Turnpike Tuner said:People bitch and moan about a lack of variety, but look at the ratings - the stations that run a well researched and programmed "tight" playlist get numbers. WKLB has a 7 share in Boston...Thunder has a 4.5 - and it usually bounces around between a 4 and a 5 share, which tells me that the station is where it will always be unless something changes drastically.
This is likely a result of people doing most of their listening for short periods of time, like in the car or in the shower. If you're only driving 5 minutes to the grocery store or 15 minutes to work then you probably would rather hear the familiar stuff. If you have the radio on for 8 hours while you work I'm sure you would get pretty tired of hearing the same song 15 times a day. When I used to work in Piscataway I shared a room with a woman that played Magic 98.3 all day. It was literally the exact same playlist every couple hours, every day. Drove me nuts.