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Devil in the detail
Be careful about what you choose to play - to much specialism and you might lose your audience.
Most people who listen to the radio aren't bothered about the details of the song. Even with a very specialist show or station people aren't that bothered about the details of the music. John Peel gets away with giving record labels or mix titles out because he always has - but from the listeners tuned in, probably less than 1% will be bothered what particular company made the band to go into studio.
More generally, people don't concern themselves with titles and artists names, they just know they like the song. The public is interested in Britney not because she sings songs, but because she has a pretty impressive cleavage and has got closer than most to shagging Prince William. If your street survey asked the average radio listeners to name more than three Britney records they'd struggle.
And this leads onto another important point with music - and particularly back catalogues. Just like every other profession, radio presenters are learned in their profession. They can probably remember than Ten Sharp top ten hit in 1992 was "You", and could probably sing you the chorus. They get excited when they recall that almighty introduction to "Get Ready for This" by dutch duo 2Unlimited. And they could probably tell you which Bradfordian female artist took twelve weeks to get up the chart to number 1 the following year. (It was Tasmin Archer with Sleeping Satelite if you didn't know). But your listener won't. And more than likely they wouldn't even recognise the names of those three artists. It's a sad fact, but then how many former Home Office ministers can you actually name? If you're a policeman, then probably quite a few.
With radio you have some choice - people are prepared to be taken a little further into the unknown, but not by far. If you've ever wondered why Simon Mayo's mystery years always played the same records - it's for the simple reason that playing too abstract a selection would see people reach for their dials and go elsewhere. They want to remember, not think "What the f***?"
Again, it's for this reason that Radio 1 plays so much pop music - were it to concentrate solely on new or alternative music types its listener figure would barely make the thousands, let along millions. Play an unsigned or unheard-of band on daytime Radio 1 and people will probably sit through it - knowing that next up it's going to be something they will recognise. If you want to take new music to the masses you have to bundle it up in pop music - which despite all it's detractors is by far the most popular music genre in the country. Hence the name.