Hello?

The Voice!

She is the biggest pop star of our time, with apologies to Taylor Swift, because she sings to us about ourselves. There’s just more substance to her songs, at least for those of us older than 25.

We hadn’t heard anything from her in a couple of years, following vocal chord surgery.

She spent the time resting, writing.

And immediately upon the release of her new single, Hello, it rocketed to #1 on iTunes.

There’s no question that unless your station is Classic Rock, Hip Hop or Classical, you’ll probably be playing something from Adele’s new album, which is already ranked #1 because of pre-orders (the album doesn’t drop for a month).

There is a question about what you did Friday, and it’s mine: How did you handle this new song on your air?

Knowing that the average TSL can be measured in minutes, rather than hours, in any daypart, did you play it every hour?

Did you use it as an attractant: “Hey, we’ve got the brand new Adele song, Hello, and it is fabulous! I’ll play it for you again in 20 minutes…” “Call your friends because I’m going to play Adele’s new song, Hello, again shortly after 1 o’clock.”

Or did you just consider it another potentially unfamiliar risk in your battle against PPM measurement?

Did you worry about repetition and format rules and criticism?

Who says an AC station can’t play a song this anticipated, from an artist this beloved, every hour?

Who can prove doing so is definitely a tune-out, not a tune-in?

We don’t get that many opportunities to shine a spotlight on music discovery today.

I say when something this big, this universal, this good, comes along, you seize it and milk it and remind your listeners that you love music as much as they do.

What say you? Surprise me.