@FreddiesLantern@leminal.space
Why do radio stations keep playing the same stuff over and over?
2026-06-22 08:45 UTC
Replies (21)
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@notsosure@sh.itjust.works 2026-06-22 09:06
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 to catalogue was reduced to 500 songs, then 250, and 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 other stuff. I’m not a poet ! 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, I couldn’t even mix them! Bloody hell.
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@OwOarchist@pawb.social 2026-06-22 09:29
Radio stations play what’s popular. What’s popular is what’s on the radio. It’s a vicious fucking cycle of self-reinforcement.
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@leftascenter@jlai.lu 2026-06-22 09:39
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola TL/DR: music corps push radio to play their “fashionable” tracks.
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@kometes@sh.itjust.works 2026-06-22 09:58
I don’t believe there are still human DJs. It’s been automated for years.
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@luthis@lemmy.nz 2026-06-22 10:09
GeorgeFM doesn’t. It plays great music, they have segments during the weekend with a bunch of stuff you’ve never heard. It’s great. You can get it on the Rova app I think
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@Elting@piefed.social 2026-06-22 11:12
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.
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@DagwoodIII@piefed.social 2026-06-22 11:13
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.
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@DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-06-22 11:22
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
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@Adverse_Reaction@anarchist.nexus 2026-06-22 11:45
This topic reminds of a song from the early 90’s: Consolidated - College Radio
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@dropdrip@lemmy.ml 2026-06-22 12:22
I don’t get it either, OP. If the DJs don’t go mad how do the listeners retain sanity? It’s madness. 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…
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@NutWrench@lemmy.ml 2026-06-22 12:20
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.
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@melsaskca@lemmy.ca 2026-06-22 12:24
The new underground radio is keying your CB microphone at the speaker from your 8-track player. /s
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@Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-06-22 13:45
When they tried playing different stuff, people didn’t like it.
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@FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 2026-06-22 09:05
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.
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@Pissed@lemmy.ml 2026-06-22 13:50
Don’t big record companies just have the 10 hits they manufactured in a laboratory which they test in key markets and then push out to the rest of the world. I remember when I went to Southern California I was hearing a bunch of songs I’d never heard before. A few months later those songs were being played on corporate radio in the EU.
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@RecursiveParadox@piefed.social 2026-06-22 14:15
Elvis Costello explained this back in 1977: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD_24nDzkeo&list=RDeD_24nDzkeo&start_radio=1
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@RoabeArt@hexbear.net 2026-06-22 14:58
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 or 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.
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@Dippy@beehaw.org 2026-06-22 18:49
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.
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@RoddyStiggs@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2026-06-22 20:09
Payola.
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@solbt@feddit.org 2026-06-22 23:13
Listen to this, a masterpiece
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@KC_Royalz@lemmy.world 2026-06-24 00:00
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!!!