Airplay - How to get it and what it means for your band

Earbits created a survey asking artists about how they got their music playing on the radio and what the exposure meant for them. Below are a few of their responses.


TOIL: Daniel Whittington - Daniel has gained local airplay in Austin, but has, so far, been unable to crack the major markets. "...we spent a lot of time pushing packages and promotional info to stations in CA. We even hired a radio consultant at one point that tried to help put together a promotion for us. It never gained any legs. In this round I've focused more on networking directly with the people running the shows in Austin that I want to be involved with. It's resulted in a few long interviews and some small radio play, but nothing significant. Part of it is that, even in Austin, most of the local based radio stations are now owned by much larger groups whose focus is primarily on gaining more listeners... Luckily there are still killer DJ's and radio shows that are going out of their way to find and foster locals. But in a scene like Austin, there's shortage of kickass local artists. Breaking through that pack is still a serious proposition."


TRIUMPH: Ken Berman - Ken has received FM radio airplay in both the United States and France. "If I was familiar with the radio station or any of the disc jockeys, I would send my material out and include a personal note about what programs I listened to on the station, and what I liked about those programs. This seemed to generate the best response, especially when I did my research and knew what I was talking about! When I sent my promo materials out cold to stations, my success rate was much lower..."

TRIUMPH: Fly Radio - They prove that thinking out of the box can sometimes lead to success! "When we were in high school we drove to Sacramento, sat outside KWOD 106.5, called in on the request line and told them we wanted to give them our CD and we were outside and amazingly enough they thought it was pretty rock and roll that we did that that they brought us in played two songs and interviewed us."

So, before you rush out and pay that promoter three months salary to make you famous, take some advice from these established artists. Start locally, and gain fans! Don't be afraid of doing the leg-work yourself - you'd be surprised at the doors a little research and persistence can open. And, when all else fails, play a live set outside the station. Hey, it worked for Kurtis Parks and the Anthem.

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