Why do radio stations play the same songs repetitively?
Discussion
LordLoveLength said:
You pay per song - the amount depends on size of your audience. It’s in the 10s of £ per play for national stuff.
That was one driver behind having a DJ chatting - he was cheaper than airplay fees.
Some stations do deals for selected playlists - a few years back one of the 60s hits stations never played any Beatles tracks! presumably too expensive.
It is mostly all scheduled by a computer program that has many permutations, but not many stations fiddle with the setup so they keep their ‘station sound’ with fixed number of repeats.
Drivetime is your big captive audience with short duration and high churn of listeners. This is where the popular stuff is the hook and repeats don’t matter too much.
Evenings you lose drive time listeners to TV but attract student type audiences. They won’t want popular repeat stuff.
One thing the computer should stop is repeating the same song as one show ends with it and the next pre-recorded show starts with it.
You also want to avoid a potentially contentious song after the news. You don’t want to come off the back of a news bulletin about a major car crash with a happy driving song or similar. So you generally get something pretty bland and inoffensive after the news.
What, are the 'shows' all pre-recorded then, they're not even 'live'?That was one driver behind having a DJ chatting - he was cheaper than airplay fees.
Some stations do deals for selected playlists - a few years back one of the 60s hits stations never played any Beatles tracks! presumably too expensive.
It is mostly all scheduled by a computer program that has many permutations, but not many stations fiddle with the setup so they keep their ‘station sound’ with fixed number of repeats.
Drivetime is your big captive audience with short duration and high churn of listeners. This is where the popular stuff is the hook and repeats don’t matter too much.
Evenings you lose drive time listeners to TV but attract student type audiences. They won’t want popular repeat stuff.
One thing the computer should stop is repeating the same song as one show ends with it and the next pre-recorded show starts with it.
You also want to avoid a potentially contentious song after the news. You don’t want to come off the back of a news bulletin about a major car crash with a happy driving song or similar. So you generally get something pretty bland and inoffensive after the news.
Oakey said:
LordLoveLength said:
You pay per song - the amount depends on size of your audience. It’s in the 10s of £ per play for national stuff.
That was one driver behind having a DJ chatting - he was cheaper than airplay fees.
Some stations do deals for selected playlists - a few years back one of the 60s hits stations never played any Beatles tracks! presumably too expensive.
It is mostly all scheduled by a computer program that has many permutations, but not many stations fiddle with the setup so they keep their ‘station sound’ with fixed number of repeats.
Drivetime is your big captive audience with short duration and high churn of listeners. This is where the popular stuff is the hook and repeats don’t matter too much.
Evenings you lose drive time listeners to TV but attract student type audiences. They won’t want popular repeat stuff.
One thing the computer should stop is repeating the same song as one show ends with it and the next pre-recorded show starts with it.
You also want to avoid a potentially contentious song after the news. You don’t want to come off the back of a news bulletin about a major car crash with a happy driving song or similar. So you generally get something pretty bland and inoffensive after the news.
What, are the 'shows' all pre-recorded then, they're not even 'live'?That was one driver behind having a DJ chatting - he was cheaper than airplay fees.
Some stations do deals for selected playlists - a few years back one of the 60s hits stations never played any Beatles tracks! presumably too expensive.
It is mostly all scheduled by a computer program that has many permutations, but not many stations fiddle with the setup so they keep their ‘station sound’ with fixed number of repeats.
Drivetime is your big captive audience with short duration and high churn of listeners. This is where the popular stuff is the hook and repeats don’t matter too much.
Evenings you lose drive time listeners to TV but attract student type audiences. They won’t want popular repeat stuff.
One thing the computer should stop is repeating the same song as one show ends with it and the next pre-recorded show starts with it.
You also want to avoid a potentially contentious song after the news. You don’t want to come off the back of a news bulletin about a major car crash with a happy driving song or similar. So you generally get something pretty bland and inoffensive after the news.
Sometimes DJ just records links and someone edits the tracks in etc etc. Usually stuff overnight or Christmas etc pre recd.
I guess the competitions are all pre recorded? Every Radio Station around the country is unlikely to be giving away £40k so I assume it's one prize and the conversation with the winner is recorded and distributed to the local stations where their DJ's just play along as if they're speaking to them?
And I suspect interviews with celebs are exactly the same?
And I suspect interviews with celebs are exactly the same?
Oakey said:
I guess the competitions are all pre recorded? Every Radio Station around the country is unlikely to be giving away £40k so I assume it's one prize and the conversation with the winner is recorded and distributed to the local stations where their DJ's just play along as if they're speaking to them?
And I suspect interviews with celebs are exactly the same?
It's across the Baur NetworkAnd I suspect interviews with celebs are exactly the same?
The Rock FM presenter talks to the winner
egor110 said:
MitchT said:
But instead you get the same set of adverts on repeat all day instead. They had it on in the office before lockdown meant WFH. Drove me mad! Plus, Absolute seems to be disproportionately fixated on 90s Indie music, like they think that obsessively playing Nirvana makes them cool... and this isn't even Absolute 90s. Much prefer R2 with no adverts and music that doesn't make me feel like I'm stuck in a timewarp, even if it does mean the odd track being played a few times a day.
I'm late 40's and i think absolute is aimed at people in there 40's .nirvana , pearl jam , pixies , placebo , oasis, , shed 7 that'll do nicely .
.
...but they're afflicted by the same issue - it's the same single songs by these artists that get played over and over.
StevieBee said:
All of the main stations use a centralised playlist constructed to appeal to the type of listener the station is aiming at. This is carefully considered because what the stations want to avoid is having a song played and people thinking.... "what the hell's this?" and switching over because once they've switched, that's them lost for the rest of the day. Because the most people only listen to the radio for half an hour to an hour at a time, the songs get put onto a daily playlist. The choice of songs is based on a combination of genre of the station, streaming figures and those 'pushed' by labels (new releases).
Good insight - thanks. Think that pretty much explains it. 
monthefish said:
.
It's almost like the station has a bag of 33rpm vinyl singles....
So I was pretty much right then (except for the speed It's almost like the station has a bag of 33rpm vinyl singles....
)Internet Radio
I've been listening to Americana Boogie Radio for about two years now and I don't think I've heard more than a couple of songs twice.
Likewise Aardvarck Blues.
These stations aren't bothered about attracting huge numbers, rather they want a small but dedicated audience who know what they're listening to and are happy to have their minds broadened on a daily basis.
Unfortunately, this is not a model that will work where capitalism is involved.
I've been listening to Americana Boogie Radio for about two years now and I don't think I've heard more than a couple of songs twice.
Likewise Aardvarck Blues.
These stations aren't bothered about attracting huge numbers, rather they want a small but dedicated audience who know what they're listening to and are happy to have their minds broadened on a daily basis.
Unfortunately, this is not a model that will work where capitalism is involved.
StevieBee said:
I used to run a Radio Station - albeit a Community Radio Station, but to professional standards and in partnership with a Pro-Station.
Someone mentioned that the BBC has to justify its license fee and commercial stations need to pander to its advertisers. Both are correct observations.
All of the main stations use a centralised playlist constructed to appeal to the type of listener the station is aiming at. This is carefully considered because what the stations want to avoid is having a song played and people thinking.... "what the hell's this?" and switching over because once they've switched, that's them lost for the rest of the day. Because the most people only listen to the radio for half an hour to an hour at a time, the songs get put onto a daily playlist. The choice of songs is based on a combination of genre of the station, streaming figures and those 'pushed' by labels (new releases).
This also removes any subjective influence of the DJ which can at times be a little strange. I pushed back on using a playlist for several years as I felt that the DJs we had knew enough to choose the right songs for their shows. But I got fed up explaining why playing The Buggles, Dua Lipa and a 25 minute prog-rock track don't really go together back to back on a drive time show.
Brave new world. No wonder that on the occasions I'm subjected to commercial radio it feels so gratingly inauthentic.Someone mentioned that the BBC has to justify its license fee and commercial stations need to pander to its advertisers. Both are correct observations.
All of the main stations use a centralised playlist constructed to appeal to the type of listener the station is aiming at. This is carefully considered because what the stations want to avoid is having a song played and people thinking.... "what the hell's this?" and switching over because once they've switched, that's them lost for the rest of the day. Because the most people only listen to the radio for half an hour to an hour at a time, the songs get put onto a daily playlist. The choice of songs is based on a combination of genre of the station, streaming figures and those 'pushed' by labels (new releases).
This also removes any subjective influence of the DJ which can at times be a little strange. I pushed back on using a playlist for several years as I felt that the DJs we had knew enough to choose the right songs for their shows. But I got fed up explaining why playing The Buggles, Dua Lipa and a 25 minute prog-rock track don't really go together back to back on a drive time show.
Radio Paradise for me; the 'mainstream' stuff sucks.
They have three streams - Main, Rock and Mellow. Listener funded; no adverts.
Play some great music.
Available on SONO's and a bunch of others. The website is also very good for discussion regarding the tracks with like minded folks.
They have three streams - Main, Rock and Mellow. Listener funded; no adverts.
Play some great music.
Available on SONO's and a bunch of others. The website is also very good for discussion regarding the tracks with like minded folks.
Randy Winkman said:
Have we had 6Music on this thread yet? That doesn't have much repetition and with artists like Huey Morgan, Guy Garvey, Jarvis Cocker etc you get pretty much no repetition at all. Plus Giles Peterson (my fave).
Those chaps have one or two shows a week only.Otherwise there's a playlist like most stations have. How else would Kate Tempest & Michael Kiwanuka get so much airtime?!
LordLoveLength said:
You also want to avoid a potentially contentious song after the news. You don’t want to come off the back of a news bulletin about a major car crash with a happy driving song or similar. So you generally get something pretty bland and inoffensive after the news.
That would almost be as bad as playing Whams "I'm your man" after a news report about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster......https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-smiths/panic
I suppose a good song did come out of it.
Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 14th June 10:26
15 years or so ago, our little office in London had very poor radio reception and we could only get a decent signal on Heart FM. The DJ, Pat Sharp I think, played the same old playlist day after day. Out of their large back catalogues, he only ever played ‘Blame it on the Boogie’ by the Jackson 5, and ‘Brown-eyed Girl’ by Van Morrison, which I have heard is Van’s least favourite song.(I think he was diddled out of the royalties or something)
I got so cheesed off with this that I e-mailed a complaint. Within 1 minute I received a two page reply (obviously a stock letter!) explaining that his listeners liked the comfort and predictability of their favourite tunes, blah, blah, blah.
I got so cheesed off with this that I e-mailed a complaint. Within 1 minute I received a two page reply (obviously a stock letter!) explaining that his listeners liked the comfort and predictability of their favourite tunes, blah, blah, blah.
thebraketester said:
The R3 late night programs can throw up some really off the wall music.
The complete antithesis of classic fm who seem to have 1 cd on loop…. it makes good background music but a total bore to listen to for any length of time.
A few years ago the office I worked in had an old radio which would only pick up a couple of stations, Classic FM being one of them. After a few weeks it felt like you could set your watch by what time certain pieces of music were played. Absolutely no variation, at least during the day. I also decided that a lot of it was pretentious snobbery, some of the wThe complete antithesis of classic fm who seem to have 1 cd on loop…. it makes good background music but a total bore to listen to for any length of time.
ky ste they played is no better or more tuneful than the crap they play on Heart...Randy Winkman said:
Have we had 6Music on this thread yet? That doesn't have much repetition and with artists like Huey Morgan, Guy Garvey, Jarvis Cocker etc you get pretty much no repetition at all. Plus Giles Peterson (my fave).
I love Radio 6 (mostly) and Giles Peterson, Steve Lamacq and Gideon Coe especially. Hardly any repetition and get to hear a ton of new-to-me music. During lock-down I've also taken to listening to Jazz FM but the ads are starting to get on my tits and I can tell my wife's tolerance of jazz is wearing thin. 
No one plays Cliff Richard anymore.
crmcatee said:
Radio Paradise for me; the 'mainstream' stuff sucks.
They have three streams - Main, Rock and Mellow. Listener funded; no adverts.
Play some great music.
Available on SONO's and a bunch of others. The website is also very good for discussion regarding the tracks with like minded folks.
I'm also a recent convert to Radio Paradise. They have three streams - Main, Rock and Mellow. Listener funded; no adverts.
Play some great music.
Available on SONO's and a bunch of others. The website is also very good for discussion regarding the tracks with like minded folks.
Good stuff to have in the background, and an added bonus is that everyone has finally realised I'm dead cool, which was a (very) closely-guarded secret before this.
Yertis said:
Randy Winkman said:
Have we had 6Music on this thread yet? That doesn't have much repetition and with artists like Huey Morgan, Guy Garvey, Jarvis Cocker etc you get pretty much no repetition at all. Plus Giles Peterson (my fave).
I love Radio 6 (mostly) and Giles Peterson, Steve Lamacq and Gideon Coe especially. Hardly any repetition and get to hear a ton of new-to-me music. During lock-down I've also taken to listening to Jazz FM but the ads are starting to get on my tits and I can tell my wife's tolerance of jazz is wearing thin. Shaun Keaveny is fab with the veriety of music he plays in the afternoons too.
Greatest hits radio is great IMO. Right ammout of talking (which I enjoy, otherwise I would let Spotify just play music all day which gets a bit boring) and they have Simon Mayo in the evening...truly excellent. They must he sweeping up listeners from other stations by the bucket load?
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