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.
Shout out to KEXP 90.3 FM Seattle / KEXC 92.7 FM Alameda/San Francisco. All real live DJs all the time, picking amazing music across genres.
I’ve never listened to KEXP on the air but their YouTube channel is amazing. It’s how I’ve found a good chunk of real obscure music that I’m in to. Can’t recommend them highly enough, might tune in on a digital radio service & give them a go!
Sounds awesome!
And the Clearchannel takeover was set loose by the Telecoms Act of 1996. Prior to that, it was illegal in the US to own more than 7 units of media - any combo of radio or TV stations, magazines, newpapers, etc. There was too much media for the billionaires to own it all under the old regulations.
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.
There was a radio station who’s whole thing was that they would never play nickleback. Then one day they accidentally played nickleback. The Playlists were coming from some head office 5000 miles away, and they missed pulling a nickleback track once it got to the local station.
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.
There had to be a balance in editorial content
This rule was was the Fairness Doctrine, and it was in effect from 1949 to 1987. So it’s fair to say that Reagan got rid of it.
if the station supported Candidate A, Candidate B had to be allowed equal time.
This is a different rule called the Equal Time Rule, and it’s still in effect today.
Recently this rule was in the news when Stephen Colbert interviewed Senate candidate James Talarico on his (now concluded) show, without offering the same interview time to Talarico’s primary opponent Jasmine Crockett. I believe in the end the interview was cut from the over-the-air broadcast to comply with the rule. (The interview segment was published on YouTube, which is not subject to the rule.)
https://bookshop.org/beta-search
Ross Thomas was a Washington reporter turned crime novelist. All his stories have a political slant.
The Fools In Town Are On Our Side is about an ex-CIA agent who is trying to make a small Southern city ‘so corrupt the pimps will vote for reform.’
Anyone who knows the difference between the Fairness Doctrine and the Equal Time Rule will probably enjoy his work
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
Here’s a great story.
Snake Eyes was one of the original Joes. He was made of all black plastic because that was the cheapest thing they could do.
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Oh yes he did. The President of the United States is also the President of America’s vassals.
All roads lead to reagan
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.
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?
Apparently they are which makes this even worse
When I worked at a warehouse almost a decade ago, the person in charge of the PA system would pipe in music from the local dad-rock radio station. I would hear the same 15 to 20 songs at least three or four times a shift. if it weren’t for the commercials I would have thought it was a mix CD on random.
Radio stations play what’s popular. What’s popular is what’s on the radio. It’s a vicious fucking cycle of self-reinforcement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola
TL/DR: music corps push radio to play their “fashionable” tracks.
My wife and I went for a drive the other day and whatever station I was on was playing songs I loved from the 90s. And then I checked the station. Classic rock.
Then today the faint came on my Spotify and even though I listen to them quite a bit it suddenly hit me that I discovered them during the height of limewire, about 6 years after I graduated highschool so I still consider them new. Looked up when their song came out. 25 years ago. Fuck!!!
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When they tried playing different stuff, people didn’t like it.
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.
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.
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.
