Obviously if you can get the ear of the music director that's good, but if the music director likes something, it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to get on the air. If the program director likes it, it's going to get on the air. Explain the chain of events that begins after a group or artist has finished their record and handed it over to the label. There are a few different levels of promotion people at each record company. You have nationals and locals.
Nationals tend to specialize in a certain format.
The VP of promotion oversees all of the nationals. You'll have a national promotion person for Top-40 radio, one for Country radio, one for Alternative and one for Rock radio. Then in each market, you'll a have a local promotion person who is responsible for all the radio stations in that market no matter what format. There used to be more local promo guys out there than there are today. Very often now, a local promotion person will have a territory that could stretch over three or four states.