Why do radio stations play the same songs repetitively?

[Randy Winkman]

I listen the Radio X in the car where I dont have digital radio. At home I'd always have 6-Music on. Up until recent months, in the car I'd have flicked back and forth between X and Absolute. But now the latter is digital only.

Anyway, Radio X seems to be getting worse for repeatedly playing the same "old favourites" from the last 5 years. Some I've now heard over and over and over and over again. Tedious.

[Louis Balfour]

Randy Winkman said:

I listen the Radio X in the car where I dont have digital radio. At home I'd always have 6-Music on. Up until recent months, in the car I'd have flicked back and forth between X and Absolute. But now the latter is digital only.

Anyway, Radio X seems to be getting worse for repeatedly playing the same "old favourites" from the last 5 years. Some I've now heard over and over and over and over again. Tedious.

I used to listen to Radio X and it was becoming horrendous, that is going back perhaps 3 years. Endless Oasis.

[SCEtoAUX]

Johhny Vaughan on Radio x is just superb. His show however is unlistenable, which is a real shame.

[Zetec-S]

SCEtoAUX said:

Johhny Vaughan on Radio x is just superb. His show however is unlistenable, which is a real shame.

[Louis Balfour]

Zetec-S said:

SCEtoAUX said:

Johhny Vaughan on Radio x is just superb. His show however is unlistenable, which is a real shame.

He means that he likes JV, but the program is hard to listen to because of of too much repetition in the music.

[monthefish]

Louis Balfour said:

Randy Winkman said:

I listen the Radio X in the car where I dont have digital radio. At home I'd always have 6-Music on. Up until recent months, in the car I'd have flicked back and forth between X and Absolute. But now the latter is digital only.

Anyway, Radio X seems to be getting worse for repeatedly playing the same "old favourites" from the last 5 years. Some I've now heard over and over and over and over again. Tedious.

I used to listen to Radio X and it was becoming horrendous, that is going back perhaps 3 years. Endless Oasis.

This is my frustration - they have such a large 'pool' of songs to choose from that are 'on brand' for the radio station, and would be perfectly familiar to their target audience, but they seem to still play the same handful of songs.

[Louis Balfour]

monthefish said:

This is my frustration - they have such a large 'pool' of songs to choose from that are 'on brand' for the radio station, and would be perfectly familiar to their target audience, but they seem to still play the same handful of songs.

Yes they do, and although I now have a better understanding regarding why they do it, I still cannot fully comprehend that their listeners really want that. The fact that I, and others on here, no longer listen to the station suggests that the strategy is not 100% effective!

[48k]

Oakey said:

What, are the 'shows' all pre-recorded then, they're not even 'live'?

Pretty much every radio station uses some form of automation. Shows are not pre-recorded entirely, what they do is something called "voice tracking", whereby the presenter pre-records their links and the computer drops them in at the appropriate point. The presenter can be sat at home, all they need is a laptop running Chrome or Firefox to connect to the radio station software, and a microphone. You can even do it from your mobile phone! The Bauer group use Zetta with GSelector which is the all singing all dancing system. A cheaper system used by a lot of smaller stations and community stations is PlayoutOne. Links can be recorded hours or even days ahead of time, or just a few seconds ahead of time depending on the circumstance. Eg. your breakfast and evening drivetime shows would have links recorded just before being used, so as to be current, whereas off peak shows could have links recorded in bulk hours or days ahead. The concept has really come in to its own during Covid, presenters don't ever have to come in to the studio they can stay home and still do their shows. The same concept is used on TV - a friend of mine is a continuity announcer for various channels and she can bang out a weeks worth of links for a channel in an afternoon.

[Randy Winkman]

monthefish said:

Louis Balfour said:

Randy Winkman said:

I listen the Radio X in the car where I dont have digital radio. At home I'd always have 6-Music on. Up until recent months, in the car I'd have flicked back and forth between X and Absolute. But now the latter is digital only.

Anyway, Radio X seems to be getting worse for repeatedly playing the same "old favourites" from the last 5 years. Some I've now heard over and over and over and over again. Tedious.

I used to listen to Radio X and it was becoming horrendous, that is going back perhaps 3 years. Endless Oasis.

This is my frustration - they have such a large 'pool' of songs to choose from that are 'on brand' for the radio station, and would be perfectly familiar to their target audience, but they seem to still play the same handful of songs.

It's a mystery to me too. Instead of playing the obvious tunes they could simply play different ones by the same artists. Utter mystery.

I like Johnny Vaughan though. Much more now that in the old days. Chris Moyles is OK too.

[AdeTuono]

SCEtoAUX said:

Johhny Vaughan on Radio x is just superb. His show however is unlistenable, which is a real shame.

Just get the podcast then. No music, just JV, Gav, Sunta etc.

https://www.radiox.co.uk/radio/podcasts/johnny-vau...

[Pothole]

monthefish said:

It's almost like the station has a bag of 33rpm vinyl singles and that's all they can choose from.

...

[SCEtoAUX]

Louis Balfour said:

Zetec-S said:

SCEtoAUX said:

Johhny Vaughan on Radio x is just superb. His show however is unlistenable, which is a real shame.

He means that he likes JV, but the program is hard to listen to because of of too much repetition in the music.

Yes, and also the obscene amount of advertisements.

[J4CKO]

I like Radio X but they keep playing "Gerry Cinnamon", cant say I have heard of him elsewhere.