[bluGill]

The problem is the people who advertisers want to target want to hear the same songs every day.

I wouldn't be surprised if people like you want me who want more variety are a majority - but we don't spend money on things advertisers want us to buy by enough to be worth advertising to us.

[ChoGGi]

Well since my provincial government opened the floodgates to online gambling this month... Yeah, I definitely don't spend money on those advertisers. It's pretty crazy just how many ad spots they've gobbled up.

[kmeisthax]

If people who want more variety are the majority, I suspect the problem is just that those people don't listen to radio anyway.

Like, think about how many stations are Christmas format, and how "Christmas music" is a very regimented set of about 20-40 songs from the 1950s. To paraphrase XKCD[0], radio embarks on a massive project to carefully recreate the Baby Boomers' childhoods every December[1]. Probably because they're the only ones who still even think about using radio anymore.

Next time you listen to the radio, pay attention not to the songs, but to the goods and services being advertised next to them. That will tell you everything you need to know about who is still listening to radio.

[0] https://xkcd.com/988/

[1] don't forget.

[ChoGGi]

Heh, I haven't seen that xkcd before now, that sure reinforces my sympathy towards service workers.

[bluGill]

Though it goes both ways: non-boomers are not listening because radio has nothing to offer.