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Why does the radio keep playing the same five songs?â™ ?

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Why does the radio keep playing the same five songs?â™ ?

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  1. Well, I suspect you're exaggerating to make a point. If not, answer #1 may be correct.

    If so, a little history and theory may be in order.

    This goes back to the old days when AM was ruling the airwaves. A couple of radio geniuses were in a bar and noticed that people kept plugging their quarters in the jukebox, but mostly played the same 30-50 songs. They called it at mid-point: 40. One of the guys was Todd Storz who had a station in Omaha. He aired this new format they had in mind (anything that might get back some business from this new television thing) and went on the air with the 40 most popular songs of the week.

    All day and all night, 24 hours a day with very little DJ interaction they'd play those songs over and again. they understood (as most radio people didn't at the time) that the main reason people listened was for the music. That they wanted to hear their favorites during the odd times they tuned in. And they didn’t want a lot of chatter.

    When people turn on the radio they want to hear their favorite songs. Most people don't listen for long periods of time, so they probably hear their few faves then go elsewhere. I plead this in many of my answers, radio must be consistent to win - and that means playing the hits: over and over.

    These new Top-40 stations would change their playlist once a week when "Billboard" came out.

    Short version of a long story.

    Top-40 referred to the 40 most purchased records weekly as compiled and reported by "Billboard Magazine."

    -a guy named duh


  2. over and over again or the 5 songs come back all over the day?

    maybe it is only licensed for those 5, maybe it is promoting those 5 songs, or maybe the djs only like those 5 songs. it  could also be that there is a problem with the system and there is no one in the studio and the whole thing is running on auto dj, that sadly only has 5 songs in the playlist, there are normally more songs on the computer but for some reason the auto dj tends to redo and redo the same thing (well at least if it is on in my station)

  3. I'd guess you are listening to a CHR (Contemporary Hits Radio) station, more commonly known as Top 40.  These type stations repeat songs a lot because that is how they get ratings.  The top songs on the chart can play once every 45 to 90 minutes, depending on how tight the station has the rotations set up.  So if you listen for 3 hours you might hear the top songs 2 or 3 times.

    Most CHR stations get their ratings from what is called "Cume" or getting a bunch of listeners to tune in at one time.  They check out the station, hear their favorite song and punch away.  Then they come back later in the day and hear another favorite song or two and punch away again.  Whenever a listener tunes into a station it's called an occurrence.  The typical CHR listener spends less than 15 minutes per occurrence.    

    OTOH, stations like Classic Rock or Adult Contemporary typically rely on "TSL" or Time Spent Listening.  These formats don't repeat songs as much so listeners don't tend to get burnt out.  These stations are typically listened to for longer periods of time like at work.  

    With the CHR station, if they didn't play the "same 5 songs" over and over, I'm guessing you would be on here asking why they don't play my favorite songs enough...lol!

  4. cus they're weird

    lol idk

  5. Well i think they might be promoting them...?

    I think

    x

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