When you’re driving home from school listening to Kiss 108 on the radio with a Lady Gaga song blaring, do you ever wonder why that track was chosen to be a Top 40 hit?

Marketing director and online programming director for Kiss 108 FM and Jam’n 94.5 FM, Dennis O’Heron, revealed to WHS the method behind the madness of the radio stations’ song selection.

As marketing director, O’Heron organizes on-air contests and live events. He also works in the music selection process.

O’Heron began his career by getting an internship for a rock radio station in college.

Both Kiss 108 and Jam’n 94.5 are owned by the global corporation Clear Channel Communications, a company that specializes in advertising, media and entertainment. Clear Channel Communications also owns the I Heart Radio app for smart phones.

The main source of profit for radio stations is through advertising. O’Heron explained that the goal for these radio stations is getting the best ratings possible, so that companies will purchase ads from them.

Kiss 108 and Jam’n 94.5 are rated by Arbitron, a media and marketing research company that rates media such as radio stations, and sells it’s results to advertisers. Arbitron rates radio stations based on the number of listeners.

Kiss 108 and Jam’n 94.5 are very successful in this field. Kiss 108 has approx. 1.4 million listeners, and Jam’n has 1.3 million.

“[Kiss 108 and Jam’n 94.5] are very mass appeal stations,” said O’Heron.

Because of these ratings, the primary motivation of song selection is to gain listeners. The radio stations determine how well-liked a song is by using “call out research” and demographics.

“We’ll call up different households and ask people what they think about our music,” said O’Heron. “Like if they’ve heard it before or if they like it.”

Other factors also affect the song selection process, such as music that other stations similar to them are playing, or how many ringtones a song has sold. Record labels and artists also have power in deciding which tracks on an album get air time.

“Record companies come to us with certain records they want to push,” O’Heron said.

Each radio station is designed to appeal to a different audience. Kiss 108 is a Top 40 Hits station aiming at women ages 12-44, and Jam’n 94.5 is a mix station that plays hip hop and hits that also focuses on women, about 12-24.

Research has shown the older demographic (typically 20-40 years old) responds best to familiar music; stations comply to this demand because this demographic is most targeted by advertisers.

“Songs need to be good and familiar,” said O’Heron.

After deciding the songs that will play, they are entered into a music selector, along with the number of times they’ll be played in a day. The selector then generates a schedule for the songs played that day. Then, the schedule is edited by a music manager to ensure there is variety in the order of the songs. The most played songs are played up to 12 times per day.

O’Heron is one of the people behind live events such as Kiss Concert, Jam’n 94.5’s Summer Jam, the I Heart Radio Music Festival, Jam’n 94.5’s Monster Jam and Kiss 108’s Jingle Ball.

One of the goals of these shows is to sell out as fast as possible so they can give away tickets on air to help promote the radio stations.

O’Heron has met many celebrities such as Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, 50 Cent and Beyonce through these events. He explained that at first working with celebrities may seem demanding, but once you understand their schedules, one can see why their requests are necessary.

“It’s their job to be entertainers,” said marketing manager and colleague of O’Heron, Shaileen Santoro. “It’s our job to entertain you.”

Planning concerts and live events is one of O’Heron’s favorite parts of his job.

“I love doing our events, and walking out and seeing 20,000 people having a great time,” O’Heron said.

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