Radio promotion glossary40+ terms
Radio has a language of its own, and half of sounding professional is using it correctly. This glossary explains the terms independent artists actually run into while promoting music to radio — from adds and spins to NACC charts, mixshows, and one-sheets — in plain English. Terms are alphabetical, with cross-links to our deeper guides where they exist.
A
- Add
- When a station officially puts your song into its rotation. An add is the yes every radio campaign works toward — it means the station will actually play the track, not just consider it.
- Airplay
- Any broadcast of your music on a radio station. Confirmed airplay — spins you can verify in playlists or charts — is the currency of radio promotion.
- Airplay monitoring
- Services such as Nielsen BDSradio and Mediabase that detect broadcasts across stations and power commercial chart data. College and community airplay is mostly tracked by stations self-reporting playlists instead.
- Americana
- A roots-music format spanning country, folk, blues, and singer-songwriter material. Americana radio is largely noncommercial, programmer-driven, and notably open to independent artists; the Americana Music Association publishes the format's weekly airplay chart.
C
- Chart reporting
- The weekly process by which stations report their adds, playlists, and spins to chart aggregators. Airplay at reporting stations is what moves releases up genre charts.
- College radio
- Student-run (often community-supported) campus stations. The most accessible broadcast tier for independent artists: named music and genre directors, published submission processes, and chart reporting through organizations like NACC.
- Community radio
- Locally owned, volunteer-driven stations, often noncommercial. Community programmers choose their own music, host genre shows, and are reliably open to direct artist pitches that fit their programs.
- Commercial radio
- For-profit stations whose programming is ratings- and revenue-driven. Playlists at major commercial stations are tightly researched and rarely accept unsolicited music — the reason independent campaigns target other tiers first.
D
- Daypart
- A block of the broadcast day (mornings, middays, evenings) with its own audience and format expectations. Specialty and mix programming usually lives at night, when programmers have the most freedom.
- Drive time
- Morning and evening commutes — the most-listened (and most valuable) dayparts. Realistic expectation for a new artist: not drive time; a specialty show or overnight rotation is the realistic first win.
- DJ / show host
- The person on air. On community, college, and internet stations the host frequently chooses every track in their own show, which makes them a decision-maker worth pitching directly.
E
- EPK (electronic press kit)
- A single link holding everything a programmer or journalist needs: music, bio, photos, press, airplay history, and contact. See our guide to building an EPK for radio.
F
- Format
- A station's overall programming identity — Top 40, urban, country, Triple A, rock, news/talk. Matching your genre to station formats is step one of targeting.
G
- Genre director
- A station staff member (common at college stations) responsible for one genre's submissions and chart reporting — the single most relevant contact for many independent pitches.
I
- Internet radio
- Online-only stations and collectives, from global platforms to single-genre broadcasters. Streaming worldwide, DJ-curated, and typically the most receptive tier for independent submissions.
L
- LPFM
- Low-power FM: small, hyper-local noncommercial stations in the US. Tiny signals, but real community audiences and programmer autonomy — useful targets in your own town.
M
- Market
- A station's city or metro area. Radio promotion is organized market by market, and local relevance (hometown, tour stops) is one of the strongest pitch angles an artist has.
- Mixshow
- A DJ-hosted show — often late-night on urban, dance, and rhythmic stations — where new music traditionally breaks before formal playlisting. In hip-hop and dance, mixshow DJs are key gatekeepers.
- Music director (MD)
- The person at a college or community station who receives, screens, and adds new releases. For most independent artists, the MD is the single most important contact in radio.
N
- NACC
- The North American College and Community Radio collaboration — the charts college and community stations in the US and Canada report their airplay to, including genre charts. (Its predecessor, CMJ, was the earlier college-chart authority and is long dormant.)
- Noncommercial radio
- Stations without advertising-based licenses (community, college, public). Noncommercial programmers choose music with unusual freedom, which is why independent campaigns concentrate here.
O
- One-sheet
- The single-page PDF promoters and artists send with a release: art, facts, sound description, airplay history, links, and contact. The standard currency of radio pitching — see our EPK guide.
P
- Payola rules
- US law and FCC rules requiring disclosure of anything of value given in exchange for airplay. Practical upshot for artists: never pay for undisclosed spins, and treat anyone who sells guaranteed airplay as a liability.
- Program director (PD)
- The person responsible for a station's overall sound and schedule. At smaller stations the PD and MD are often the same person; at larger ones the PD is the final authority on adds.
- Playlist log
- A station's public record of what it played and when. Checking playlist logs is how independent artists confirm spins — and how they catch stations to thank.
- Power rotation
- The heaviest tier of spins a station gives a track. Reserved for a station's biggest priorities; reaching it as an outsider is rare by design.
- Press release
- A formatted announcement of a release or event sent to media. Useful for press, but radio pitching works better as short personal email than as press releases.
- Promoter / plugger
- A hired radio promotion professional who pitches your release to their station network and reports weekly on results. Costs vary widely by format and campaign length — see our DIY-vs-promoter comparison.
- Public radio
- Noncommercial, listener-supported stations and networks. Music-heavy public stations and their genre programs are meaningful targets for Americana, jazz, classical, and eclectic artists.
R
- Radio edit
- A version of your song prepared for broadcast: shortened structure and clean lyrics. Sending the album version to broadcast stations is one of the fastest ways to get skipped.
- Record pool
- A subscription service distributing tracks to working club and radio DJs. In hip-hop and dance, pool support generates the early DJ momentum programmers look for.
- Rotation
- The recurring schedule a station gives an added track — light, medium, or heavy — determining how often it plays. Most independent adds start in specialty shows or light rotation.
S
- Satellite radio
- National subscription radio. Some channels program independent music in specific genres; submissions typically run through label and promoter channels.
- Simulcast
- One station broadcasting another's signal (an HD subchannel or translator relaying a bigger station). If you get played on the source station, simulcast reach comes along with it.
- Specialty show
- A genre- or scene-focused program inside a broader station — a weekly metal, jazz, hip-hop, or local-music hour. Specialty shows are the most pitchable destination in all of radio for independent artists.
- Spin
- One broadcast play of your song. Spins (not adds alone) are how airplay is counted and charted.
- Station ID
- The legal on-air identification of a station (call letters, frequency, city). Unrelated promo tip: recorded station IDs by artists are a small currency of goodwill at community stations.
- A show distributed to multiple affiliate stations. One syndicated program can mean spins in dozens of markets from a single host relationship.
T
- Tour support
- Airplay coordinated with your tour dates in each market. One of the most effective campaign structures — programmers respond to music they can connect to a live date.
- Translator
- A small repeater transmitter that rebroadcasts a station in another area. Many community and noncommercial signals reach their cities through translators.
- Triple A (adult album alternative)
- A broad, album-oriented format — the natural radio home for singer-songwriter, indie, and roots artists, and the crossover target for Americana records.
U
- Underwriting
- Noncommercial radio's version of sponsorship: on-air acknowledgments that fund stations. Underwriting acknowledgments are how many college and community stations survive — and why their music programming stays independent.
Definitions describe common industry usage; individual stations and organizations may use terms slightly differently. See something missing? The glossary grows with our resource library.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between an add and a spin?
An add is the station's decision to put your song into rotation; a spin is each individual play after that. Charts are built from spins at reporting stations, so an add with no spins is a launch, not a result.
Who should I contact first at a radio station?
In order: the genre director for your style if one exists, then the music director, then the specialty-show host your music fits, then the program director. The Radio Reach Vault lists station contacts by role so you can skip the guessing.