Rock Radio - Final Look

How long have I been promising to look at the Real Radio XS output? And yet, I keep going back to the Rock Radio data. I think this will be the last visit... I hope.

Outside Rock Radio FM, a photo by 
DavidDMuir on Flickr.

Why are we back here again? Well, as I did the analysis on genres and broke it down by DJ (see What genres of music did Rock Radio play?) it occurred to me that Tom Russell is the link between the old and the new. Since I concluded that DJs had an influence on the output of Rock Radio, it occurred to me that one test of Real Radio XS would be if Tom could still make a difference to what was played. Now, there are differences beyond just a change of station of course. Most importantly, Tom has moved from drivetime to breakfast. That could well have an influence on what is played but it should still be instructive to compare what Tom played on Rock Radio with what he is playing now.

So, I promise this is the last time I look at the Rock Radio data before I start publishing stuff on the Real Radio XS... probably!

Going back to the first post on this topic (Rock Radio Playlist) I gave an overview of what was played. Here then is the same sort of analysis but broken down by show.

Over the thirteen shows, 427 tracks were played altogether. This breaks down as 205 tracks over the six breakfast shows and 222 tracks over the seven drivetime show. This means that on average, Billy played 34.2 tracks per show, or 8.5 tracks per hour. Over the same time period, Tom played 31.7 tracks per show, or 7.9 tracks per hour. I'm assuming there's a similar number of adverts in both shows and no significant difference in the length of the news and traffic reports etc. (although it feels like there is a bit more traffic news in the morning). If, however, the non-music sections are of similar length in the two shows, it appears that Tom played fewer tracks than Billy. There could be a few reasons for this: Tom talked more between tracks than Billy (not my impression); Tom played longer tracks (possible); or I'm just wrong and there was more non-music stuff in the drivetime slot (also possible). Having noted the difference, it is worth saying that it is only a difference of roughly two extra tracks per show. I know enough about statistics to know I should really check if this is a statistically significant difference or just down to random chance... but I know enough about my own limited understanding of statistics to know that I would have to spend more time than I am willing to give to it to work out how to check for statistical significance! All offers of help from statisticians will be gratefully received.

As for what they played, direct comparisons are tricky because I missed one of the breakfast shows. The headline figures though are that Billy played 124 different artists and 186 different tracks over the six shows while Tom played 129 different artists and 210 different tracks over his seven shows.  It is worth noting that although (allowing for the extra show) Billy and Tom played a similar number of different artist, Tom clearly played a much greater range of songs. This can also be deduced from the tables shown below.

These tables display repeated tracks. Presumably, the most repeated tracks were down to the station's playlist obliging the DJs to play them a certain number of times.

Artist (Billy)	Song (Billy)	Number of Plays
Mr Big	Undertow	4
Sixx A.M.	Lies Of The Beautiful People	3
Whitesnake	Love Will Set You Free	3
Michael Monroe	78	2
Extreme	Get The Funk Out	2
Bad Company	Good Lovin' Gone Bad	2
Led Zeppelin	Houses Of The Holy	2
Guns N Roses	November Rain	2
Gary Moore	Out In The Fields	2
Kiss	Rock And Roll All Nite	2
Foo Fighters	Rope	2
Dr Feelgood	She Does It Right	2
Aerosmith	Toys In The Attic	2
Bob Seger & The Silver...	Turn The Page	2
Metallica	Turn The Page	2
Manowar	Warriors Of The World	2
Pink Floyd	Wish You Were Here	2
Artist (Tom)	Song (Tom)	Number of Plays
Mr Big	Undertow	4
Michael Monroe	78	3
Ozzy Osbourne	Bark At The Moon	2
Ramones	Blitzkreig Bop	2
Saxon	Dallas 1pm	2
Bad Company	Feel Like Makin' Love	2
Sixx A.m.	Lies Of The Beautiful People	2
Whitesnake	Love Will Set You Free	2
Foo Fighters	Rope	2

Finally, the table of most played artists for each DJ is shown below - only artists played three or more times are displayed. Again, direct comparison is tricky because of the missing Breakfast show data.

Artist (Billy)	Number of Plays		Artist (Tom)	Number of Plays
Ac/dc	7		Ac/dc	7
Aerosmith	6		Aerosmith	5
Foo Fighters	5		Bad Company	5
Pink Floyd	5		Def Leppard	5
Deep Purple	4		Free	5
Def Leppard	4		Rolling Stones	5
Guns N Roses	4		Guns N Roses	4
Mr Big	4		Kiss	4
Who	4		Led Zeppelin	4
Bad Company	3		Michael Monroe	4
Free	3		Mr Big	4
Kiss	3		Queen	4
Led Zeppelin	3		Ramones	4
Metallica	3		Saxon	4
Sixx A.M.	3		Thin Lizzy	4
Steve Miller Band	3		Van Halen	4
T Rex	3		Deep Purple	3
Whitesnake	3		Foo Fighters	3
			Foreigner	3
			Jimi Hendrix	3
			Joe Elliot	3
			Journey	3
			Ozzy Osbourne	3
			Red Hot Chili Peppers	3

Surely there is no more to be milked from the Rock Radio data at this stage, so the next post will have to look at Real XS? Time will tell!