How many times can the radio really play a song per day?

Question

I have a different station on today (top 40 hits) because i am sick of the country and rock stations here... i have heard 4 songs play 3 times each in the last 4 hours!
Do you suffer from this too? (And before you say "go change the channel"... the radio stations i can pick up are limited inside my building).

Answer 1

WHAT?????????????
I hear the same song twice every hour!

Answer 2

We could never play the same song in our 5 hour shifts, including the songs in A rotation. "A" Rotation would be what's most popular at the time, followed by "B" and "C". "F" rotation is usually old skool stuff and is only afforded 1 or 2 per hour IF time permits. We often skip those because time rarely permits between PSA's, weather spots, segues and the 1 or 2 requests we're allowed per hour of songs that aren't on the playlist.

The reports I see at the end of the day show that if everyone did their job right, even the most popular song won't play more than 5 times per day. Worst case scenario would be to have a popular song play twice in 2 hours. That would be if I played some A rotation stuff right before the last hour of my shift. I give that list to the next DJ and he won't play those songs for the first hour of his shift. Now the music department creates the playlist so that at least 5 hours should go by before a popular song repeats, but the DJ can change that up and insert requests so a popular song could be requested again or the DJ could steal it from another one of his hours, but still, if s/he checks my last hour playlist against what they have, at least against their first hour you shouldn't hear the same song twice for awhile.

All our stuff is computerized. Hopefully with the next version of Dad32, it will tell us when the last time the song was played! That would protect me from a couple inept colleagues of mine ;-)

Answer 3

its all to common,

most stations that play new music are on a 25-50 song loop,

and the most popular 10 or 20 get twice the air time, I did a paper in college about this very thing.
a top 10 hit gets played at least twice an hour, AT LEAST.

Answer 4

I've got friends in the radio biz. Actually several. I've asked that question to them. They have a set list that shows the 24 hours of what they HAVE to play. They have spots where they can add in requests, etc. I think the reason why they play songs OVER and OVER is because they are popular and the Program Director has decided that those songs are what people want to hear. Your quick fix is to find out who the program director is and shoot them off an e-mail. I've done it before. :)

Answer 5

I had a friend in a radio station and when I ask if he could play a Madonna's song he said to me: no! because there's a list for the day with the songs that will play in such day. and depends of the popularity of the songs and the taste of the DJ

Answer 6

Radio stations usually play the music on a loop. Try calling in and requesting something different.

Answer 7

Radio Blows, take cds to work dude. But to answer your question I have no idea, I just assumed they could play it as much as they wanted, that or the record companies pay the station to play a song x amout of times per day....which is BS.

Answer 8

in case you're bearing on acceptable 40 (or 20) radio stations, repetition is meant to affix the format. If the station does not have a acceptable 40, or 20 format, then your in all probability listening to a clean Channel corp. radio station.

Answer 9

I am at the office and we have one station. All they play is Christmas music. I am so sick of it. I want to throw my phone out the window. (The music comes out through the phone). so I know what you mean. Where are you from.

Answer 10

IPOD! Download the music you like to hear and place it on an IPOD! Some of them range up to 1000 songs per disk.

Answer 11

My guess would be 4 x 4 - chances are you'll hear the same song about every 4 hrs