Why is it that the "former" Freestyle music stations are not giving the new FS airplay? Is it a matter of promotion?
On occasion the radio stations play the old skool stuff - but never ever the new (in my experience thus far), so why is it so hard for our music to get airplay?
A couple of things, many of the old stations that played freestyle back in the day were a CHR station of some sort. Freestyle worked very well along side of the rap and r&b of the time (CHR Rythmic stations). But as time went on many of these Rhythmic CHR's evolved and took more of a hip hop and r&b only approach. The rest went to a CHR Pop route playing a mixture of hip hop, r&b, pop, and dance. Examples in my area California I can think of... KSFM 102.5 (Sacramento), Hot 104.7 (Central Valley), Power 106 (LA), KBOS (Central Valley) are examples of stations that used to have some dance alongside hip hop and r&b. That has changed. That is just part of the answer.
This has been discussed before, but there are many people in the music industry that look down on freestyle.
There have been new dance stations popping up recently, but many are being controlled/influenced by a few individuals who program what they think will work and even their own preferences.
You can look at stations like Party 92.7 San Francisco, Party 93.1 Miami, 95.3 Party Orlando, and notice they play very little NEW freestyle. Take the new dance station in San Francisco 92.7. no new freestyle. Now compare that to Wild 94.9 San Francisco which has always played new freestyle, recently Malyssa and Natalise have had airplay. They are two stations in the same market but are owned and programmed by two completely different teams, and have two different views about freestyle. Or take Energy 92.7/5 Chicago and Energy in Phoenix, both very similar and not too big on freestyle. Our old station (Power 105.5, Sacramento), was independent from outside influences and we played lots of new freestyle. So it really depends on who is controlling/running the dance music. Just as a note... I know a group who is considering flipping some stations to dance. If this does happen, I know for a fact that there will be new freestyle played on these stations. And since these stations will be run by one company, you can expect all the stations to be playing some new freestyle, just as many of the same dance stations existing today choose to ignore new freestyle, you can expect this company to do the opposite if it all goes through.
There is also a lot of b.s. that goes on behind the scenes, payola, knowing people, etc.). A big problem freestyle has is that it is not being released by big labels. Some radio people will not even listen to a track if they don't know the label.
Other problems are that many club djs no longer play freestyle.
There is more I have to write but not enough time right now. Also see my post in repsonse to the Kathy Phillips/Rockell release, as I bring up radio in that too.
There are also other myths out there like "songs that pack a dancefloor should be played" and this is definitely not always the case, or "what works overseas will work here in the U.S.". Sometimes it works but not always. There are too many programers looking overseas for hints and ideas, and notice there is no freestyle on the charts overseas. The U.S. is definitely not a mirror image of musical tastes overseas. On top of that, there are regional differences/preferences within the U.S. itself.
I think radio may play freestyle if an established artist were to release some new material. Radio considers freestyle "risky" to play. They need guarenteed hits to play and will consider new "hot" music from new peeps, but not new freestyle from a new artist.
Yup, I think you have an idea how a lot of people think.
-Brian from the old Power 105.5, Sacramento
