I have spent the past month preparing my radio mail-out. I am hitting the Americana reporting stations, the Euro-Americana reporting stations, the Freeform Americana Radio (FAR) stations and the Euro-FAR stations. It's about 300 total, about 200 U.S. and 100 international stations.
A reporting station/d.j. is one who reports his spins to those who compile the above mentioned charts. Unfortunately, very few (if any) artists "chart" without hiring a radio promoter to "work" the record. The more well-known promoters charge about $4000 to work a record. You still pay postage (mine is running about $800) as well as all other mailing materials, you still do the actual mailing with labels they provide. They provide the labels and then make the calls to the d.j.s who hopefully play your music. I was told that the fact that I'm not touring is a strike against me. D.J.'s want to see the artists they play on the radio playing live shows in their cities. It was a $4000 gamble we were unwilling to make.
So, I'm doing my own research, typing my own labels, mailing my own cds, and I have a part-time d.j./friend who is going to be making calls for me. I will be paying him considerable less than $4000! The d.j.s and stations have "call times" when they accept calls from promoters and artists seeking airplay. I found a partial call-time list online (which is awesome!) and we'll have to research the rest station by station.
It's all veryyyy long and complicated and hairy. But this is what I've been doing the past month and will be doing in the coming weeks to help my call guy. Hopefully we can get a teeny little bit of mileage on our own. Get the music out there. Make some fans. Sell a few cds. Hopefully...