I have a strange ear for sounds maybe idk but I love music that change pitch and I wanted to know what radio stations speed up their songs. I know Sunny 102.3 in Canandaigua does but what other stations do this. I'm looking preferably R&B and Adult Contemporary stations
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Radio stations that speed up songs/change pitch
- Thread starter Keatonkg360
- Start date
I didn't realize any stations still do this, I thought it was something that happened mostly in the 1970s.
Plenty of stations do it. Just have to seek them out.
For R&B, Majic in St. Louis is one.
I guess the theory behind pitching up songs by no more than 2% would be the same as it was in the 70's: Make the competition sound slower/less energy.
And that its still being done more than 40 years later proves that it's still hooking the listeners.
I actually had a stereo system that did that, and I hated it! And no, I couldn't adjust the pitch. It wasn't that fancy of a system.
Over the years I've never seen any data or ratings results that indicated pitching-up music increased TSL or cume.
As with aggressive audio processing; I think stations should think twice about playing with music pitch. Competition for ears isn't just that other station in the market. If your sound is noticeably different than what consumers hear via the playlist on their phone or other stations around town, you could be perceived as inferior.
The 70's are over, as should be the Program Director self-gratifying mind games.
Yeah, none of us lives in a vacuum.
I could see a radio station increasing pitch in order to make songs play in less time and leave more time for commercials.
Some songs modulate, or change key, one or more times within because the composer wanted to do that.
Incidentally one "semitone" or the difference between C and C sharp (also the difference between E and F) is about six percent in Hz.
Some songs modulate, or change key, one or more times within because the composer wanted to do that.
Incidentally one "semitone" or the difference between C and C sharp (also the difference between E and F) is about six percent in Hz.
Speeding up a song does not create more commercial time, and that is not the reason stations in have done that. The reason is to make songs sound "brighter" so that when played on another station they appear to be dull and draggy.
If a station wants to play more commercials, they just insert them. There is no minimum number of songs they have to play. And speeding song within tolerable limits produces very little extra time in each hour. All a tolerable speed generates is about 20 to 25 seconds an hour of extra time.
I did the math but I'm not sure if my assumptions are correct. I'm assuming that the percentage difference between adjacent notes, C to C# or E to F, is the same.
Assuming that all adjacent notes separated by the same percentage, the difference is 8.33%.
100% (the difference in frequency from one note to the same note, one octave higher) divided by 12 (the number of notes in one octave) = 8.33333.
I know .... what a time-waster.
Does majic 104.9 in st. Louis change the pitch of their songs
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A station that use to do this was wrks new york kiss fm. Also they seemed to do this more with upping the pitch of the songs in the morning from some of the airchecks ive heard and playing the regular versions of the same song later in the day an interesting observation noticed. Does anyone else notice different pitches of the same songs being played at different times of the day?
Here’s something from the LBJ era. The music was slowing down on November 9, 1965. It was a blackout that evening. https://musicradio77.com/images/ing11-9-65blackout.mp3
During much of the 1980s into at least 1990, almost all the songs played on WJRE-FM (then at 92.1) Kewanee, IL were played with a pitch change, sometimes playing slightly faster. This was during the station's AC/light rock (ca. 1984-87) and country (1988-1991) formats.
BTW, WJRE moved from 92.1 to 93.9 in October 1996. Then about 10 years ago 93.9 (which had become WYEC with standards/soft oldies at the time) changed its COL to Cambridge, IL and its stick closer to the Quad Cities. 102.5 in Galva, IL (formerly WHHK) took the WJRE calls and became country ("Hog Country" after Kewanee being known as the "Hog Capital of the World").
BTW, WJRE moved from 92.1 to 93.9 in October 1996. Then about 10 years ago 93.9 (which had become WYEC with standards/soft oldies at the time) changed its COL to Cambridge, IL and its stick closer to the Quad Cities. 102.5 in Galva, IL (formerly WHHK) took the WJRE calls and became country ("Hog Country" after Kewanee being known as the "Hog Capital of the World").
Kiss 95.7 the CHR station in Hartford, Connecticut was and still is notorious for pitching up the music. Back in the late 90s/early 2000s they mixed in a lot of hip-hop songs. Then in October 2000 we got an AM Hip-Hop station - Blaze 990 and in March 2001 an FM hip-hop station Hot 93.7 and hearing some of the same songs Kiss 95.7 played being played on Blaze 990 and Hot 93.7 was like day and night. And to me the songs sounded much better when they weren't pitched up. -
Also in Hartford 105.9 The River, which is Classic Hits of the 70s, 80s, and 90s they pitch up the music. Like Kiss 95.7 they're owned by i-Heart Radio.
In Bridgeport, CT under ownership of Cumulus 107.9 We-Be 108 an Adult Contemporary Station started pitching up the music. I don't know if that's changed now that they're owned by Connoisseur Media.
Also in Hartford 105.9 The River, which is Classic Hits of the 70s, 80s, and 90s they pitch up the music. Like Kiss 95.7 they're owned by i-Heart Radio.
In Bridgeport, CT under ownership of Cumulus 107.9 We-Be 108 an Adult Contemporary Station started pitching up the music. I don't know if that's changed now that they're owned by Connoisseur Media.
Are still curious on how they do this? I have a solution.
The early (70's) methods were as simple as carefully putting a sleeve of plastic tubing or tape around the capstan of the turntable motor. Then we got devices that changed the cycle rate of the electricity fed to the turntable motor.
Today, it is done electronically, and the songs can both be sped up while having their pitch stay the same so the sound is not changed.
You can do this yourself on YouTube by choosing a faster speed for the selected video, up to 2 times faster. The "Chipmunk" effect of analog methods is absent and you just get the same song being sung faster.
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