Library sizes

[BKRPDM]

I know that smaller song libraries seem to get stations better ratings, but at what point do listeners get really tired of the repetition? With WOMC, they’re only at about a 275-song library. Even WNIC seems to be closer to 400 (but then I’m not sure what WNIC is counting as a ‘current’).

With WOMC being #1 in the ratings, you’d think that there’d be a competitor one of these days..

[dial-it-in]

The logical side of me understands why stations play the crap out of the "safe" songs.
The cynical side of me knows that there is 50 years of great music out there and tons of great songs, from all genres, that people would love to hear again.

[radioandtventhusiast]

I listen to WRQN and Toledo and they probably have a 300-song library. 94.5 XKR which is the classic rock station there is mostly the same thing. I don't get why people like small playlists. My mother and father both dislike them.

[Realist]

It’s a corporate radio decision at its absolute worst…

[dial-it-in]

What I dont understand is this:

For the most part its not like DJ's are putting a needle down on a record anymore, right?
Isnt everything pretty much done by push of a button or mouse click now? Why is the catalog limited at all? Have your "safe songs" in the heavier rotation and have 1000 other good songs thrown into the mix to play at totally random times. Its all stored anyway, right? I doubt their storage capacity is limited to 300 songs.
I'm sure any good programmer could write a program that plays these 50 songs the most. Then these next 50 songs a bit less. Then the next 50 a bit less than that. And so on. When you get down to the 1000th song maybe that one is only played twice a month. It doesnt seem that difficult.

[Mega Hertz]

BECAUSE THEN I CAN ONLY HEAR BACK IN BLACK SIX TIMES A DAY ON FIVE DIFFERENT STATIONS OH MY GOD MAKE IT STOP HURRY UP AND PLAY WE WILL ROCK YOU AGAIN ARGHHHHHHH

[Bobbert]

A couple of other angles:

A few years ago, wasn't Doug FM an attempt to break the mold that is described here?

Do programmers also consider how people listen to music? For many people, these stations are background music for groups of people, like in offices and restaurants. Something about those kinds of gatherings make people gravitate towards something that's more familiar and acceptable to everybody.

[Deleted User 15783]

Most listeners are not listening all day long to multiple radio stations counting how many times they play a certain song.

It's either like Bobbert says, background noise that no one is really paying attention to anyway.
Or someone in their car for a short enough time that they are not going to hear the same tune twice.

Kind of makes sense to keep the rotation of songs to titles that listeners would be familiar with.

[dial-it-in]

Some rough quick math shows that there are approximately 6,400 spins per month; 9 songs per hour x 30 days.
It doesnt seem like too much of stretch to say that there are opportunities there to get some good, less played songs over the airwaves.

[Majik]

Some rough quick math shows that there are approximately 6,400 spins per month; 9 songs per hour x 30 days.
It doesnt seem like too much of stretch to say that there are opportunities there to get some good, less played songs over the airwaves.

Yeah, but that would take a little work by programmers/ powers in charge. They are either too lazy or lack imagination. At least the internet/satellite gives options if people want to take the time to find them.

[Colonel Flagg]

What I dont understand is this:

For the most part its not like DJ's are putting a needle down on a record anymore, right?
Isnt everything pretty much done by push of a button or mouse click now? Why is the catalog limited at all? Have your "safe songs" in the heavier rotation and have 1000 other good songs thrown into the mix to play at totally random times. Its all stored anyway, right? I doubt their storage capacity is limited to 300 songs.
I'm sure any good programmer could write a program that plays these 50 songs the most. Then these next 50 songs a bit less. Then the next 50 a bit less than that. And so on. When you get down to the 1000th song maybe that one is only played twice a month. It doesnt seem that difficult.

Corporate PD Jeff McCarthy seems to use a similar formula. The "A" catagory is small, and contains all of the most popular, burnt-to-a-crisp songs, which rotate fast. However, the "B" catagory is massive, and those secondary and tertiary songs rotate much slower. It creates the illusion that the station has a big library of songs, when it really does not.

With the "Variety Hits" stations, like Jack-FM, or the original "Doug" here in Detroit, the playlist isn't gigantic, but it dips into several other genres of music. Joel Folger, another famous PD, and big proponent of Variety Hits, passed away recently at age 65. I believe the often maligned Steve Kosbau had some help from Joel in creating Doug FM. When Cumulus took over, they trimmed all of the fat from the library, leaving few surprise segues. As I often say, "Dickey Lew, before Lew can dickey you."

[Mega Hertz]

I mean...nobody is coming out and saying spin the stiffs and side 2 of Meddle or anything, just slide in a few songs here and there that aren't a part of the 500 song auditorium tests anymore. Sure, it gets tricky, what with demographic changes and what not, but to imagine there were only 250 or so songs released between 1970 and today is nuts. What about the guys like me who work on job sites? Who travel all day for work? It isn't just background noise to us.

Of course, there's always the con. How deep is TOO deep? Are we staying with charting hits? Album rock favorites? Hasn't been spun since 1994? Not to mention I've always pointed this out on myself: if I don't like a band's hits, then what am I gonna do when a deep cut comes on? I'm already gonna change the station when Seger or Floyd gets played. Think I'll stick around for a song I don't know by a band I already hate?

Either way, I don't need to hear Bohemian Rhapsody 38 times in one work week like I did in the summer of 2020.

[dial-it-in]

My main question is...WHY?
Why does the catalog have to be limited to 250 or 300 or 500 songs? Once you start getting into those secondary or third level songs isnt it basically "six of one and half a dozen of the other"? So why does it matter? Why not have the variety if the net result is the same?

[Bobbert]

I've been trying out Sirius satellite radio to deal with the playlist issues brought up here. Overall, it's added much variety to my listening, but you can still feel the creeping influence of safe programming.

On Classic Vinyl (channel 26), they play a lot of cuts from the Dark Side of the Moon album by Pink Floyd. I've also noticed a lot of repetition on the 40s Junction channel (71).

Then there's the issue someone else brought up about deep cuts being too deep. Sometimes the Deep Tracks station (27) goes way into the weeds for some obscure sounding music that you know is a personal favorite of the host, and I turn to something else.

[Mega Hertz]

I pay for Sirius XM for the 90s channel, faction punk, Ozxy and Lithium. It's well worth it.