A comedian (not Hannibal) asked me how to get his material played on “the radio” – I’ll use the broad definition of audio services for this discussion. While I can’t speak for every programmer out there, I do have the most experience in the format (no like really, I do) so I thought I would repurpose my email reply into a blog post.
My list of suggestions from my personal experience and workflow:
Understand that every programmer has approximately 8 billion CDs on his or her desk. So packaging is tremendously important. Your CD needs to look like a major label release not a home made CD. That goes a long way into “which pile” and some CDs never make it out of the “someday” pile. You want to be in the “load these” pile. Also a major label release will likely be prioritized over a self-CD for all kinds of reasons including that the major labels have the most popular acts.
I have found that physical CDs are actually easier to deal with over digital releases. I know that is counter-intuitive, but a digital file is easily ignored, and an email can get buried. A CD makes me deal with it to get it off my desk. Stick a CD under my nose along with the digital file.
Clean(er) comedy rules. You will get more air play with less cursing because it opens you up to more sub-formats within comedy. That motherfucker can jar the ears the way it did as you read this sentence. I didn’t need the f-bomb and neither do you. There are plenty of people being hilarious on Comedy Central specials without the cursing. Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Fallon and Jeff Foxworthy all seem to do pretty well too!
Good audio. Seems obvious but man some stuff is awful.
Mike the crowd or you sound like you bombed. Oh and don’t sweeten the record, that sounds awful.
5 minutes is the sweet spot of length. Ideally each track is a self contained routine that ends on a good punch. That may be unnatural to a stage show but might be worth to do a custom show to press to CD. Anything under two minutes or over seven tends to get ignored.
Label the cuts. I hate playing Track 5.
Label the cuts on target. If you have a bit about Pumpkins put it in the title so you get lots of spins come October. If it’s called “Stupid Stuff” it’s harder for me to find the cut for themed sets.
Follow up. The occasional “hey I sent you a CD” is welcome but don’t call every day complaining about spins.
Be funny and be original. The hacks go in the garbage. Good luck!
Follow me on twitter at @mcdradio