"I want to get on Locals Only!"
Good to hear!  I'm always on the prowl for good local music to play on the show.

"What do I need to do?"
Well, if you've never contacted me before, send me an e-mail by clicking here.  For the subject, put "INTRO: (your band name)" so I'll know it's an introductory e-mail.  Let me know you're interested in getting on the show.  Also, suggest two (AND ONLY TWO) songs that you think are well-suited for airplay, and then link me to a website where I can listen to those two songs.  That can be on Facebook, MySpace, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, Reverb, your own personal website - anyplace I can listen to them.

"Then what?"
Then wait.  I know - that's the tough part.  But I only sit down to go through local music once or twice a week.  I'll check out all the new material I've gotten since the previous time.  At that point, I'll respond to your e-mail and let you know what I thought.  If I think I'd like to play one of your songs, I'll either download it from the player (if that's an option), or ask you to send me an mp3.

"Can I just send you the mp3 to begin with?"
I'd rather you didn't.  It's a lot easier to sort through the local music on my end if I control when the material shows up.  When a bunch of people start sending me mp3s willy-nilly, it can be tough to stay on top of it all.

"What if I've already contacted you before, or you've already played us, but I've got new material for you to check out?"
Then go ahead and send me an e-mail by clicking here.  For the subject, put "NEW SONG: (your band name)".  And again, link me to your player.

"What if you don't write back?"
I try to write back to everybody.  If you don't hear back from me after three weeks or so, feel free to contact me and ask what's up.  Chances are I've just gotten swamped, but from time to time, an e-mail can get clogged in the spam filter or something.

"What exactly are you looking for?"
Tough to say.  I don't want bands to think they have to sound precisely like one of the other bands we play in order to get on - that's not what we're going for.  What I'm basically looking for is two things: good songs, and good production.  If you give me a good song that's well-produced, chances are pretty good it'll get on.  I give a slight edge to anything that's close to our format (modern rock/alternative).  Nothing wrong with pop-rock or metal, but the modern rock stuff will get played a bit more. 

The one thing I always recommend highly to bands - hooks.  Remember, your song is going to be played in a group of a bunch of other local bands, most of which is unfamiliar to most of our listeners.  You want something that will stick out, that listeners will remember minutes, hours, days after they hear it.  That's the best advertisement a band can give.

"Our best song has the f-bomb in it a few times. Is that cool?"
No.  Do a radio edit and take it out.  (You can beep it, reverse it, drop the vocal, whatever.)  I won't say it's necessary to take the profanity out, but the current FCC fine for playing "obscene material" is $50,000, and half of that is the responsibility of the jock.  I don't exactly have $25,000 lying around to pay off a federal entity in order to preserve your artistic vision, if you catch my meaning.

"Our best song is a killer epic that's about 17 minutes long.  Can you play it?"
I can, but I probably won't.  That's about the length of four other songs, and given my limited playing time, you'd be taking up four slots on the show.  If you really think the song is four times better than everything else, I'm more than willing to give it a listen.  But better yet, see if you can do a radio edit on it.

"I don't want to sacrifice the integrity of our music by doing a radio edit."
If you have standards, I can respect that.  But I also have mine, so I'll have to ask you to respect that, as well.

"Will you announce our upcoming shows before you play our song on-air?"
You bet.  I do this for all bands that get played on the show . For best results, keep your website/FB page up-to-date with your upcoming concerts, so I know what to flog.

"Can you announce our big upcoming show, even if we're not getting played?"
No.  I stick with the bands I'm playing that week, and try to keep the focus solely on them.  If I started a long list of "here's who's playing where" each week, I have a feeling it wouldn't make much impression anyway.

"We have this huge show coming up next week. Can you make sure to play us this week in order to promote the show?"
No harm in asking.  I can do a bit of shuffling around, but in general, your band comes up when it comes up.  So don't be surprised if I can't.

"I heard that if I get my music on another station, then you won't play it."
That's not a question.

"OK. Is it true that if I get my music on another station, then you won't play it?"
Much better.  No, this isn't true.  I honestly don't pay attention to other local music shows, so if you're getting played every week on some other station, I wouldn't even know.

"You said you liked one of our songs, but we really prefer a different one. Can you play that one instead?"
I normally pick songs that will sound good with the other songs I'm playing on the show, so there is a method to my madness.  But feel free to contact me if you want to discuss it.

"You played our song on Locals Only. How long before you play it again?"
Sort of depends.  To put it rather simply, once I play a band, they go to the back of the line.  And eventually, they make their way back up to the front.  The better the songs, and the better the production, the quicker they make their way up.  Modern rock songs and catchy songs also tend to make their way up quicker.

"Should we get our fans to contact/e-mail/phone you to request us?"
Not just no but hell no.  Please do not mobilize your street team, or post a message on Facebook or elsewhere telling people to request you.  Do not have your family members call me up after the song and pretend to be standard listeners who just happened to hear the song, and gosh, it was just so wonderful, the station just has to play it again.  Doing this is lame, and it's always exceptionally obvious every time somebody tries it.  It does not make me (or the other jocks) excited or intrigued about your band.  It simply makes us not want to deal with you.

"You've played us on Locals Only. How do we get on during the week, during regular rotation?"
I'm in charge of the music that's played Sundays between 8pm and midnight. All the rest of the hours of the week are the province of Channel 93.3's Music Director - that'd be Nerf.  E-mail him by clicking here.

"You sometimes have promotions where local bands get into rotation, or get to open for concerts.  How do I find out about these?"
You can always just check out the homepage to find out.  Whenever we have one of these promotions running, we make it one of the billboards on the main page.  Or you can follow me on Twitter or Facebook (links at the top of the page) - I always post about these promotions.

"I've still got questions. Can I ask you?"
Of course. I try to answer all my messages.  Click here to e-mail me.

 "I've heard there's this one band that..."
Let's not get into that.