Hey there,
you know what I want to be when I grow older? I want to be a Programs’ Director at any of the commercial radios in Romania. I really, really want to be one. Why? Because they are true professionals, they have excellent knowledge when it comes to music, they can „smell” a number one hit from miles away. They are so good at spotting the right track for the radio that sometimes they don’t even have to listen to the song. They just know. It seems as they were touched by Chuck Norris’s holly touch and so they became superheroes.
Well, unfortunately the things I said above are not entirely true. Some of them are but it’s sad they are true. Let’s dig deeper. As far as I know there is not a single Programs’ Director at a radio station in Romania that has any musical studies. NO ONE. Their academic background is economics or constructions or sport. NO MUSIC studies. You’ll say that they don’t need music studies as they do not write music they just say which song gets air played and which song doesn’t. You’ll also say that their business is not to educate people about good music but to give people what they want to hear. False. Radios should also educate people. People listen to what you airplay not to what they want. If I want to listen to something specific I go to YouTube or I buy the track from ITunes.
The quality of the songs air played in Romania is poorer by the year.At least half of the songs have serious grammatical errors when it comes to their lyrics. They also have serious composition errors as well and most of them promote singers that cannot perform live. But most of all there is no limit when it comes to air playing stolen songs. Some of the „biggest hits” last year were not inspired, were 95% copied from the original song and promoted as original work. UCMR? Programs’ Directors? No one even winked. In my opinion the ones mentioned above are accomplices for stealing.
The career of a music composer/producer is decided by people who don’t know shit about music. I wrote the lyrics for a song and along with the musician and composer got an appointment with a Programs Director from a very important commercial radio station. He played the first 20 seconds of the song at a shitty laptop, with speakers so poor that you couldn’t even hear anything and then he said: „this is not a radio song”. What the FUCK? You didn’t even listen to the song!!!! And that was all. I wrote lyrics for songs that were way poorer than the one mentioned above and they were air played without a problem. Why? Because there is a strong relation between labels – producers – managers – programs’ directors. If you do not pay you do not airplay. If you are not his friend, you do not airplay.
This is the reality. It doesn’t matter how good a song is or what the people want to listen. If you do not have at least one friend when it comes to Programs’ Directors, you are doomed.
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