This has been on my mind for years now:
Why do most radio stations insist on playing the same selection of songs over and over?
I imagine it must be a copyrights thing? Pay for usage of this particular catalogue for a year?
Don’t those DJs get absolutely sick of it after a while?
Radio stations used to have actual, human DJs. They were smart, funny and they knew what people really wanted. After the ClearChannel takeover, almost all of those stations are automated. The music playlists are decided by corporations and have no connection to the real world.
Jack FM was a joy to listen to - at least in the early days - because they got rid of DJs. They wanted the effect of listening to mp3s on shuffle. I have never enjoyed DJs and I think it’s pretty common. Just play music and back announce the tracks.
Blame Reagan.
Back when radio was starting, a bipartisan Congress created the FCC. Some of the rules were that no one entity could own more than one AM and one FM station in any market [later one VHF TV channel] There had to be a balance in editorial content; if the station supported Candidate A, Candidate B had to be allowed equal time.
Reagan ‘saved’ the media by deregulating it.
Reagan never ruled on my country and it’s the same.
Radio stations play the same songs over and over again.
Can I assume Denmark from your username?
I don’t know enough about other countries to make an intelligent comment.
On the other hand, I could write a book on how Reagan screwed up the US media.
Before him, kids’ cartoons were highly regulated. After he came in, you started seeing full length commercials like “GI Joe” and “The Transformers.”
Cable was getting off the ground at the time, and the FCC could have reigned in Fox News.
Oh yes he did. The President of the United States is also the President of America’s vassals.
I don’t see how editorial content regulations impact a DJ’s catalogue?
The part about one entity being able to own all the stations in one town.
Because they are all owned by the same people.
Radio playlists are a science like marketing. Half the budget is wasted, you’re just never sure which half.
Stations have a target audience. They will have focused grouped this. They know their favorite music, how long on average they listen, and how much they will expect to hear certain artists. The DJs are mere announcers, they have little to no choice in what they play, and they are grateful to have a job. So like anybody working in retail during Christmas, they can tune out the music in their heads.
Yeah it sucks, when I started commuting longer I started to out on the radio as I got kind if bored of my music, at first it was awesome, then like a moth th passed and I couldn’t stand it anymore, listening to ads just to hear a repeated song again.
Its like they put the same block of songs at the same time if day so when you are in traffic each day you just hear the same shuffled playlist
Because record label media companies own 98% of radio stations via iHeartRadio, Clear Media and Audacy.
They want them to brainwash the media with their newest releases from their artists to convince them that it’s good music by playing it non stop adnauseam
Radio stations play what’s popular. What’s popular is what’s on the radio. It’s a vicious fucking cycle of self-reinforcement.
When they tried playing different stuff, people didn’t like it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola
TL/DR: music corps push radio to play their “fashionable” tracks.
deleted by creator
It’s marketing. Corpos decide what you listen to when you rely on the radio. There’s always a better artist or band than what the radio is playing (or streaming services are highlighting) but they may not fit what the corpos want you to hear.
Im unreasonably upset about radio in my area still playing Party Like its 1999. Its not a good song, I can see it having been fun to listen to around new years eve up until 2002. It has no business being a radio staple in the 2020s. It was written to celebrate a very specific time, it was barely good enough to do that, its time to bury it.
Not only that, Prince has SO much more material to be discovered by the average Joe. Obviously that goes for most artists but it just irks me that typical radio is somehow in it’s own bubble.
Right before David Bowie died he released blackstar which for me was a huge discovery at the time. What did the stations do when he died? Play the classics. Mfr, honour the man properly and play his new material.
Generally speaking, public radio stations have far better programming than private ones (atleast in the US) Part of that is they get access to vast media libraries by being a public station, and they also have access to a number of programs they can pay to air. I listen to a local station which public. They play classical and jazz and you only hear the same song maybe once or twice a week, and its because the DJs like that song (Claire de lune comes on about twice a week.) The downside would be the NPR news segements they have to air at the beginnings of some hours.
I don’t get it either, OP. If the DJs don’t go mad how do the listeners retain sanity? It’s madness. (No, really. You have trades people who listen to the same station day in day out and they play the exact same songs, over and over, every day. Those listeners are demented. At that point you’re just listening for the ads…) Tune into the local community stations. All the commercial stations are just repeat rubbish. You’ll find variety and local music on the community stations. They likely need your financial support too. It’s sad seeing these stations shutter one by one…
Oh I would if could, but as you mention=> work.
Payola.
Time to switch to a radio station that’s not bought by some big money agenda?
I recently got back into somafm again, after many many years hiatus.
In my personal time I prefer just listening to albums on a usb stick if you catch my drift. It’s at work where it bugs me.
Fun suggestion:
Slip work’s radio a usb stick, surreptitiously, some day, with better tunes and none of the crap.
And (of course) a bigger collection, that won’t loop over the same so soon.
