Why does the music play too fast on some stations?

Question

What causes songs to play "too fast" on certain stations? It's really annoying.

Answer 1

They speed up the music to make more time for commercials.

Answer 2

Though I won't say that never happens, it's rare. I'm curious as to where (what city) and which station you're listening to?

Back in the day, when we used 45 RPM records, we would occasionally set the RPMs to 45.5 or maybe 46 as we dubbed them to cart (recorded them on a cartridge for easier playback). It was not done to gain more time for commercials.

The theory was, you'd hear the song on our station, then when comparing the same song on our competitor, our version would sound brighter, more energetic. That would mean the competitor would sound less bright... well, you get the picture. It was only done with uptempo songs.

No one could ever prove that this speeding-up ever had any effect. Only a few places where I worked did that and most stopped, because as you say, it's annoying.

Good question, a star for you!

-a guy named duh