Why is the radio so repetitious?

Question

Out of all the music in the world, why do radio stations keep playing the same few songs over and over and over and over and over and over and over...

...and over and over and over and over..

...and over again?

Answer 1

It makes them more money. Also, they pick the most popular songs. Sorry if you don't like them.

Answer 2

Station libraries are so much smaller than they used to be.  Some don't have more than 250 CDs at any given moment.

Sad state of affairs.

Answer 3

Radio is controlled media.  You will hear what you are supposed to hear.  I haven't actively listened to radio in over a decade.  Radio makes me vomit.

Buy CD's or get MP3's from legitimate (legal) sources on the internet.  Turn off the radio.  Heck, go ahead and turn off cable/satellite.  I haven't actively watched television broadcast in over a decade.  I cannot describe how much cleaner my mind is.  I am my own man.  No one thinks for me.  No one makes decisions for me.  No one decides what I watch or what I listen to.

I still read more than 30 books per year.  I'm currently rereading "The Forbidden Zone" by Whitley Strieber (for fun) and rereading "The Revolution, a Manifeso" by Ron Paul (for my country).  I also have a couple "coffee table" books that I've just about finished off these past weeks.

If radio isn't cutting it for you, it's probably because you are too intelligent.  Turn it off and take control of your mental input.  Dude!

Answer 4

anything new will get us switching.

Answer 5

you need to start listening to

Sirius Satellite radio

there are many channels and except for the hit station most take days to repeat a song.

but if you want a song played you can call in and request it  

Answer 6

What you perceive as repetition isn't as bad as you think. Try an experiment (on a weekday, as weekend programming often differs). Take a day and write down every song over a 6-8 hour period. That will give you a good "clocking” of the station.

You'll find that there is repetition of the most popular songs with newer and older past hits and a few "new" songs on a "try-out," we used to call it "Hitbound." This is done because most listeners do not listen for long periods of time. But when they do tune in, they want to hear their favorites. So, the stations program to those who listen less often (because they are the majority) and it really irritates people like you who listen for long periods of time.

We know you longer-term listeners don't like it. I personally have been listening to this same complaint for 40 years, but the only stations that pay any attention to your complaints are the album stations that are not as popular as they once were. And even those stations have a "tight" playlist (Stairway to Heaven;" "Sweet Home Alabama" etc.)

Without getting into a long discourse about Average Quarter Hour (the ratings most advertisers use, representing how many people listen in an average 15-minute period - with duplication of the same people) and Cume (the total number of unique listeners in a week with no duplication), let's just say those are the basics of "The Ratings." See, your eyes are glazing over already aren't they. The stations are trying to boost their AQH without losing Cume. It's a bit of a tightrope.

Just because a lot of people ask, let me get on my soapbox and add this FYI: the stations, though they try to keep good relations with labels, do not pay for, nor receive pay for airplay - nor care what the labels think. Labels don't get rated - listeners do.

Now, however, in addition to the traditional (and fairly reasonable) writers/publishers fees paid to ASCAP, BMI & SESAC, the labels and artists also want radio to pay royalties to them.

In the past, there has been a very tidy synergistic relationship: you stations play our records, we labels/artists benefit from the airplay in the form of exposure and you stations don't have to pay for the privilege. But times are tough and there's this thing called Downloads & File Sharing that is ruining the record industry. So they are looking for any possible way to increase revenue - including charging stations to play their songs. (BTW, please don't do it. Use reputable sites and pay the 99 cents.)

What the labels are missing is that radio may say, "OK, we'll pay you royalties, but you pay us our going rate for a :60 commercial (times the length of the song) everytime we play the song and we'll announce it as advertising and bill you." This would amount to way more than the royalties and the record labels would ultimately lose that battle.

Hope that answers your question or at least puts the theory in perspective, it's more than three CD singles over and again, and the quality of the music is dictated by what's available and what people want to hear. There's this thingy on your radio somewhere that changes the channels, you might try that ;<)

There's another one that turns it off. And, unfortunately, people like you are doing that more and more often as both businesses spiral down the chute.

BTW: the only way radio can save itself, especially among younger listeners, is to be as local as possible. They've gotten away from that in recent years and it's killing them. This is a part the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that allowed big companies to own multiple stations in the same city - many more than had been previously allowed.

- a guy named duh