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[Antiochus]

Or, why the modern radio stations have continued to be reviled and despised for their ever declining quality. At this point, it appears to be a case of tail wagging the dog.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303754404579313150485141672?mod=trending_now_5

Synth-pop band Capital Cities has plenty of songs on its debut album that it wants to promote as singles—if only radio programmers would allow it.

The band's hit, "Safe and Sound," is the only song most fans have heard: it has been playing on the radio for more than two years. And because so many listeners now know the song, which peaked last year at No. 2 on radio's Top 40 chart, stations are afraid to take it out of rotation.

"'Safe and Sound' just wasn't going away," said Capital Cities' manager, Dan Weisman, who postponed plans last fall to promote the band's second single until later this year. "You don't want to shove it down people's throats if they're not ready to move on."

Faced with growing competition from digital alternatives, traditional broadcasters have managed to expand their listenership with an unlikely tactic: offering less variety than ever.

The strategy is based on a growing amount of research that shows in increasingly granular detail what radio programmers have long believed—listeners tend to stay tuned when they hear a familiar song, and tune out when they hear music they don't recognize.

The data, coupled with the ballooning number of music sources competing for listeners' attention, are making radio stations more reluctant than ever to pull well-known hits from their rotations, extending the time artists must wait to introduce new songs.

The intensifying repetition is largely a response to the way radio stations now measure listenership. Six years ago the industry began tracking listeners in many radio markets with pager-like devices called Portable People Meters, which monitor all the stations that selected listeners hear throughout the day—in their homes, cars or public spaces. Radio programmers can watch how many of these people tune in and out when they play a given song. In the past, the same listeners recounted their listening habits in handwritten diaries that were far less detailed or accurate.

Veteran radio promoter Richard Palmese said he tells programmers they should spin a new song at least 150 times during peak listening hours—basically rush hours—before they draw any conclusions about whether fans like it or not, since many songs take time to grow on people.

But that can be a hard sell. When Mr. Palmese first asked Top-40 stations to play The Lumineers' acoustic-guitar-driven single "Ho Hey" in 2012, for example, many responded incredulously, making jokes along the lines of: "What are you giving me, a Peter, Paul and Mary record?"

Mr. Palmese gave up and set out to land the record on adult-alternative stations instead; six months later it peaked at No. 2 on the Top 40 chart.

Sometimes there is simply no room for new tunes, despite a programmer's wishes. Ebro Darden, vice president of programming at New York's Hot 97, said he didn't have the space to immediately add a single from Wiz Khalifa's album "O.N.I.F.C." when it came out last winter, even though he liked it, the record label had bought ad time, and Mr. Khalifa—who would come in to do promotional interviews—is one of hip-hop's biggest stars.

In the new intensely scrutinized world of radio, said Mr. Darden, "taking risks is not rewarded, so we have to be more careful than ever before."

 

[Deleted member 22576]

What a waste of bandwidth.

 

[Antiochus]

As an aside I cannot decide which of the two song lists above is worse.

 

[smokeandmirrors]

Blurred Lines being the most played song is a fucking disgrace.

 

[Murder. She Wrote]

I'm glad Los Angeles had a wide variety of good radio stations. i typically just listen to college radio, no advertising and great new music.

 

[Samyy]

I don't even listen to the radio anymore

 

[Surface of Me]

You know you want it.

 

[djplaeskool]

#THICKE

 

[ShaneDude]

I used to like Blurred Lines... but now I can't fucking stand it.

 

[Slayven]

Use to love radio shows but now they are chore to listen to.,

 

[I'm an expert]

More Timber pls.

 

[StriKeVillain]

These listeners have impeccable taste.

 

[Ashodin]

Radio turning out to be like the Video Game Industry: rely on safe, repetitive content.

 

[Junior Mint]

Fuckin Blurred Lines, garbage song

 

[Madness]

I can't stand Rihanna anymore because of the radio. Sometimes, you'll hear like 6 years of her songs in a single day. Every hour it's the same stuff. Forced me to start carrying my mp3 player, plug in my smartphone at times as well.

Haven't heard top 40 in a long time and I'm happy. I think the days of the one hit wonder are long gone too. Anyone who has a remotely catchy or hit song is instantly granted immediate stardom in America that even if they don't have the quality or ability to be successful, they are forced to do so.

 

[Man w/ Glasses]

Some friends and I were really involved in campus radio back in the college days. A few of us would've done it professionally too, but the idea of playing nothing but the hits over and over. . . nope!

 

[Pai Pai Master]

It doesn't matter if it was played less often, that list from 2003 just goes to show that pop music has been shit for more than a decade.

 

[commedieu]

As an aside I cannot decide which of the two song lists above is worse.

Right? Its like looking directly at the sun, inside of a black hole. It just fucks your mind.

 

[The Faceless Master]

when Funkmaster Flex spent 30 minutes mixing "In Da Club" that one night, did it count as more than one play?

 

[ViperVisor]

I don't get it.

Back in the day you couldn't actively get overexposed to a song. You had to catch it on the radio or TV.

Now the culture will burn up something in a furnace ASAP. Ringtones, sports stadiums in the summer jump on the bandwagon, the Internets of course.

Enough is e-fucking-nough. You murder the enjoyment in a matter of weeks.

Back in the 90s you could enjoy a song of the summer for all the months. You weren't bludgeoned with it.

But it is a sign of consolidation and cowardice. A reliable mediocre and stupid audience is better than the risk of doing a job where you build an audience over time with trust and some personalities. Those guys end up costing money. Keep everything dumbed down.

 

[kurbaan]

Article makes so much sense. These days one song will come one one station, you switch to the next one the same song is playing, switch again and that same song will run again.

Its really annoying

 

[Teptom]

As an aside I cannot decide which of the two song lists above is worse.

The one with Bring Me to Life always wins.

 

[The Lamp]

I want musical radio to die. It is such garbage in my city. I am tired of hearing shitty, overplayed songs all day.

I've resorted to playing CD's that I rotate frequently since my car doesn't have an iPod jack and I need to listen to something more than Rihanna 150000-times.

Fucking hearing Blurred Lines for the millionth time makes me want to go on a rampage.

 

[DiscoJer]

This even happens to classic rock stations. The one in my town used to have a huge playlist back in the day. Close to 10,000 songs.

Now they brag they don't play the same song in a day. Which is more like 500 songs. Though before they started having no repeat days (like 2-3 years ago), they actually would play the same song twice a day.

 

[perfectchaos007]

And we'll never be Royyyyaaalls

 

[Maximus.]

I fucking hate the radio. Same songs, shitty djs, and all the stations are essentially the same when they promote the same type of music.

 

[Femmeworth]

Article makes so much sense. These days one song will come one one station, you switch to the next one the same song is playing, switch again and that same song will run again.

Its really annoying

Yep, the radio stations in my area are terrible.

 

[terrisus]

Or, why the modern radio stations have continued to be reviled and despised for their ever declining quality.

Better to be reviled and despised and profitable than loved but unprofitable.

traditional broadcasters have managed to expand their listenership

listeners tend to stay tuned when they hear a familiar song, and tune out when they hear music they don't recognize.

 

[Dead Man]

And you wankers wonder why so many people think commercial radio is shit these days?

Better to be reviled and despised and profitable than loved but unprofitable.

If everyone is chasing the stupid people audience they leave money on the table, and cut the pie too thin.

 

[Sub_Level]

I'm gonna pop some tags
I got $20 in my pocket
Hunt-hunt-h-huntin'
Lookin for a come-up
This is -ing awesome

 

[lupinko]

And we'll never be Royyyyaaalls

Does Bo know Lorde?

 

[thefit]

"Versace, Versace, Medusa head on me like I'm 'Luminati
This is a gated community, please get the fuck off the property
Rap must be changing cause I'm at the top and ain't no one on top of me
Niggas be wanting a verse for a verse, but man that's not a swap to me
Drowning in compliments, pool in the backyard that look like Metropolis
I think I'm sellin' a million first week, man I guess I'm an optimist...."


"Versace, Versace, Versace, Versace
Versace, Versace, Versace, Versace
Versace, Versace Versace, Versace Versace
Versace, Versace Versace, Versace Versace"


ALL DAY PLEASE!!

 

[Muppet of a Man]

Fuck you, radio listeners. You are responsible for the raping of my ears and my sanity. And before someone says, "dude, just don't listen to the radio", in many public places, you are not given a choice (I.e., restaurants, stores, malls, the gym, etc.--all of which I frequent).

This is bullshit. I wish terrestrial radio for music programming would die already. The only thing I can listen to is NPR...and even they are getting annoying.

 

[DominoKid]

i miss the days when there was a lot of popular shit instead of a small amount of sickeningly popular shit.

Article makes so much sense. These days one song will come one one station, you switch to the next one the same song is playing, switch again and that same song will run again.

Its really annoying

it really is. some songs were damn near impossible to outrun like Blurred Lines. i heard that shit playing on 4 different area stations at the same damn time once.

 

[~Kinggi~]

I dont listen to radio anymore because it is a vapid wasteland of replaying the same 10 songs over and over again, and half of them are annoying and terrible.

 

[Hero_of_the_Day]

I thought the pop stations were bad until I started working at a place that listens to country music. Holy fuck, you don't know what repetitive is until you've heard country. In a normal 6 hour shift I must hear some songs close to ten times, no joke.

Sunday mornings are the worst 'cause they play the top ten or whatever of the week. So you hear the same songs about once an hour for the first three hours. Once because it's their normal rotation, then again because it's Top 10 time, and then again after when they get back to their normal rotation. It's the fucking worst.

 

[ThatOneDude]

I swear if I hear that Eminem Monster song one more fucking time...

 

[terrisus]

i miss the days when there was a lot of popular shit instead of a small amount of sickeningly popular shit.

I feel the same way about video games.

Instead we get Madden 25 and Call of Duty 21 and Final Fantasy 15 and Mario Kart 8.

Spoiler

Only one of those numbers is made up... And that's frightening

 

[SlipperySlope]

I stopped listening to the radio when KROQ stopped playing Metallica.

 

[Riki]

This is why I really just listen to the local college radio station. They play literally everything and it's amazing. I pretty much never hear a bad song on it and can go weeks between hearing a song twice.

 

[Crimsonlink]

So grateful for my phone and auxiliary wire. Screw radios and their repeating songs.

I do listen from time to time to catch a new song or 2.

 

[SummitAve]

Public radio is better than ever imo. At least it is here in Minnesota.

 

[Gorillaz]

Hey, I just met you

And this is crazzzzy

 

[Complex Shadow]

This is K-RAP radio, playing alllll your favorite hits non stop. Forever.

 

[jstripes]

I hate that fucking "Safe and Sound" song.

Mainly because I've heard it 10,000 times.

(Partially because it sounds like they listened to MGMT and said "Let's make an MGMT song!")

 

[mattoz85]

Public radio is better than ever imo. At least it is here in Minnesota.

Yup, I mostly listen to NPR. There's a rock station in Philly (I'm in NJ) that I can get sometimes depending on where I'm driving. When I lived closer to Princeton, I used to listen to the university's radio station a lot. But now it's just NPR wherever I go.

 

[jamesinclair]

Top 40, by definition, is limited.

NEW Rock stations are much better.

They play the new stuff, throw in songs from the past decade, and then pay evergreen songs from nirvana, green day, red hot chili's, pearl jam, metallica, system of a down, etc.

And they always have "best of the 90s" hours or special weekends or whatever.

 

[entremet]

People still listen to radio?

 

[FelixOrion]

College Stations and NPR member/public radio stations are godsends in my region of the US where the FM dial is full of classic rock, country, and religious sermon stations, mixed with a smattering of pop stations that only start playing the 'hits' after they've been out for a few months (or in some really bad cases, are still playing pop songs from only several years ago and nothing remotely recent).

 

[jamesinclair]

Btw guys, hd radio is awesome.

There's an hd2 station here that plays "classic alternative".

They have an enormous playlist spanning twenty years, where you never hear the same song twice in the same day.

And no djs.

And NO COMMERCIALS.

And it's free.

And it's hd.