We have all listened to music on the radio. The genre of music you prefer will often determine your preference in the radio stations. Regardless of which music radio station you listen to, you will be familiar with that station's hits. But what is a radio hit song, and how does it become a hit? 

In general, a hit song refers to a song that is widely played or is a big-selling song, trending across a variety of radio stations and music streaming platforms. To be more specific, the term hit radio song refers to a single that has appeared in an official music chart and repeatedly played on the radio. A radio hit song will incur a significant number of commercial sales. 

A popular radio station in the DMV area is HOT 99.5. This station boasts playing all the latest radio hit songs with the likes of Maroon 5, Cardi B, Shawn Mendes, and other artists. To keep up with all the current radio hits both locally and internationally, they must continually keep their tracks and playlists updated. 

How do they know what songs to play and deem as radio hits on their station? They need to watch the charting systems closely. The previous associate publisher/director of charts at Billboard magazine was Thomas Noonan. He managed the Hot 100 chart and the various spin-offs associated with the list. Thomas told the Center for Media Literacy (CML) in an interview: "Radio is the jury, it's never wrong." 

The Billboard magazine closely competes with Cashbox Magazine, a publication that lists music charts. Both companies maintain a highly influential and closely monitored charting system. They record the hottest songs each week. However, "hot" does not necessarily mean that it is the "best" song. It refers to the "most played" for that period, or the “most bought”. Radio stations will closely follow those charts and extract the hottest songs to be played as radio hits. 

The Numbers Game

Many radio stations will only add songs to their playlist when they reach a certain point on the rating charts. It is a numbers game and has a “chicken or the egg” quality to the system behind it. A new song depends on luck, pluck, and a strong promotional agency behind it. This is over and above its own quality and perceived commercial viability. 

However, here is the spin-off. A hit song's initial progress on the rating charts is based on its airplay. Sales only become a significant factor several weeks after that. Before a song is broken into major markets, it is often promoted somewhere else, in a part of the country where the performer is well-known and where audiences respond well to their particular sound. 

"It's tough being a new act. We do make sure that we're aware of music that's out by new artists, but almost always, they have to make their mark before we recommend them." Robert English, the president of Broadcast Programming, told CML. 

Promotion is very important, and so is timing. These factors could make or break the future of a song qualifying as a radio hit song. The next determining factor of a song is the "hook." Noonan describes the hook as the point of difference that can serve as the key selling point when promoters are selling a song to a radio station. One must remember that radio stations have commercial ears and will ultimately determine the selling point of a song on their station. 

High listening numbers in the music industry are really tough to achieve. Out of approximately 4,000 RPM singles, 2,500 of those are pop songs. Noonan estimates: "Of those, maybe 57 will become hits. And a station like KIIS-FM (Los Angeles' hot top-ranked Top 40 station) might add as few as four records a week of the 50 or so released."

Even though radio programmers are constantly watching the market, they also depend heavily on their market research. They will conduct a computer analysis of listeners’ reactions to certain songs played during test marketing sessions and break the research down into age, sex, and lifestyle demographics. 

Radio Hits from the DMV Area

The DMV area has one of the richest music cultures in the U.S., but in recent years there has not been a lot of DMV artists in the national spotlight creating lucrative radio hits. 

Artists, such as Missy Elliot, Pharrell, Marvin Gaye, Timbaland, Dave Grohl, and Chris Brown, all share radio hit songs and originate from the DMV. The area has been rich in producing talented artists with chart-topping songs, but there has been a noticeable decrease in new artists reaching the top with radio hit songs. 

In some instances, artists no longer want to collaborate and share their resources with one another to reach larger audiences. For example, two of the hottest rappers in D.C., Fat Trel and $hy Glizzy, refuse to work together to produce the next big radio hit out of the DMV area. 

Another reason could be that there is no longer a strong sense of community in the area, and the infrastructure is limited to foster the next wave of radio hit talent. 

Managers, producers, talent buyers, and everyone else need to band together to create a thriving infrastructure. Goldlink, a rising D.C. star, was first discovered in a non-profit program, one of very few in the DMV area. If more talented artists were discovered through these programs and exposed to the right community, they could produce songs that qualify as radio hits. 

Wale emerged from the DMV area and a quote from his song shares just why artists in the area have become subject to limitations: 

DMV so we used to the waiting
Nobody seems to care we so complacent with the vacancy
See, the love is gone with one another, it’s hard
Nobody rep for the Skins, they busy cheering them Stars
It’s ironic, it’s the same for the artists
Rather than buy our songs, they busy cheering the stars.