Jo Dee Messina

By Michelle Flowers   March 18, 2009

    So you want to hear your favorite song on your local country radio station, right? What do you do? Just call them up and request it and of course they'll play it? Well, it's really not quite that simple. Sometimes, a fan will request a song over and over again and it still doesn't get played. This of course can be rather frustrurating for the fans. Hopefully, this blog will clear up a little confusion. First of all let's have a little simple lesson in the way country radio works and I hope that will help you understand why your favorite song may not be getting played. Every Monday Country radio has what are called "adds." These are new songs that are given to the stations from record labels to be played. For instance, Brad Paisleys new single "Then" is going for adds on March 23rd. Maybe if you're reading this today and realize it's only March 18th and you just heard Brad Paisley's new song today you are confused by this. Well a station actually gets the single weeks prior to the official add date. So as of when I wrote this Brad had 83 early adds. That means those stations have added it to their playlists. So what if the song you're just dying to hear on the radio isn't on any add lists? Well, quite honestly then you're not going to hear it on the radio until it is on that stations add list. However, there are still some things you can do. Remember the old saying, "you get more bees with honey than vinegar"? Well, it's true with radio as well. Imagine if someone wanted you to do something and called you and yelled at you instead of just asking nicely. Would you be as likely to do what they want? No, you'd probably tell them to get lost. Your best approach as a fan is to be nice to the station. So, first you want to thank them for playing such great music. I'm assuming they are playing great music or you wouldn't be listening in the first place, right? Next, tell them you heard _______ song by _______ artist and you really like it. And you hope that they will add it to their playlist soon. That's it, it really is that simple. As a fan if you go in yelling and screaming or saying rude things the only thing you do is make things harder for an artist to get radio airplay with that particular station. And lets face it, it's hard enough for artists these days. We want to help them, not make their life more difficult. As a very wise Scott Borchetta has said, Radio is King! This is very true and radio, love them or hate them, can make or break an artists career!


Michelle Flowers owns and operates Flower Power Muzik, a Marketing/Promotion/Management company. You can find more information on Michelle and Flower Power Muzik at www.flowerpowermuzik.com
and www.myspace.com/flowerpowermuzik