How to prepare a radio guest mix — a checklist from 5 years of Klubowy Piątek

As the co-host of Klubowy Piątek — a weekly electronic music radio show — I listen to guest mixes from Polish and international DJs every week. Over a few years that's a lot of files. Some go on air without any discussion. Some I send back with notes. Some — honestly — end up in a folder I never open again. This piece is a practical checklist of what separates those three categories. Written from the host's and producer's side, not from a music critic's.

Why send a guest mix at all

A guest mix is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to reach beyond your local scene. A single episode on a mid-size station is often more listens than you'll collect on your own SoundCloud in a month. If the show has 5-10k regular listeners and the episode with your mix stays in the archive, it keeps working for you for many months after. That's a long tail you can't buy.

The second, less obvious reason: every guest mix becomes EPK material. A promoter you're pitching with "I'd like to play your festival" is far more likely to click a mix that aired on a radio show than a raw file from your cloud storage. There's a stamp on it.

Part 1: things nobody will do for you

### Length that matches the show format

The most common mistake: someone sends a 90-minute set when the show has a 60-minute guest slot. Or 45 minutes when there's an hour to fill. Check the format before you start recording. It's usually one of three values: 30, 60 or 120 minutes. Hitting that window within ±2 minutes is a sign that you respect the producer's work.

### Loudness (LUFS), not peak

The second, much more technical mistake: a mix mastered to -3 dBFS peak, but with an integrated loudness of -20 LUFS. The station will normalise you to around -14 LUFS (Spotify-style) or -16 LUFS (classic radio), so your set will sound thin and lifeless next to the jingles and other guest mixes. Ideal target for a guest mix: -9 to -11 LUFS integrated, true peak -1 dBTP. That level doesn't fight the station's limiter and still sounds full.

If you don't know how to measure that — free plugins like Youlean Loudness Meter do it in 30 seconds. Without that measurement you're shipping blind.

### File, format, name

• Format: WAV 24-bit 44.1 kHz or FLAC. Never MP3, not even 320 — the producer may want to drop in jingles or trim a section and needs a clean source.
• File name: `2026-06-12_KlubowyPiatek_LopezGuestMix.wav`. Date — show name — your name. No accented characters, no spaces. The producer processes 5-10 files a week; if they're all called `mix_final_v3.wav`, they lose their mind.
• Link: WeTransfer, Dropbox, Drive — anything with a direct download. Not a SoundCloud private link, because pulling audio out of that needs external tools and quality drops.

Part 2: what you think about while sequencing, not just playing

### The first 30 seconds decide everything

A radio listener is completely different from a club listener. They turn the show on in the car, on headphones, while working. The first 30 seconds decide whether they stay or switch. The worst thing you can do is open with a 90-second drum-only intro with no melody. The best thing: the first sonic event has to "hook" — a recognisable vocal, a synth lead, a strong motif. The signal "this music is going to be interesting" has to land fast.

### A dramatic arc, not a playlist

A 60-minute radio set needs the same kind of arc as a club hour, but in a different rhythm. Fewer radical energy swings (the listener isn't dancing — you don't want to break their attention), but a clearly defined middle with the strongest moment (usually minute 30-40) and a clean fade in the finale so the host can come back in cleanly.

Practical rule: the first 15 minutes build, 15-45 is the middle with two or three peaks, the last 15 winds down and leads to a clean handover. It works for me almost every time.

### Maximum 2 vocals with a strong message

Vocals are a powerful weapon, but radio is consumed actively. If you drop 5-6 tracks with a strong vocal, the listener tunes out after the third. Two vocals in an hour, with instrumental cuts that carry melodic leads in between — that's the optimal balance for a show.

Part 3: tracklist and metadata

### Always send a tracklist as a separate TXT

A tracklist in the body of an email gets lost. A tracklist in a Word doc has to be opened. A tracklist as a TXT next to the audio file is the standard. Format:

``` 1. Artist – Track (Label) – 00:00 2. Artist – Track (Remix Name) – 04:12 ... ```

Entry timestamps for every track. Without this, the producer can't make YouTube chapters or Spotify timestamps, and those are the two biggest drivers of archive listens today.

### IDs and unreleased — mark them openly

If you're playing unreleased productions or IDs from producers, mark them explicitly: `Artist – ID (unreleased)`. The worst thing you can do is hide the origin. The best: name the producer if they cleared the play. Promoters read this and draw conclusions about your network.

### A short bio + 3 links

Together with the mix, send 3-4 sentence bio (the host needs it for the on-air intro) and 3 links: Spotify/SoundCloud, Instagram, latest release or previous mix. Without this, the host will Google you the night of broadcast and will get your intro wrong.

Part 4: what hosts value most

I asked a handful of fellow show hosts what stays with them after a strong guest mix. Three things kept coming back:

1. A mix with a "face" — the first 10 minutes don't sound like a generic set from any club, they carry a recognisable artist signature. That's very hard to do, and that's exactly what separates a pro from a warm-up DJ. 2. Tempo and mood coherence — a set that holds one character for an hour (e.g. melodic progressive with gradually rising energy) is more valuable to a show than a "sampler" set with 4 genres in 60 minutes. The listener walks away with a clear impression. 3. Clean production — no microscopic gaps between tracks, no clipping, no "narrow" sounding sections. A mix that sounds professional on headphones, in the car and on a phone all at once. That's 80% mastering, not selection.

A small trick: after the broadcast

Once the episode airs, send the host a short thank-you and ask for feedback. Not stats — feedback. What worked best? Are there tracks they wanted to pull out? Does the show's audience respond to a specific style? That's information you can't buy, and after 3-4 of those conversations you have insider knowledge about how electronic music is heard in a given region.

And the practical bit: if the mix stays in the YouTube/Mixcloud archive, share it actively — your own channels, Instagram stories, your own station. The host appreciates that you're working for shared reach. Next time, they'll invite you first.

Pre-send checklist

• File format WAV/FLAC, name: date_show_artist
• Length ±2 minutes from the show format
• Loudness -9 to -11 LUFS integrated, true peak -1 dBTP
• TXT tracklist with entry timestamps
• Short bio + 3 links
• The first 30 seconds hook, the finale fades
• IDs marked explicitly
• Email with a specific subject: "Guest mix [Show] — [Name], [date]"

If you can tick every one of those boxes — your mix will likely be on air the same day it reaches the producer. And for a growing DJ, that's incredibly valuable.

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