Is it just me or do radio stations share the same playlist?

Question

I was listening to the radio yesterday and a song came on I don't like so I changed channels 20 minutes later the same song came on the channel I switched to so I changed it to yet another station and guess what after an hour of music that station played the same annoying song, I can hear any one song on my radio up to about 7 or 8 times a day all on different stations!

another example is my workplace I work in a car dealership in the showroom the radio is on one channel and the workshop is on another, I went to lunch and the shop I went to was listening to a different station and guess what? I've heard the same song three times today!

has anyone else in Australia came across this? or anywhere else for that matter?

Answer 1

That's because they are.  So many stations are owned by the same companies, or just ripping each other off.

Answer 2

music labels tell the stations what the hot songs are.  If you play what we tell you we give your station use of our labelled music. they cant just play music without paying or betting free approval...........

Answer 3

thats not that bad , I live in the Us and here you dont have to waiut an hour to hear a song again. Heck sometimes you cant escape a song. You'll hear it on one station then immediately change stations only to hear they are playing the same song and no matter how many times you switch stations they are all playing the same somg at the same time in sync with each other!! its insane I tell ya..that's why I switched to Sirius satelitte radio.

Answer 4

Radio stations are heavily formatted. You are probably listening to stations in the same format. If they are in the same format, they are getting their records from the same promoter, probably, and playing the same records!

There are alternatives. There are 150 stations, at least, on XM, and at home, you have myriad indie radio stations on the Internet.

Also, you can just download new music to your mp3 player and listen to that. You don't need radio to hear new music. You can sample all the new stuff you want on Limewire.