Radio stations playing the same songs over and over

01-03-2022 2:57pm

They play what they are told to play, the people running the radio shows or talking on air don't get to pick and choose what songs they air, there's a set list supplied to them and they just stick to that. It's homogenised crap, the same 10 -15 songs every hour being forced down your earholes by the record companies because every single commercial radio station is bought and paid for, nothing more.

It's been like this for decades, not years, decades. Anyone who isn't into pop music or don't listen to the likes of today FM, 2FM, FM104 etc. has known this since about 1988. Pirate radio was the only escape, but they've pretty much all fallen by the wayside these days. It's just more pronounced these days because you're getting older and the ratio of decent tunes to utter crap is swinging towards the latter, so you notice it more. Trust me, it's been like this since forever.

The 'old songs suddenly being everywhere at the same time' is another symptom of this. They'll push David Gray or Tracey Chapman every now and then to make it look like they're varying it, but will throw the same few tired tracks into the playlist before going back to the usual guff.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118698510#Comment_118698510

I bet you €50 I could walk out to the car at any time between 8am and 8pm, stick the radio on and and find some Irish station playing that Cold Heart duet with Elton John and Dua Lipa within 5 mins. It is literally ubiquitous. I caught it on three stations in a row some time last week.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118692842#Comment_118692842

Nova is an absolute jokeshop of a station. Used to be a bit of an outlier, but became victims of their own success, then sold out in record time. Ireland's only rock station and when I put it on there just now they were playing Bryan Adams. Rock music for toddlers, more like.

01-03-2022 3:01pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118713804#Comment_118713804

How many of those 27 songs feature on the other stations within that time span? What's the point of changing if they're also all playing from the same catalogue?

Also, averaging 9 songs an hour during a period that is outside of the morning talk shows and rush-hour traffic updates is a sad indictment of the state of Irish radio.

dxhound2005 · 01-03-2022 3:08pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118713912#Comment_118713912

I will leave it up to you to look at the FM104 list and the Sunshine list to get the answer to your question for one other station. I have no way of knowing the answer for loads of stations. I get about 30 stations on FM.

Between 11 and 12 there were big gaps between songs, which given that radio is either speech or music, must have been speech segments. First song 11.11, second song 11.24. Song 11.32, next song 11.48. I wouldn't see that as a sad indictment of anything.

Dodge · 01-03-2022 3:09pm

Lads you’re all over thinking it. Radio is for advertisers, not listeners. So they want to appeal to the broadest demographic possible. So they choose safe pop or classic hits. Just like they have for the last 30+ years. Even the pirates mentioned above only came into existence because not enough pop music was being played on traditional radio

Anyone who wants to listen to music they like has literally unlimited choices online. If you don’t get to control it at work or whatever, you’ll just have to chalk it up to another work place annoyance

oh and for what’s it’s worth I think presenters and voice overs on Irish radio are way more local than at any stage. In the late 80s/early 90s everybody had the sam ‘mid Atlantic’ radio voice. Now, you can tell they’re Irish

Gaoth Laidir · 01-03-2022 3:14pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118713644#Comment_118713644

I said Nova and Classic Hits. Apparently 98FM doesn't do it anymore, but I stopped listening to it. In any case, even two stations in Ireland is two too many. Why do they see the need to have American rather than Irish? What is it about the Irish that more and more feel we need to use the US dialect? Teenagers today sound as if they're from Beverly Hills 90210, and no doubt exposure in the media is to blame. Whatever about Youtube and Insta, having our own local stations also choosing to go American is feeding this fire.

~~Takeway~~ -> Take out

~~Holiday/Annual leave~~ -> Vacation

~~Back garden~~ -> Back yard

~~Mam/Mum/Mammy/Ma~~ -> Mom

~~-ise~~ -> ize

etc., etc.

I've nothing against Americans or their dialect, it's the fact that Irish people seem to somehow think it's trendy or whatever to speak that way says a lot about our inferior complex.

Anyway, this started off as a discussion over playlists so maybe we've gone off topic.

01-03-2022 3:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118713964#Comment_118713964

You don't think going 16 minutes between songs on a music radio station is an issue? Fair enough.

01-03-2022 4:28pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118714011#Comment_118714011

Teenagers sounding American is probably has more to do with all tbe feckin reality shows they watch on TV,rather than radio..As for the playlists,its all to do with the men in suits,that call themselves radio doctors/consultants,and have a few Dan O' Day books in their desk drawer.

KildareP · 01-03-2022 4:40pm

Classic Hits has an American male voiceover, JJ Wright, but the female voiceover is very much Irish, Dee Woods.

On the other hand, Nova has an Irish male voiceover, Enda Murphy, but an American female voiceover, Annie Davis.

98FM used to have Dave Fox, then replaced by a solo female voice over who is Irish, now joined by an Irish male voiceover.

Others in Dublin using foreign voiceover artists:

Spin (American male, Irish female)

Sunshine (Irish male, British female)

FM104 (British male and female)

riclad · 03-03-2022 1:34am

Sunshine classic hits seems to have about 200 songs they play on rotation every day

I think it's worse if you work in a shop and you listen to the radio every day you have no choice what you listen to. I think it was worse in the 80s some djs would use a fake mid Atlantic accent not British or Irish. At least with a smartphone you have a choice of 100s of radio stations or just listen to podcasts. I think they use usa style jingles cos it's neutral versus having a jingle in a local regional accent.

Gant21 · 03-03-2022 1:42am

You're just like my favorite song going 'round and 'round my head

Radio stations playing the same songs over and over

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