This will bring some of you back....

Most radio stations are (understandably) driven by marketing research, so they play what's "popular" to certain demographics for their target audience.
Very few folks listen to music all day long, and so hearing the same songs "over and over" does not happen to many people because they are not listening for extended duration.
However, people whom DO listen all day get very tired of the repetitive nature of commercial radio; I get it.

But ... that's not really a reason to complain. Today you have all manner of other choices such as satellite radio and about a bazillion podcasts. If you're tired of radio, it's your own fault.
 
Originally Posted by JunkdrawerDog
I know I'm dating myself but here goes... In 1962, we moved to a college town in the midwest. My mother always had a table radio in the kitchen, and it was perpetually on in the daytime. The local AM radio station played the top 40, interspersed with local news and advertising. Top 40, or at least that station's interpretation of top 40, was a great mix of pop, rock, folk, country, comedy, you name it. You would hear Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra followed by the Beatles or Beach Boys, then Johnny Cash, Skeeter Davis, and maybe a comedy track by Bob Newhart. There was no repetitive playlist because they had a live DJ who apparently had carte blanche to play what he wanted or to take requests from the local college students. The students phoned in lots of Beatles requests along with Peter, Paul and Mary and other folk groups. I listened to that station daily until I left home. To this day I miss this sort of free form programming.


I'd heard that during the mid-late 60s if you wanted to hear rock (acid,garage,psych,etc), you had to tune into rogue or underground radio stations.
 
I can't remember the last time I listened to music on FM. If I'm listening to the radio in the car, I'm either listening to satellite radio, or talk radio on AM...
 
Well, I recently had a good experience with classic rock radio.

I drive an '01 base model pickup, so I'm usually listening to cassettes. I happened to have a classic rock station on one morning, and my whole drive to work was a soundtrack of misspent youth, five songs back-to-back: Zeppelin (not stairway), AC/DC, Pink Floyd, The Doors, and somebody else I can't remember. There weren't even any commercials, but I have to admit switching from one station to another when Guns n Roses came on. I didn't care for them back then, and "Sweet Child" is overplayed now.

Everybody has their preferences. I could listen to The Eagles all day, but I've heard all the Boston I'll ever need.

When my daughter is with me, I usually let her pick the music. That's given me something of an education in current pop and country. Mostly it's like deja vu--"Wasn't this song on when I took you to practice?" "Didn't we hear this last time?" I have noticed that the two or three country songs by women are not about the good times they had drinking on the back roads with some boy in a pickup with mud tires.
 
Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
Originally Posted by JunkdrawerDog
I know I'm dating myself but here goes... In 1962, we moved to a college town in the midwest. My mother always had a table radio in the kitchen, and it was perpetually on in the daytime. The local AM radio station played the top 40, interspersed with local news and advertising. Top 40, or at least that station's interpretation of top 40, was a great mix of pop, rock, folk, country, comedy, you name it. You would hear Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra followed by the Beatles or Beach Boys, then Johnny Cash, Skeeter Davis, and maybe a comedy track by Bob Newhart. There was no repetitive playlist because they had a live DJ who apparently had carte blanche to play what he wanted or to take requests from the local college students. The students phoned in lots of Beatles requests along with Peter, Paul and Mary and other folk groups. I listened to that station daily until I left home. To this day I miss this sort of free form programming.


I'd heard that during the mid-late 60s if you wanted to hear rock (acid,garage,psych,etc), you had to tune into rogue or underground radio stations.

FM radio stations picked up that banner and ran with it.
 
Originally Posted by grampi
I can't remember the last time I listened to music on FM. If I'm listening to the radio in the car, I'm either listening to satellite radio, or talk radio on AM...


Either satellite radio or spotify on an ipod or just bluetooth. No need to listen to FM with their commercials although satellite also has some commercials. But there's so many other channels to switch to I just switch and then switch back sometimes. Sometimes the comedy channels are pretty good.
 
Add Boston and Heart to the "played to death" list on corporate classic rock radio stations.
This problem is not limited to classic rock stations either, pop and country stations have the same problem.
I think that this limited play list problem is likely connected to royalty deals cut by the corporations that own all of these stations, allowing them to play certain songs/artists at-will on all of their stations, so they play them to death while collecting their advertising revenue. These corporations have turned radio into a form of nationwide Muzak.
 
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There was an am stereo station back in the early to mid 80s that the djs would bring in records from their own private collections and add to the mix. It was 570 am KRQX out of Dallas. They turned me in to a ton of killer music I would've never known about.
 
Originally Posted by dnewton3
Most radio stations are (understandably) driven by marketing research, so they play what's "popular" to certain demographics for their target audience.
Very few folks listen to music all day long, and so hearing the same songs "over and over" does not happen to many people because they are not listening for extended duration.
However, people whom DO listen all day get very tired of the repetitive nature of commercial radio; I get it.

But ... that's not really a reason to complain. Today you have all manner of other choices such as satellite radio and about a bazillion podcasts. If you're tired of radio, it's your own fault.



+1
 
I get your complaint but most modern vehicles have an AUX port, Bluetooth or USB to play whatever you desire. That all being said I still listen to radio mainly an an independent in MA called 92.5 the river.
 
Listened to the station a little in the car last night. Not bad...The music was a bit older than what I usually listen to. I made it a pre-set so thanks Simple-gifts!
 
I seldom listen to the radio anymore. Commercials, "news" (same report every half hour), traffic, etc. - consumes 30 minutes out of every hour - just a waste of time, IMO.

My next door neighbor often has the "classic rock" station playing at his pool during the summer. Same music I listened to as a kid and teenager. I enjoyed it then, but how many times can you listen to the same song. I'm sure I heard a lot of them 100+ times as a teenager and the number has at least tripled by now.
 
I listen to Nostalgia radio KZPO 103.3 in the garage and when working outside, popular hits from the 50s and 60s, lot of classic hits from my youngun days.
 
Originally Posted by JunkdrawerDog
Anyone here that listened to Larry Lujack on WLS Chicago back in the day?
Holy Cow! There is a blast from the past. He also worked at WCFL for several years. He did afternoons, mostly top 40 pop music. He also worked quite a bit with Tommy Edwards of Chicago Bulls fame.
I didn't listen to him too much past the very early 70's though. There was an FM album rock station in Chicago that came into being in the early 70's, I think it was WXRT, that was and to this day still IS the best radio station I have ever heard. They got most of my listening all the way up to the early 80's.
 
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Originally Posted by wag123
Originally Posted by JunkdrawerDog
Anyone here that listened to Larry Lujack on WLS Chicago back in the day?
Holy Cow! There is a blast from the past. He also worked at WCFL for several years. He did afternoons, mostly top 40 pop music. He also worked quite a bit with Tommy Edwards of Chicago Bulls fame.
I didn't listen to him too much past the very early 70's though. There was an FM album rock station in Chicago that came into being in the early 70's, I think it was WXRT, that was and to this day still IS the best radio station I have ever heard. They got most of my listening all the way up to the early 80's.
Here is another name for you JDD, Mitch Michaels.
The Loop (WLUP) was also very good but appeared a little later in the 70's. They were behind the Disco Demolition at Comiskey Park in 1979. I was there.
 
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A couple years ago i was a dealership lot manager and for about a week on the way to work I would hear the song bicycle, some madonna song, and toto' s Africa played to the minute on the same channel.
 
So, I have posted previously about my disdain for modern commercial radio stations. I used to travel a big to western VA and came to the conclusion that CT radio stations aren't just bad, but epically bad.

Hotel CA, War Pigs, Bohemian Rhapsody, Jet Airliner all beaten to death; I don't even want to hear them anymore. If you are going to play Dream Weaver, don't cut off the final bass note; If you don't know that it is a musical resolution to a song, then you ought not to be in broadcasting.

I live in Southern CT, across from eastern LI and there is quirky radio station called WLNG that still uses 1950's jingles and still reads local obituaries including times and places of the services.... really. A true gem. LI is close geographically, but a world away because CT and LI share a sound, but there isn't much overlap.

WLNG homepage

Today, I left work in somewhat of a fugue state and tuned in; they queued up the following gem and it transported me back



Note to modern female song writers: No need to throw shade, make veiled references to past relationships, just come out and say it. "I'm not putting up with your BS"
I liked her "It's The Right Time Of The Night" even more. Regards
I know I'm dating myself but here goes... In 1962, we moved to a college town in the midwest. My mother always had a table radio in the kitchen, and it was perpetually on in the daytime. The local AM radio station played the top 40, interspersed with local news and advertising. Top 40, or at least that station's interpretation of top 40, was a great mix of pop, rock, folk, country, comedy, you name it. You would hear Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra followed by the Beatles or Beach Boys, then Johnny Cash, Skeeter Davis, and maybe a comedy track by Bob Newhart. There was no repetitive playlist because they had a live DJ who apparently had carte blanche to play what he wanted or to take requests from the local college students. The students phoned in lots of Beatles requests along with Peter, Paul and Mary and other folk groups. I listened to that station daily until I left home. To this day I miss this sort of free form programming.
I was in college then too Dog and know exactly what you are talking about. I stopped listening to the radio in the late seventies and haven't had a radio on at home or in the car for years. Nothing to listen too but whaling country vocalist who sound ill.
 
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