This has been on my mind for years now:

Why do most radio stations insist on playing the same selection of songs over and over?

I imagine it must be a copyrights thing? Pay for usage of this particular catalogue for a year?

Don’t those DJs get absolutely sick of it after a while?

  • DagwoodIII@piefed.socialEnglish
    283·
    8 hours ago

    Blame Reagan.

    Back when radio was starting, a bipartisan Congress created the FCC. Some of the rules were that no one entity could own more than one AM and one FM station in any market [later one VHF TV channel] There had to be a balance in editorial content; if the station supported Candidate A, Candidate B had to be allowed equal time.

    Reagan ‘saved’ the media by deregulating it.

    • mkwt@lemmy.world
      8·
      6 hours ago

      There had to be a balance in editorial content

      This rule was was the Fairness Doctrine, and it was in effect from 1949 to 1987. So it’s fair to say that Reagan got rid of it.

      if the station supported Candidate A, Candidate B had to be allowed equal time.

      This is a different rule called the Equal Time Rule, and it’s still in effect today.

      Recently this rule was in the news when Stephen Colbert interviewed Senate candidate James Talarico on his (now concluded) show, without offering the same interview time to Talarico’s primary opponent Jasmine Crockett. I believe in the end the interview was cut from the over-the-air broadcast to comply with the rule. (The interview segment was published on YouTube, which is not subject to the rule.)

      • DagwoodIII@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        2 hours ago

        https://bookshop.org/beta-search

        Ross Thomas was a Washington reporter turned crime novelist. All his stories have a political slant.

        The Fools In Town Are On Our Side is about an ex-CIA agent who is trying to make a small Southern city ‘so corrupt the pimps will vote for reform.’

        Anyone who knows the difference between the Fairness Doctrine and the Equal Time Rule will probably enjoy his work

      • DagwoodIII@piefed.socialEnglish
        8·
        7 hours ago

        Can I assume Denmark from your username?

        I don’t know enough about other countries to make an intelligent comment.

        On the other hand, I could write a book on how Reagan screwed up the US media.

        Before him, kids’ cartoons were highly regulated. After he came in, you started seeing full length commercials like “GI Joe” and “The Transformers.”

        Cable was getting off the ground at the time, and the FCC could have reigned in Fox News.