Was listening to XL 106.7 Orlando today and I started to notice they began playing their songs in normal speed for the first time in about 2 decades. The same thing occurred with several iHeartMedia Top 40 stations including its Miami sister station WHYI (Y100). WFLZ in Tampa still continues to speed up their songs by 3 semitones, unlike WXXL.
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WXXL “XL 106.7” no longer speeds up their songs
- Thread starter nielsoncaetanosalmeron_19
- Start date
i recall Y-100 changing the pitch of their songs back in the Mid-70's!
Update 5/8/2026 at 12:05 am: It appears to be a glitch with the configuration of the station as the settings from WJRR somehow transferred for the rest of the day causing songs on 106.7 to play in normal speed. They fixed the issue and the songs are now again played sped and pitched up by 3 semitones.
i prefer my music listening to be @ 98% pitch-tempo (slowed down by 2%) .. something that no radio station does, but I can achieve very easily on my phone via the music speed changer app.
Not to mention, slowing a song down will make it last longer and lead to less commercials they can play in a given hour.
Even if doing something like that costs them an extra 15 seconds per hour, that's one less ambulance chaser spot they could have played
You can pitch songs up and down without changing the length, which is what nearly all stations that pitch up music are doing. It's a long held belief that stations would speed up the music to get more commercial time, but CHR stations are typically just pitching up to sound brighter than either the competition or another source. And it works. Here in Orlando specifically if I first hear a new song on XL 1067 and later hear it on Mix, Magic or streaming I'll immediately notice that it sounds duller and I want to hear it the way it sounds on XL. Even for an audiophile the trick can work and make it sound better pitched up.
Speaking as a music listener- I prefer to hear a song at the tempo and pitch heard on the original release of the song, when they first made it available to the public. To me the tempo sets the "pocket" of the song and is crucial to establishing the feel of a song.
I don't enjoy bands playing their own songs at faster tempo in live performances. Seems counterintuitive that a band would want to play chords, leads and riffs faster.
There is also a musical aspect of pitch changes. I think that part is important.
I don't enjoy bands playing their own songs at faster tempo in live performances. Seems counterintuitive that a band would want to play chords, leads and riffs faster.
There is also a musical aspect of pitch changes. I think that part is important.
In 1979 my family went on vacation in Panama City FL. I listened to WDLP 590 AM all week. They were playing a song I had not heard before in the Atlanta market: Anita Ward's Ring My Bell. It was in their hot rotation of about twice an hour. The 18 yo me fell in love with the song. When we went home to Atlanta, it was three weeks before WQXI and Z93 (WZGC) played the song. I remember thinking the song sounded so boring in Atlanta. I mentioned it to an engineer friend and he introduced me to the larger size drive puck for a turntable.
On the audience side, it is like how you feel about food at restaurants.