So I have been flipping through the different radio stations in Raleigh the past few days just trying to see if any of them actually play more than about 50 different songs. I don't think any of them do. The funny part is about 5 months ago 96 Rock played their entire song catalog in alphabetical order and it took them about 4, or 5 days to get through it. I heard a lot of songs played during that time that I had never heard on that station and haven't heard on that sation since. Maybe someone here has worked at a radio station before and can explain why all stations do this? It makes the 40 minute drive to work annoying sometimes.

4/12/2011 11:20:16 PM

4/12/2011 11:23:51 PM

I actually thought about making a thread about this the other day.

I stick almost entirely to WKNC, but I have 96.1 and 105 on for my girlfriend.

How is there like no kind of new rock station at all? Sometimes I like to hear newish rock music, and it seems like there's nothing for that in Raleigh.

4/12/2011 11:24:00 PM

Program directors are afraid of change.

4/12/2011 11:26:14 PM

because terrestrial radio caters to the simple minded poor folk who can't afford ipods and satelite radio

4/12/2011 11:27:14 PM

^It has nothing to do with ipods. It was like this 15+ years ago before ipods were made.

4/12/2011 11:31:10 PM

4/12/2011 11:32:29 PM

^I think it is like this everywhere though. If a station has about 15,000 songs that it can play then they should all be played before one of them has been played 4 times.

4/12/2011 11:35:09 PM

honestly, its not, raleigh radio sucks, the penguin in wilmington is badass and the end in charlotte used to be good but its gone downhill over the past decade. theres good radio out there but raleigh is a notoriously bad radio market

4/12/2011 11:36:50 PM

whoever has the $$ controls the songs

and clear channel IS everywhere

there are other factors. big record labels with $texas

[Edited on April 12, 2011 at 11:40 PM. Reason : .]

4/12/2011 11:39:14 PM

$$$$$$$$$$$$$

They get it when they play it

4/12/2011 11:40:04 PM

Cmon guys use some common sense. They are playing the songs people want to hear the most. Stations like G105 operate 75% charts and 25% requests (requests are made via email, facebook, twitter, or phone).

The top 40 charted songs are the songs you are referring to and those are based on requests and sales. The charts are what they are. You can make up bullshit excuses for why the music you like doesn't do well but nobody ever said the highest "quality" art is the most popular. Remember, art is in the eye of the beholder.

Even though they have thousands of songs at their disposal the #1 song in the country is obviously going to be played more frequently. Probably about twice each hour. You have to take into account the amount of continuous time the average listener spends on the station. Its probably less than a half hour.

Example- If I get in my car and hear the top song and get out 15 minutes later, then you get in your car, you probably want to hear the top song during your drive.

This is the same way twitter maps and facebook newsfeed works. Things that more people are liking come up higher on the page in searches thus are clicked even more.

Quote :

"aybe someone here has worked at a radio station before and can explain why all stations do this?"

They can't just go off on a tangent and play the music they like, they have to go strictly by what is popular and what will attract people to listen to the ads.
http://www.billboard.com/#/charts/hot-100
This is the most official chart

[Edited on April 12, 2011 at 11:56 PM. Reason : for the us. Same thing happens in other countries with their charts.]

4/12/2011 11:54:50 PM

IT IS Clear Channel
and other big media companies

they consolidate power and then homogenize markets because they are easier to manage that way

I have worked at 3 radio stations (2 student stations and the largest public radio station in the country) - not ALL stations have homogenized crap

but independent radio is like independent theater - everybody loves it but hardly anybody can pay their bills

these days a lot of good radio can be streamed to your smart phone
here are some of my favorite radio stations:

WNYC - http://www.wnyc.org/
WFMU - http://wfmu.org/
WNCW - http://www.wncw.org/
WAMU - http://wamu.org/
WBUR - http://www.wbur.org/
WUNC - http://wunc.org/front-page (tune locally at 91.5 FM)
WKNC

4/12/2011 11:59:34 PM

4/13/2011 12:02:30 AM

^^everybody doesn't love it or it would get picked up by the big companies. They are only in the interest of making money. If there was demand for other music out there, trust me, they would flock to it. The top sellers on itunes are most of the songs on the radio and you've acknowledged that people are listening to music on itunes now.

People our age and the college crowd are generally hipsters when it comes to the arts. We try to find our own music and tie it into our personal identity. Just because we are going through a phase that makes us ignore pop, doesn't mean its not what is liked by the majority of people.

4/13/2011 12:11:54 AM

okay maybe EVERYBODY doesn't love it

but I do miss radio being different from town to town

status as a "hit song" and demand for the song is partly created through the channels of distribution available to the owners of the IP - commercial radio stations are one of these channels

so, yes, commercial radio stations do play what is popular but they also make things popular

payola might be illegal but the lines get blurry when record label and the radio station are owned by the same media corp

4/13/2011 12:19:58 AM

Record company creates song > Sells song to radio station > Radio station plays song > People like song/artist > Record company creates more crappy songs

It's the circle of life.

4/13/2011 12:22:10 AM

except record companies don't create songs

they just buy the rights to them

artists create song > record company buys rights to songs > radio station plays song > people like song / buy single on iTunes > Apple and record company get paid > record company licenses more songs

and then out there on the periphery the artist is doing 200 concerts a year to make money

4/13/2011 12:25:22 AM

The E Man's post misses the point. the reason it is music that is liked by the majority of most people is because it is produced, marketed, and pushed to the majority of people. ever heard of payola?

B4C obviously cannot understand the concept of something like Clear Channel though

4/13/2011 12:26:14 AM

You miss the point. I understand everything that you are saying but you aren't considering the fact that said record company has a choice of which artists to pick at the start of the "circle of life". They pick the music that will sell the most. If the artists you like were so great then the record companies would have picked them so that they could make more money.

You act like they blindly pick, or construct artists rebecca black style.

4/13/2011 12:34:13 AM

I'm pretty sure there are numerous cases where record companies pick a somewhat talented dancer/singer and MAKE them into a star by writing their songs for them. A lot of pop songs are mass produced at this point. They just need a vessel to sell it to the masses.

4/13/2011 12:34:47 AM

well then the performer is not the artist then

4/13/2011 12:37:10 AM

Doesn't that sort of defeat the entire purpose of making music, though?

4/13/2011 12:39:23 AM

Michael Jackson
Kanye West
Taylor Swift
Black eyed peas
Lady Gaga

Just throwing out some random artists that have had different levels of extreme success on the charts and radio stations. Explain to me how their stories fit into your claim that artists are massed produced. Are they simply performers and not artists?

4/13/2011 12:40:00 AM

Why Do Radio Stations Have No Variety?

Why is anything - anything?... $$$

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

4/13/2011 12:42:23 AM

^^ Britney Spears. Come on dude, don't play dumb.

[Edited on April 13, 2011 at 12:43 AM. Reason : ^^]

4/13/2011 12:43:00 AM

Quote :

"we are going through a phase that makes us ignore pop"

Mine is going on 15 years

4/13/2011 12:44:10 AM

^^Divas are different. Don't you play dumb. Divas are basically people that grab interest. Everyone knows their music is just for clubs but many people are interested in them in the same way that rutgers pays 32k for snookie to talk. Don't try to change the subject though, respond to my post.

4/13/2011 12:47:27 AM

What are you talking about? It's shit like that that gets played the most. I'm talking about the same thing you're talking about. What are you talking about?

4/13/2011 12:50:08 AM

No its not. Here is the top 10 all time.

Mariah Carey
Michael Jackson
Madonna
The Supremes
Whitney Houston
Janet Jackson
Stevie Wonder
BeeGees
Elton John
Paul Mccartney
Rolling Stones
Usher

[Edited on April 13, 2011 at 12:53 AM. Reason : http://www.billboard.com/specials/hot100/charts/most-no1s-overall.shtml]

all time us record sales
http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=tblTopArt

[Edited on April 13, 2011 at 12:56 AM. Reason : l]

4/13/2011 12:52:34 AM

wait people still listen to FM radio???

4/13/2011 12:57:38 AM

why does your top 10 have 12

4/13/2011 12:59:18 AM

Quote :

"B4C obviously cannot understand the concept of something like Clear Channel though"

beat me to it

4/13/2011 1:01:59 AM

Everyone can't be number 1.








unless number 1 is everyone.

4/13/2011 1:04:01 AM

Yes I know how the whole money thing works, but you would think they could play a larger variety of Van Halen, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, etc and not just the same 10 songs from many decades ago. The sang other songs too.

4/13/2011 1:11:54 AM

the reason the songs are the most played is because people want to hear them.

supply and demand

4/13/2011 8:56:04 AM

Ipod FTW

4/13/2011 8:58:22 AM

HERP DERP

4/13/2011 9:00:53 AM

98.7 Simon

4/13/2011 9:06:26 AM

Quote :

"Yes I know how the whole money thing works, but you would think they could play a larger variety of Van Halen, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, etc and not just the same 10 songs from many decades ago. The sang other songs too."

the average radio listener in this country only tunes in for a very short amount of time per day. Be it top 40 or classic rock, during that span of time they want to hear what they know. Thus you get the same repetitive playlist from artists that have so much more. But FM radio caters to the masses and the masses do not take the time to seek out the large catalog of great songs by the great artists they are so called fans of.


But to be honest, satellite radio classic rock stations aren't much better. If you truely want to listen to a deep catalog you're better off owning it and playing it yourself.

4/13/2011 9:19:22 AM

Quote :

"You're listening to Classic Rock Radio where we play Hotel California once every hour, every day, guaranteed!"

[Edited on April 13, 2011 at 9:22 AM. Reason : -]

4/13/2011 9:22:39 AM

I would say that XM/Sirius definitely has recurring music but with so many stations, it isn't as much of a factor.

4/13/2011 9:29:25 AM

Quote :

" satellite radio classic rock stations aren't much better"

I haven't found that as much, especially when you compare against terrestrial radio. And yeah, they have like 3-4 classic rock stations anyway so it's even less of a factor.

4/13/2011 9:33:10 AM

Quote :

"the end in charlotte used to be good but its gone downhill over the past decade."

Yeah everything about that station has gone downhill, especially the concerts.

The end of summer weenie roast used to be a can't miss in high school and my first few years of college, now it's just a stop on some tour (if they even still have it)

4/13/2011 9:43:36 AM

it's more of an artist thing than single song I suppose. Classic Vinyl with the Stones, Lithium with Alice in Chains. This could be a DJ thing, but you can really start to pick up the station's trends after only an hour or two of listening.

4/13/2011 9:43:42 AM

^agreed.

I stopped listening to FM radio altogether when I moved back to Raleigh a few years ago. And when I lived in NYC I didn't listen much b/c I was never in a car (and didn't walk around rocking an FM radio). I stopped listening altogether in Raleigh b/c the rock station(s) absolutely blow. They play the same shit all the time, and have more or less completely isolated Raleigh from most new and alternative rock (my genre of choice). And Pop stations more or less play the same 10-15 shit songs over and over, while breaking for a commercial after 3-4 tracks.

Like everything else these days if you want to find good music you have to seek it out yourself (mostly on the internet). And like Snewf suggested, you can stream local radio stations (from other markets) on your computer, bypassing the lame shit around here.

4/13/2011 9:54:05 AM

BT from 96Rock is on here

xplosivo, come here and explain the radio bidness to us.

[Edited on April 13, 2011 at 9:59 AM. Reason : f]

4/13/2011 9:58:57 AM

Raleigh's radio has always been pretty bad but got much worse after the FCC relaxed its rules and subsequently Clear Channel bought up as much of our market as they could. I miss Oldies 100.7 and 106.1 when it was classic rock. Even G105 used to be tolerable now it's just utter trash.

Only commercial stations I can tolerate around here these days is 96 Rock and Kiss 93.9 when I feel like something poppy. But mostly I just listen to NPR and WKNC. I really need to get one of those tape deck converter things for my car

4/13/2011 10:09:42 AM

4/13/2011 10:12:02 AM

^just put your tapes onto CDs.

I freaking hate 96 rock. It's like they play the crappy overplayed classic rock and the crappy overplayed new rock and nothing else.

4/13/2011 10:12:06 AM