn't, but if he'd like to hear it, I'd try to find it. He said, "Oh no, don't interrupt your programming for me!"
That kind of humility seems to me ill-suited for the tradition of radio. As it was, I looked for his song but could not find it. Perhaps the number of requests has fallen as the number of fulfilled requests have fallen. Or maybe my experience has been the anomaly - & most people, like eight-year-old me, are lied to by deejays who simply don't want to take requests.
Well, for tomorrow's show, the saddest show, I asked for requests. I asked for them early, I asked on the Facebook & the Twitter. I asked, "What's the saddest song you've ever heard?" & I got nearly thirty responses. & I'm going to devote part of tomorrow's saddest show to a selection of the saddest songs that some people have heard. I'm going to ask again on the air.
Because requesting songs on the radio is not dead. I'd like to make the suggestion that it become a common practice again. As long as it doesn't hurt you too terribly much if I can't find what you're looking for.
* The most common request I get that I can't play on Self Help Radio is for a band that fits the theme, not a song. For example, I might be doing a show about zombies & someone requests the Zombies. But since the Zombies don't have a song about zombies, I won't play that request.
No comments:
Post a Comment