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Tim McDermott, President and General Manager of Houston's KSBJ, concurs with a simple formula: "Adds must be better than or as good as what we're already playing."

Some might suggest simply expanding the playlist. That's certainly feasible, but what cannot be expanded is the number of hours available for music in a day. So, larger playlists mean each song gets played less frequently.

Instead of playlist expansion, many in the industry have noted that playlists are shrinking.

"Radio playlists in general are restrictive because they have gotten smaller," notes Steve Strout, Director of National Promotion for Rocketown/RKT Records. "Stations have found that playing fewer songs more often results in higher cume ["cumulative audience," or how many people tune in for at least 5 minutes on a given day].

"Retail is also carrying less music and giving that shelf space to books, DVDs and video games. So all of those factors make it as difficult as it has ever been to break artists [i.e., to get them exposure]."

Recognizing the import of the decision to add a song, most stations have expanded efforts in music research and testing.

"Testing has changed everything," notes an anonymous industry veteran. "A music director who is a 28-year-old guy, early in his career, probably won't pick the right music for a 34-to-38-year-old soccer mom. But the music director can easily say 'That song didn't test well with that audience.'"

KSBJ's McDermott calls testing "wonderful," noting that the data help him know if the station is on target; he thus observes an overall "much higher percent of quality Christian radio broadcasting than a few years ago." PDs also like to use testing results as a defense when labels come calling, asking why a song was not added.

Testing is sometimes as simple as the posting of song clips on a website, where listeners vote for which songs they like—and which they don't. Or it can be as involved as an auditorium full of folks who represent the station's target audience—potentially a room full of Beckys!—listening to clips of songs while they hold a dial in their hand used to rate each track.

Research considers how much an individual likes a song, whether or not she is already familiar with the song, and whether or not she has grown tired of hearing the song. As more and more stations turn to research, "testing well" has become the real key to airplay.

For example, consider an established artist like Chris Tomlin. His hit, "How Great Is Our God," was the second-highest testing song during the last week of September, according to Hit Music Research. In the AC format among women 35-44 years old, the song scored 4.45 out of 5. Ninety-nine percent of respondents were familiar with the song, but 24 percent rated it high in the "Burn" category, suggesting they may be growing tired of the song.

The same week, Tomlin's "Made to Worship" also tested well, with a 4.18 score, but only 10 percent burn. It would seem to make sense for a PD who has not yet added the new song to consider adding it. Indeed, "Made to Worship" topped the Radio and Records Christian AC chart the same week. Nine of the top ten songs that week tested with a score of 4.0 or higher, demonstrating that the songs that are played more frequently are almost always those that test well.

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