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"Did you guys know you play the SAME STUFF, OVER AND OVER?"

Yes, yes, we know. We who work in radio know you heard that song 2 hours ago. We've all been doing this a long, long time. And as sick as you are of that song, we can match or beat you with how irritated we are with the tune in question. So please, first off, stop acting like you're unveiling some grand truth upon us. We know you think we're idiots, okay? We know that. We're not.

"So ... WHY do radio stations play the same stuff over and over?"

Glad you asked! Look, we'd love to play the perfect playlist for you and you alone. We'd love to sound exactly how your iPod would sound if you had an unlimited gift card from iTunes. But the fact of the matter is we have tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands, depending on the city you're living in) of people listening at any given time. This means in order to please anyone at all, radio ends up being a 'lowest common denominator' type of medium.

In turn, this generally leads to a reasonably low level of passion for any particular radio station. People for the most part don't listen to the radio in an intent manner for very long. So when they do listen, the best shot of getting them to come back and punching in our particular station at a later date is to have the most popular songs, or "hits", on the radio as much as possible. End result is, we don't get people listening for very long, but we get LOTS of people checking in for a little while at a time.

"But, isn't that basically choosing quantity over quality?"

You betcha! Lots of people checking in for a short amount of time -> ratings -> our sales department gets to charge more for our commercials -> our billionaire owners get even richer. That's the long and short of it.

"But what if I want to explore music in a deep, meaningful manner! What if I want to expand my horizons, and find new and exciting artists?"

That's great! But why are you coming to us for it? That's like going to McDonald's and complaining that the McRib isn't causing your taste buds to dance around in a meadow as though they're in a feminine hygiene commercial. We're the fast food of music. And we're FREE. Explore the internet, go see some local shows, there's plenty of great music out there. Radio for the most part probably isn't going to introduce you to the band that changes your life forever. Once again, that's a deeply personal connection, and we have to serve an insane amount of people.

If, after all this, you still have the urge to call a request line and ream out your station of the moment for playing "Behind These Hazel Eyes" yet again ... alas, to each their own. But what are you going to do, ask for your money back?

Learn more about this author, Benjamin Bretz.
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