Why don't radio stations have unique playlists anymore?

[tekkenguy]

Back in the 1980s, CHR stations' playlists were very different from each other. Let's look at these radio playlists from 1986. For example, on Z100 and WPLJ, songs such as "Sweetheart" by Rainy Davis and "Jungle Boy" by John Eddie were played, while KIIS played "Living On Video" by Trans-X and "One Way Love" by TKA. Even songs that did become hits have been played while they were still taking off. Take "Baby Love" by Regina. Z100 and WPLJ were both playing it before it hit the top 50 on the Hot 100, while Timex Social Club's "Rumors" was number 1 on KIIS before it went top 40 nationally.

Nowadays, stations don't seem to be bother breaking artists on their own. This week, Z100 added three songs. One of them, "Berzerk" by Eminem, is a new song by one of the biggest stars in the music industry. It's #1 on iTunes and seems poised for a Top 10 debut next week on the Hot 100. The other two, "Slow Down" by Selena Gomez and "Give It 2 U" by Robin Thicke are the follow-ups to two songs that both hit number one on the CHR chart.

Other recent adds from Z100 reflect this as well. Eight other songs were added on Z100 in the past month. Obviously, you have "Applause" and "Roar," the latest songs from two of the biggest female pop stars on the planet. Then, you've got "Best Song Ever." While One Direction aren't a dominant radio force like Lady Gaga or Katy Perry, they do have a much stronger and more rabid fan base supporting them. Then, there's "Hold On, We're Going Home" by Drake, who is also a household name here in America and one of the most popular rappers in the country. Lorde's "Royals", Avicii's "Wake Me Up", Armin Van Buuren's "This Is What It Feels Like", and Tegan & Sara's "Closer" are the only songs Z100 added in the past months by artists who have yet to have a major CHR hit. Still, "Royals" and "Wake Me Up" are two of the best selling songs on iTunes at the moment and are blowing up rapidly on every radio station in the country. This leaves "This Is What It Feels Like" and "Closer" as the only two songs that Z100 added that don't have a strong support to it.

[mkarns]

There's probably a lot of reasons, but my first target of blame is the Telecommunications Act of 1996, allowing greater radio consolidation and as a result less individuality, as the Clear Channels and Cumuluses (Cumulii?) of the world scooped up ever more stations resulting in more corporate centrally directed programming.

[bluestar4]

Citadel's Top 40 stations were more unique than most Top 40 stations, until Cumulus bought them out and made them all sound the same. Still, not as bad as Clear Channel's stations. Even most of the radio personalities on their stations (Elvis Duran, Ryan Seacrest, etc.) are syndicated between them.

[whiteheat]

Clear channel ruined radio

[Kurt]

Moderator note: I'm going to move this to the General Radio Topics forum since it's more suited there than the CHR format forum.

mkarns nailed it as far as responding to the question. I wish it weren't the case...radio isn't the discovery mechanism it used to be (before my time, really).

[Love Plastic Love]

It makes me sad because I remember a time when radio stations did have more unique playlists and also more variety on each station. Like, one station would play more variety rather than playing the same 10 songs over and over and over again. It seemed to shift late 90s/early 2000s the most, if I remember correctly (which I guess would be the aftermath of the Act mkarns mentions). Everyone seems to froth at the mouth about downloading being the only thing affecting sales, but I wonder if the dramatic shift in radio also helped in more subtle ways.

[Lozzy]

I think it's the same reason the big hits are played SO much: that radio insists on familiarity and unique playlists mean less of that.

[Janhova's Witness]

Good on Z100 for supporting Tegan & Sara's lead single, but if "I Was A Fool" doesn't take off... ch ,

[Gold Soundz]

Why are they bothering with that one, though? "Closer," "All Messed Up," and "I'm Not Your Hero" all sound like bigger hits to me (clearly I'm a big Sara fan).

[velaxti]

I could argue This Is What It Feels Like isn't that "unique" either. Firstly, even if he hasn't had a chart hit, Armin Van Buuren is extremely well-known. He's had a big following for a long time. Most of his stuff isn't suitable for pop radio, but he's finally released a pure dance-pop song (which is frankly something you'd expect to hear from Carly Rae Jepsen or Katy Perry, rather than a dance DJ), so radio will jump at the opportunity to play him. I'm not surprised they're playing him basically, he's one of those artists that radio WANT to be playing, and now they have the perfect opportunity to, without having to risk anything.

[George]

I remember when there'd be radio stations in my city that you could depend on to hear new music from different artists. One of my favorites was Z90.3 (San Diego, CA) since I used they used to be geared towards R&B/Hip Hop.

Now that Clear Channel has bought like 75% of the stations here, all I hear now are Pop hits (P!nk, Pitbull, Ke$ha) with NO HOPE of ever hearing newer songs by R&B artist I grew up on (Deborah Cox, Toni Braxton, Monica, SWV). There are those Oldies R&B stations here (namely Magic 92.5) but then they only play the classic hits, and not any new songs by those 'classic' artists.

[♛ The Manticore ☯]

mkarns pretty much said it regarding the Telecommunications Act of 1996. More monopoly = less unique playlists. I remember listening to different radio stations in the 80's and 90's and to me each one was unique and different than one another. Nowadays, you can barely tell a difference in CHR's.

Even CHR's that are not from the same company tends to sound similar to the competition. I'm not going to get into Clears Channel because we all know the deal here. I've mentioned them a few times here & there so I won't sound like a broken record. I will use CBS Radio's 92.3 Now in New York as a good example. Do they think that going after Z100 or even KTU (CHR Rhythmic top 40 AC type of mixture) is going to get more listeners? I haven't payed attention to the Arbitron ratings since spring but they are nowhere near those numbers ever since they went CHR in 2009. At first they were going after Z100 as who would rule the CHR market in New York. Let's face it, Z100 has been around 30 years, no one's gonna beat Z100. It has history, people know it, their website is one of the most visted sites worldwide, ratings king, etc. After that they were being a bit more Rhythmic/EDM friendly and going after KTU and still 92.3 Now can't get those huge ratings numbers like Z100 & KTU (both owned by Clears Channel). And why must 92.3 Now spin their power rotation songs an average of 120 spins a week? ??? I will say though that their mixshows is better than KTU's but that's about it.

There was a time that maybe 92.3 Now might've had a chance when they spinned Medina's "Addiction" and Dennis Ferrer's "Hey Hey" a few years ago. Z100 & KTU would never touch those songs. And what was interesting was that those two songs was never under "cool new music" and neither had an adds date. If they might've did that little by little and slowly but surely, they might've had something. But CBS Radio doesn't want to take that kind of chance. I wouldn't mind having 92.3 Now or other U.S. stations sound like Z103.5 (CIDC-FM) in Toronto.

It all comes down to ratings, afraid to take chances, ads, revenue, competition, familiarity of artists, payola and more. You also have to consider the state of the economy as well, especially the last couple of years. Layoffs from radio stations and all that stuff. I wouldn't put Armin's "This Is What It Feels Like" in the same category as Carly Rae Jepsen or Katy Perry's. That's more in the category of Zedd's "Clarity" and Swedish House Mafia's "Don't You Worry Child". It's a feel good EDM song with a mainstream radio friendly appeal thats not too edgy and not too soft.

I wonder if the popularity of the Internet also played a factor. Young listeners now depend on the Internet to listen to the latest songs or discover songs. Itunes, Spotify, Last.FM, Pandoras, social networks, etc. it goes both sides. Those listeners are like "meh they aren't doing anything for the music that I like or that I like to hear, screw it, I'll look for it online then". And corporate radio are probably like "ehh we don't need them, lets do it this way and get revenue this way".

[johnm1120]

Pretty much the head of the ClearChannel Empire decides what songs are becoming hits, and it's cheaper for stations to just go with corporate than try to keep individuality.

[silvanageorgia]

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thanks!



silvanageorgia

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

I think even without the T-act of 1996, it was probably inevitable anyway.

Radio depends heavily on familiarity and comfort and that means playing songs people know, which means playing the hits. As far as the duplication of playlists go, that's a ClearChannel thing. It sucks because that makes it harder for small-scale local acts to break through into playlists. Growing up in newfoundland, the radio there were big supporters of local artists so we had a lot of bands and singers who were pretty much celebrities in newfoundland, even if they were unknowns everywhere else. Radio in nova scotia isn't as open to local acts. There are some hits by local artists but they can't compete with the big leagues and their airplay is rather limited unless they can get support from national radio stations too. That's what happens when radio becomes corporate, unfortunately.

[Marv]

Radio is driven by research regardless of format, and while limiting most libraries to a core of 350-400 songs for several formats isn't pleasant for millions of listeners, it is what we have to put up with.

It also depends on the market; 97.1 AMP Radio here in LA has done exceptionally well against the beyond-humungous KIIS-FM since it was launched 4 1/2 years ago, and the huge success it became certainly contributed to the onslaught of a ton of new top 40 stations nationwide, including launches against format godzillas such as the ridiculous Kiss 108/Boston, whose nosebleed-inducing ratings are straight out of the eighties when the format was substantially more popular than it is today, as well as Dallas, Chattanooga, Louisville, Minneapolis, San Francisco and numerous other cities.

LA has always been a totally different animal from the rest of the country as it relates to new radio stations or format flips; anything that works extremely well here goes nationwide at once, frequently with mixed results.

[CookyMonzta]

Dec 3, 2013 1:41:28 GMT -5 Marv said:

Radio is driven by research regardless of format, and while limiting most libraries to a core of 350-400 songs for several formats isn't pleasant for millions of listeners, it is what we have to put up with.

It also depends on the market; 97.1 AMP Radio here in LA has done exceptionally well against the beyond-humungous KIIS-FM since it was launched 4 1/2 years ago, and the huge success it became certainly contributed to the onslaught of a ton of new top 40 stations nationwide, including launches against format godzillas such as the ridiculous Kiss 108/Boston, whose nosebleed-inducing ratings are straight out of the eighties when the format was substantially more popular than it is today, as well as Dallas, Chattanooga, Louisville, Minneapolis, San Francisco and numerous other cities.

LA has always been a totally different animal from the rest of the country as it relates to new radio stations or format flips; anything that works extremely well here goes nationwide at once, frequently with mixed results.

Interesting point. Unlike 25 years ago, when a playlist used to be at least 200 songs wide, today's radio stations don't play enough different songs to even warrant a playlist. I'd say such a list would have anywhere from 30 to 50 songs, which would mean that any given top station is playing quite a few songs a dozen times a day, maybe 20 times a day. Which is why I listen to Internet radio now. As I see it, AM/FM is obsolete, as far as music variety is concerned.

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

I think a lot of it comes down to radio not serving the same purpose it had back in the 80s. People don't listen to the radio for extended periods of time. At most, someone may listen for a 20-minute drive or during rush hour or whenever. Those of us who listened to radio 20 or more years ago probably listened for hours at a time. Today, I'd bet that less than 1% of listeners, by choice, listen for more than one hour at any given time.

Therefore, radio must fit the hits into the timeframe that people are likely to hear them, regardless of when they listen.

[johnkeats]

Radios are like become a part of life, wherever you are or whatever be the time be just switch on the radio and there you will find the tunes and the music which will rejuvenate your body mind and soul. Yes it is not like as before playing the old classics and the melodies but as the time has become trendy now , the radio channels prefer to play the hit numbers as most younger generations like to listen to the present day hits.