Okay, you (music) broadcast radio experts...

[N2CHX]

Thanks, Kell -- if anyone knows this stuff, it's probably you.

But no... Not asking about STL's and the like, but rather how the stations access their library of music. In the old days, most music stations had huge on-site libraries of LP's. "Stacks of wax" and all that. I can't imagine that this is very practical today, so there must be new and better way. If I'm running a pop-tunes radio station today, what is the source of my music? Do I pull it from local hard drives, the 'net, what? I know the source isn't LP's or carts. I have to believe that the source is digital, but how does it work?

Just a curiosity, really. Got a relatively new station here in Denver, KYEN. Privately owned and I gather the owner runs it as a serious hobby. It's an old-style rock station that plays B tracks and such. Programming is top-notch (that's relative, but I like it). No advertising, no DJ's; totally cool. Picture a guy plugging an iPod into the transmitter and just letting it run. Oversimplified, I know, and that's probably not how it works.

Guess my question is: "What is the 2010 equivalent of the stacks of wax from the 1970's and before?" STL's aren't that interesting: what feeds the studio?

Gotcha. Sorry, I think way too technical sometimes.


Honestly, most music still comes on CD. Every music station I've ever been in in the last 10 years has a CD library. It's usually locked up. The cuts to air are ripped off of the CD's onto hard disk. Last group I worked for had 4 terabytes of storage and it was stored in 48 kHz uncompressed WAV files. If the song gets hosed off the hard drive it can be restored off the master CD in storage.


Usually the MD and PD will review new releases that come in Fedex from the record companies. If it makes it to air the MD then rips it from the CD to the automation system. I have seen (and heard UGH!) cases where a PD/MD will get a bootleg copy of a new release off the internet and air it. It usually sounds like shite and they don't do it often because they can get in deep doo-doo for that. I've known of it happening maybe twice. I have no idea where they actually picked the cut up from but I do know in both cases it sounded like it was recorded off a cell phone.