Catherine MacLellan “Set This Heart On Fire”

How does a new song get into rotation on mvyradio?

It’s a complicated answer, honestly. Even after nearly a decade at mvyradio, I don’t think I can put into one clear sentence, how to describe “Our Sound.”

The closest I’ve come, in is our Philosophy Statement. But that is probably a fraction of the story.

Here are some things I CAN tell you.

mvyradio has a few thousand old songs in regular rotation. Meaning, a particular song gets played at least once every 3 weeks, all year round. These songs go back as far as the early-to-mid-60s, all the way up to about 6 months ago.

Anything in the last 6 months that you hear regularly on mvyradio, we call a “Current Song.” We keep about 50 Current Songs in rotation at once. If you were to listen to the station for 24 hours, you’d probably hear all of them at least once, a few of them twice, and the really, really popular ones might get three plays in twenty-four hours.

Every week, we take a couple of those Current Songs out of regular rotation. Sometimes they come out because they just don’t seem to be catching on. Often, it’s just because the song has run its course. And if the song was really popular, it can go into the regular rotation of older songs that might get played every couple of days, or every couple weeks.

And every week, we add a couple of new songs. If you go to the playlist page, you’ll see what’s been newly added to the Current Songs, on the right side of that page.

Two or three songs per week. It’s not many, considering all the choices out there.

I’m the station’s Music Director, which means I’m the last word on what we add. I take lots of input and suggestions from listeners, the other DJs, friends, the press, Record Labels and Promotions people. As a rule, I try to listen to anything someone asks me to seriously consider.

On an average week, I listen to anywhere from 50 to 100 songs, on my iTunes. Of all these tunes, only a couple per week make the cut.

Sure, we could add more, but the more you add, the less each one plays. So we settled on “about 50” as our target, thinking it was a pretty decent sized list, but was small enough to make sure that if you liked a song, you’d get to hear it enough.

There’s no real science to picking these songs, just a lot of factors. Starting with, Do I think it’s a good song? I can’t rely on that exclusively---lots of people like things that I don’t---but it’s a start.

Other questions include, “Are listeners asking for it? Is it an artist we regularly support? Is it finding success at other radio station around the country? Is it getting critical raves? Are people buying the record? What do the other DJs think?” and so much more.

And the big question is,“How does it fit into mvyradio?”

I ask myself, “Would this song sound good right after a Bruce Springsteen or Counting Crows or 10,000 Maniacs song?”

And then, I think about the playlist as a whole. A good, balanced list of Current Songs should include some very familiar artists like Bob Dylan, U2 and Sheryl Crow. And some new, up-and-coming artists in the same vein, like Catherine MacLellan or The Swell Season. There should be a few alternative artists, like The Decemberists and Bell X1, some blues musicians, like Robert Cray or Shemekia Copeland, and a few Americana acts like Neko Case and Levon Helm. It’s always nice to have an R&B tune, like something from Raphael Saddiq, and a good instrumental band, like Rodrigo Y Gabriela.

And the last question I ask is, “Do I think this song is good song? Good enough to keep people tuned to mvyradio?”

If the answer is Yes, then I’ll add it.

Lots of questions, not always clear answers, I know.

And here’s where you come in. Listener input makes a big difference. So let me pull back the curtain a little more.

Every Day I Write The Blog is mostly about the looking at songs from the past, and writing about what they make me think of.

But on a regular basis, I’m going to post new songs and ask you what YOU think.

Sometimes these songs will be tracks that have recently become Current Songs. Once a song gets into rotation, Listener Requests often determine if the song gets played a little or a lot.

Other times, I’ll post songs that are being considered. I’ll share with you my thoughts on the tune, but I’d love to hear if a) you like the tune, and b) if you think the song really belongs on mvyradio (“Hey Ya” by Outkast is a great song, but not a great mvyradio song).

Thanks for your help!

Here’s your first assignment.

This week we officially added a new Catherine MacLellan song. We had a really great visit from the Nova Scotian this summer and her first song “Take A Break” had a nice run. What do you think about her follow up?

Hear Catherine MacLellan “Set This Heart On Fire”