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'Hey Mr DJ, you play way too much at your station.' Well I don't, the on air computer does but that's beyond the point. It's a passing comment I've faced since my very first week 8 years ago in the radio industry and one that will no doubt haunt me till my dying day.

Yet the strange thing is, radio listeners never look to the past. In all my time on the wireless, nobody has ever passed the comment 'You know two years ago, you played way too much and I'm glad you don't anymore.' The hit in question will appear in many a one hit wonder show or best of a certain decade segment, yet you'll struggle to find anyone who continues to lamp on about it's over-exposure. I can't quite picture a member of the elderly on a porch somewhere reminiscing over the time the box played 'a touch too much Bing Crosby.'

It seems many listeners are critics, but only with the new. When the song has run it's course, their spite and intense hatred of high rotation will switch to Pink's latest creation, Britney's 3rd attempted resurrection or whatever Foo Fighters song Dave Grohl just happened to release 9 months ago that we're just labeling as new.

Yet with all the accusations of over saturation, complaints that we're not playing enough of bands who struggle to fill a shoebox with crowd numbers at their last gig or hype about someone's third cousin thrice removed's beatboxing ability that should be played non stop, many listeners fail to notice that they are the one's driving these songs to high levels of play.

Before the industry drowned itself in coke, jingles and beat the bomb competitions in that order, it was about playing what people wanted to hear. And even through an onslaught of record reps silly on one too many chardonnays with money to burn did occasionally grease the palms of the dog food eating disc jockey to push a one hit wonder in the past, the industry as a whole has pretty much returned to it's original mantra. And in order to find what people are listening to, we look at what they're buying. And if Christina Agulera's latest attempt to prove she's human is gaining sales somehow and camping itself firmly on the top of the charts, well then that's a pretty good indication that people are buying it. Don't cast your sneers in my direction, I wouldn't even use it as an ashtray - but plenty of people undoubtedly believe she's the greatest thing since some monkey put a knife through a loaf and patented it and respond in kind with sales.

Sales generate the charts, charts generate the music play. Questions like 'Why do you play all the time' however don't generate anything but a sigh from the hapless radio announcer.

I've heard that more times than the song you're complaining about.

And if you ask, well I'm just going to blame the on air computer anyway.

Learn more about this author, Al Shield.
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