what's the best way to get a radio station to play my request?

Answer 1

Call The Station, Email The DJ's, Or if they have myspace email it through them. They should take your request!

Answer 2

Commercial radio stations these days play their music from a pre-selected set of songs that is decided days in advance. the DJs have no control over it - neither, unfortunately do you.

Your only hope is a college station, other non-commercial station, or a rare "all-request" show. Or your iPod.

Most of the answers here tell you that or something like it. If you want to know why read on.

Radio is in trouble. iPods, Internet Radio, Satellite Radio and other diversions have diluted the available ears for your local "terrestrial" station. So the geniuses that run modern commercial radio stations rely on consultants and bona-fide "hit" records more than ever before. They simply will not take chances any more than they'll take requests. Too much money is at stake.

I've been in radio for about 40 years. Even as I was starting out as a lowly all-night DJ, the music we played was set, but we could vary the order and throw in oldies to match a mood or tempo we were trying to achieve. Our Program and Music Directors were more open to adding newer songs and having a bigger oldies library.

Not any more. Your favorite local radio station is probably (like 99%) owned by a huge public company whose loyalty is to the shareholders of their stock, not their customers - you! So, they spend lots of money on research that tells them exactly how many songs an hour you demand before changing channels, then play that many songs and fill the rest of the time with commercials.

The research also tells them what songs are being well-received in smaller markets (cities/towns) where they or their colleagues own stations. They also want to know how much "support" the record labels are giving a certain song before adding it to their playlist. Eventually some of those new songs will make it to the big stations in the big cities. Once the songs are established, but not a minute before.

You may not even be listening to a DJ sitting in the studios of the station in your town. He/She may have recorded the "breaks" hours ago in a central location. They are then emailed or bounced by satellite to the local stations and inserted by computer into your local signal, so the companies can save money on DJs.

Even in the morning when traffic and weather is important, you may be listening to a show in your home town that is trying desperately to sound local, but in fact is originating hundreds of miles away. They use one local person to do the weather and traffic for several stations, but everything by that person is scripted and re-written slightly for the several stations. Sometimes the same traffic reporter will use a different name and set the microphone and processors differently in order to alter their voice to sound different when recording their bits, hoping no one notices. Most of the time, no one does.

Even those stations that encourage requests by phone or email stick to their set playlist justifying this by thinking, "Well, eventually someone will request a song we DO play, so we can legitimately say, we take your requests."

So that, my dear listener, is why your request is but a puff of air from your lungs floating off into the ether - with very few exceptions. Yet the radio bosses just can't figure out why they are losing listeners to all these other devices. Sure is a mystery, huh.
-a guy named duh

Answer 3

The music on modern commercial radio stations are scheduled in advance, with regards to the station's music policies on what songs to play and how often they should play. Depending on the station, they will not allow requests unless it's during a scheduled time.

If they advertise a special request hour, then they will not allow requests at anytime other than that hour.

Answer 4

you can call the station and ask for a request. search the radio station and get a phone number or they might have a online request spot.

Answer 5

Ummmm...

IN order for the station to play your request is by making sure the startion your calling gives your genre of songs then sometimes they ask for a shoutout or what radio station your listening to then once that happens you have to give the song and artist

Answer 6

Call the radio station, and say you'd like to request a song for your little brother, who has cancer.