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?
In the 80s, I used to be a DJ at a radio station, and had the midnight to 6 a.m. shift. In the beginning, everything was OK, we had a catalogue of about a thousands songs that I could choose and pick from. Commercially the station wasn’t successful so very soon the catalogue was reduced to 500 songs, then 250, then to 100 songs, and then to a dozen songs. It was horrible, I had to come up with ideas how am I getting a story up about this stupid handful of songs. I started reading f****g poetry out loud, my own poetry because we couldn’t buy any of the real poetry stuff. I’m not a poet ! So my salary also dropped. In the end, I had TWO songs that I could choose from: BTO’s You ain’t seen nothing yet and a shitty B side by Shakin’ Stevens. SIX HOURS to play just two songs, if it had been at least three songs, I could’ve mixed them, but you cannot mix two songs! Bloody hell.
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.
How dare you criticize GI Joe
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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.
Good DJs can play a set and back announce the tracks. Jim Ladd on KLOS comes to mind as a DJ I would specifically tune into back in the early 00’s. This was because of the awesome sets he’d produce, intermixing top hits with b-sides and deep cuts, truly expanding my knowledge and love of classic rock.
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
Isn’t iHeart and ClearChannel the same company?
