What's Playing Where You Are?

[Anonymous]

Gramma,

I was just tellling Lorraine that the other day, that some of his songs would be great on country stations, but Christian would be great too.
I would love to hear him anywhere in CT, but no luck on that.


Linda

[Anonymous]

I live in such a small market that our local Djs do not play the music for most of the day. There is live music for a couple of hours in the morning, and a couple of live hours at night - for most of the day, the music is "canned" - purchased from large markets. I did hear a female DJ last Friday. (From the canned music). She was playing Invisible, and took the time to mention the kick-off date for the summer tour. This is the first time in weeks that I have heard Clay on the radio, but to be fair, I listen to his CDs most of the time I am in the car. We are business owners and buy ads for our local station when requested for special events (high school games and other local things). I know our station owner values our opinion as advertisers, but I also know that he has absolutely no control over what is played on the music he purchases for his stations.

[lorraine]

GRAMMAOF6 THANK YOU FOR GIVING US THAT MESSAGE.  MAYBE A CHRISTIAN RADIO STATION WOULD AT LEAST GIVE CLAY MORE PLAY.

AC MAYBE YOU AN ANSWER THIS FOR ME.  SINCE CLAY HAS CHANGED TO THE FIRM HAVE YOU SEEN ANY POSITIVE CHANGES THAT WE CAN REALLY SEE.  I GUESS I FIGURED WHEN THEY TOOK HIM OVER THEY WOULD HAVE HELPED HIM GET MORE RADIO PLAY OR MAYBE THEY DON'T DO THAT.  JUST GETTING FRUSTRATED AND WHY TO THE STATIONS HATE CLAY SO MUCH.  THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP.



LORRAINE

[ACcountryFan]

don't take it the wrong way but i happen to feel that maybe Clay and his people are getting annoyed with top-40 radio a little bit? i mean, the song is getting released to AC stations before pop stations. it's usually the other way around. A pop singer releases a song to top-40 and if it's easy on the ears, AC radio typically adds it too...but this way, it's AC-friendly already.

but what you were wanting to know i can't answer that well. The Firm might be {i don't really know} putting Clay's TV-power as the crux that holds his music together. does that make sense? it's like they might make Clay a TV star who happens to sing...instead of being a singer who appears on TV. The emphasis will be on the visual and then the vocal sells the product. that's my far-out theory as to what the Firm has planned.

[lorraine]

AC I appreciate your help.  As long as I have Clay in my life somehow that is what is important to me and I am sure to others.  If singing has to be secondary then that is fine.  Thank you so much again.



Lorraine

[Pamela]

UPDATE!

According to All Access today, IWCY is now listed as going for adds only on CHR/Top 40 stations on JULY 27.

JULY 27
Avril Lavigne "My Happy Ending" (Arista)
Bowling For Soup "1985" (Jive)
Clay Aiken "I Will Carry You" (RCA)
Scissor Sisters "Take Your Mama" (Universal)
Skye Sweetnam "Tangled Up In Me" (Capitol)

It's not listed on the AC/Hot or Mainstream future releases list at all.

Very odd.

I also checked the future release list for the Contemporary Christian format and didn't see IWCY listed at all.  Maybe they can more easily play whatever they want to, and aren't so tied up in all the politics with the record companies.  Perhaps these stations are a bit less beholdin to the man, and more beholdin to The Man.

If you know what I mean.   :

[houstonclayfan]

(Keep in mind that I am a dummy when it comes to radio play)  
Is it possible that RCA is keeping Solitaire on AC since it is starting to do fairly well and is just going to try IWCY on Top 40 since they arent playing Clay at all ?

[lorraine]

THANK YOU PAM FOR THAT INFO.  I REALLY LOVE THAT SONG AND WITH HOPES AND PRAYERS SOMETHING WILL CHANGE BECAUSE GOD KNOWS SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE WITH RADIO PLAY FOR OUR GUY.


LORRAINE

[ACcountryFan]

It's not listed on the AC/Hot or Mainstream future releases list at all.

Very odd

=======================
that is unbelievable!! unless RCA has some "behind-the-scenes" business going on, i can't picture that song on top-40 radio!! look at who he's up against! with the trend of playing the odd and the weird, Clay doesn't have a chance when played along side those others also going for adds.

is it possible that RCA is keeping Solitaire on AC radio since it's doing fairly well?

===================
the song was #23 AC two weeks ago. Last week, it dropped to #24 without a bullet. I haven't seen the chart for the week ending 6/25/04 yet to see if it's went back up...if it has, chances are he'll have two song competing against each other. i don't understand the logic behind that if they do such a thing...

Pamela's news makes me wish RCA issues a commercial single of IWCY because i don't think it'll chart on the Hot 100 if airplay is the deciding factor given the way he's been treated by top-40 radio since the start.

[claysenior]

Regarding what stations are playing Clay's "Solitaire"; you need to add Lite 92.7 FM, as J.J. Johnson in the afternoon has been playing this for some weeks now.  Whenever I catch it on his show, I send an E-mail or note thanking him (them) for doing this.  I think it helps keep them continuing if they know people are responding/listening.  We do all we can for our man, Clay. :oops:  :P

[claysenior]

It's me again.  I forgot to say where lite 92.7 FM was.  It is in Thousand Oaks, California and most of greater L.A. can hear this station.  So we here in So. Calif. have 2 stations playing Solitaire.  Yesterday on the drive home from work I heard both these stations (Lite & Kost) play Solitaire almost simultaneously.  IT WAS GREAT! :

[Pamela]

UPDATE!

AllAccess.com now shows IWCY going for adds on Mainstream Adult Contemporary stations on July 26.  Remember the CHR/Pop add date is July 27.

The reason Hot AC was dropped from adds possibility may have to do with Avril Lavigne's new song going for adds on Hot AC on July 26, and that would be tough competition, as she is very popular at this time.

The week before, Sarah McLachlan's "World on Fire" goes for adds on Hot AC, again, tough competition.

Avril is on RCA, and Sarah is on Arista.  I think Arista will soon also come under the RCA umbrella, if not already.

And the beat goes on.

JULY 26
Avril Lavigne (Hot/Mod) "My Happy Ending" (Arista/RMG)
Clay Aiken (Main) "I Will Carry You" (RCA)
Jamie Cullum (Hot/Mod) "All At Sea" (Verve/Universal)

[ACcountryFan]

AllAccess.com now shows IWCY going for adds on Mainstream Adult Contemporary stations on July 26. Remember the CHR/Pop add date is July 27

============
i'm glad RCA listened to my gripe and decided to bring in the AC format! just kidding!!

seriously, as i said the other day, it would be foolish to only work the song on top-40 when they haven't been so friendly to his style. i haven't gone banana's yet but this kind of lax marketing and the flip-flopping resembles monkey business! Clay needs to be seen that he has a record label that knows what they're doing. first it's CHR/Pop and Hot AC; then it's only CHR/Pop...and now it's CHR/Pop and Mainstream AC!

Avril is on RCA, and Sarah is on Arista. I think Arista will soon also come under the RCA umbrella, if not already

=============
Arista has already been absorbed by the RCA/BMG people and i think this is why Barry Manilow left long-time label, Arista, all of the sudden. He went to the independent Concord label. Arista's farewell gift to him was the Top-5 Platinum CD "ULTIMATE MANILOW" in 2002.

And the beat goes on

==============
lah-de-dah-de-de, lah-de-dah-de-dough

drum beats pounding a rhythm to my own brain...and the beat goes on...

that's based on Sonny&Cher for those who don't know! :

[jj]

I gave up on Atlanta ever playing our Clay. I cannot believe out of all the stations in Atlanta not one plays Clay. I now listen to Clay cds instead of the radio. I think it is terrible .  JJ

[ACcountryFan]

I gave up on Atlanta ever playing our Clay

====================
have you ever did a search for Georgia radio stations before? i used to look up radio stations all the time back when i was doing a web-page on famous DJs.

perhaps in cities around Atlanta there might be some AC-style radio stations that you can pick up. R&R used to list radio stations and their format in every state...

WRRM played "Solitaire" at 1am, 30 minutes or so ago. that's the 12th time i've heard the song on WRRM in the last week and a half...despite it falling back down on the AC chart from #24 to #25 this week, after reaching it's #23 peak.

[claylady]

I am still amazed by the resistance of radio to play any song by Clay. You would think that when someone has reached the popularity that Clay has that they would all be jumping on the bandwagon.  Unfortunately, that isn't the case and I just don't get it.  The Clay doesn't "fit in" excuse is wearing thin.  His songs do "fit in" with many that I hear on the radio everyday.  I listen to WDOK in the Cleveland area.  It is a very good lite rock station and I think Clay would fit into their format perfectly but they will just not budge and give him a chance.  It is amazing that Clay can do as well as he does without any help whatsoever from radio.  It seems like WDOK has certain songs, as do all stations, that they will play continuously over and over again.  Granted, I don't listen to radio much only for a short time on my drive to and from work.  There is not a day in my life that I don't hear the song Unwell by Matchbox 20.  It is a good song and I like it but they play it to death.  It's the same songs over and over again.  Everyday, I request that they play Clay but it's like banging your head against a brick wall.  Another thing that I think was strange was that towards the end of the Independent Tour and after there was a resurgance of popularity for the song Open Arms, the original version by Journey.  I haven't heard that song in ages but all of a sudden I was hearing it quite often.  Maybe, it has nothing to do with the fact that Clay was singing it during the tour but it just struck me as very coincidental.

I also don't understand the fact that Clay gets little or no hype or push for his recordings that other artists do.  It seems that his record label just sits back and lets whatever happens happen.  You would think that they would promote him more than they do.  The music industry is a very complex and difficult industry to figure out.

I also wanted to thank ACcountryFan for all the information you share with us.  It's very helpful to all of us "uneducated" in understanding how the music industry works to have you help us understand things a little better than we do.  I enjoy your posts, always informative and helpful.

[Pamela]

Because this is the radio thread after all, I'm sharing this here:

New Music Weekly awards are in - Clay won Top 40 Male Artist of the
Year!!

NMW TOP 40 Male Artist

Justin Timberlake
Eamon
Jason Mraz
Clay Aiken (winner)
Enrique Ingelsias
JC Chasez

The NMW Awards

The New Music Weekly Awards is an annual event celebrating top
artists, music industry executives and accomplishments which have
occurred throughout the year. NMW is proud to be the first and only award
show not weighted down with the politics and corruption of the corporate
world, but an award show showing the true talent which exists in the
music industry today. NMW's motivation for providing the most updated and
fairly tracked radio airplay information is owed to the philosophy of
radio pioneer and legend Bill Gavin, who
started Gavin as a weekly tip-sheet for radio programmers in the 1950s.
It wasn't till the early 1990's that Gavin's philosophy was finally
archived with the bureaucracy of major label politics . .thus the founding
of New Music Weekly.

NEW MUSIC WEEKLY

[lorraine]

IT SURE TOOK LONG ENOUGH FOR THEM TO ANNOUNCE THE WINNERS.  IN THIS CASE NO NEWS WAS GOOD NEWS.  FORGET GOOD NEWS IT WAS ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC NEWS. ANOTHER AWARD FOR OUR GUY.  HOW IRONIC THOUGH HE WINS THE AWARD BUT STILL CAN'T GET RADIO PLAY.


LORRAINE

[ANGELA]

I AM JUST SO PROUD OF CLAY.  NO WORDS CAN EXPRESS MY EMOTIONS.

ANGELA :D

[Jan]

I actually heard Clay's Solitaire on the car radio this morning going to work.
 :
 It is the FIRST time I have heard him on the radio.
Maybe Florida is waking up!!!

And I, also wanted to thank ACountryFan for all of the insightful information that he is giving us.

Jan
Keeper of Clay's LipBite