I’ve been saying this for ages. I’m glad somebody has finally written about it.
Why you probably hate every radio station at the moment
WHENEVER I’m driving along, flicking from station to station on the radio, I find that I almost never find a new song that I like.
Hit and Nova can usually be found playing the exact same Justin Bieber song at the exact same time, and down the “indie” end of the FM band, Triple J are either playing something bland (a 16-year-old girl warbling like Sarah Blasko, who hasn’t bothered to write a chorus) or extremely annoying (Death Metal at lunchtime? Really?). Why can’t any of these radio stations consistently play good, new music?
I agree… I often wonder these if people do REALLY like these so-called “songs”, there’s nothing particularly memorable or notable about many of them to my ears.
It has made me wonder what stations will be playing for “classic hits” in 20 years time. I can’t see many of todays Top 40 artists featuring on the radio then.
People have probably been saying that since “classic hits” radio stations started popping up.
I remember 20 years ago listening to the radio as a young kid and thinking that most of the music on top 40 radio was terrible - and it’s probably true.
Here’s a list from the Aria Top 50 (from a Rage playlist) on 2 June 2000
Of all of these songs on the chart, I can only count 7 which I’ve heard on radio in the past five years, and those are:
Absolutely Everybody - Vanessa Amarossi (very rarely on WSFM)
Pure Shores - All Saints (rarely on WSFM)
Naughty By Nature - Holiday (I’ve heard it once or twice on either The Edge or Nova or 2DAY)
Bye Bye Bye - N’Sync (I think I’ve heard it on 2DAY a few times)
One More Time - Britney Spears (rarely)
It’s My Life - Bon Jovi (played ad nauseum on WSFM and Triple M)
All the Small Things - Blink 182 (played ad nauseum by Triple M)
For about three quarters of the songs on that playlist I would simply switch stations immediately. They’re simply awful.
“WSFM: Sydney’s Home of the Noughties, Tens and Twenties that was Justin Bieber with Baby. Coming up next, it’s One Direction with a great classic hit from 2012! What Makes You Beautiful!” - Sorry, couldn’t resist!
Although knowing stations like WSFM, I honestly wouldn’t be too surprised if tween music like that makes it on their playlists as soon as 2019/2020, remembering that the station in question played songs from 2008 like “So What” from Pink On-Air last year!
According to this link, WSFM now plays songs from 2010-11 such as from the likes of Adele & Bruno Mars, as well as “Moves Like Jagger” by Maroon 5 & Christina Aguilera. By comparison, Gold 104 in Melbourne hasn’t been playing anything from the late 00s/early 10s from what I’ve observed.
This above is part of the reason on why I think commercial music radio stations in Sydney & surrounding areas is pretty bland, especially when compared with Melbourne & Brisbane/SEQ.
Thanks for that link. And this is exactly what is wrong with Nova 96.9. They play these top songs every 2 hours. I switch on the radio three times a day at breakfast, afternoon and evening and every time and listen for a couple of hours. You can guarantee on hearing those three songs by Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and The Chainsmokers. Every time.
TOP songs on Nova 96.9
DJ Snake+ Justin Bieber - Let Me Love You
The Chainsmokers / Halsey - Closer
Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj - Side to Side
James Arthur - Say You Won’t Let Go
Betty Who — I Love You Always Forever
Jonas Blue — Perfect Strangers (feat. JP Cooper)
Calvin Harris - My Way
CALUM SCOTT - DANCING ON MY OWN (TIESTO REMIX)
Fifth Harmony — That’s My Girl
Shawn Mendes — Mercy
No wonder people are hating commercial radio. This is how ridiculous the repetition is on Nova 96.9.
Today’s playlist:
23:08 Ariana Grande / Nicki Minaj - Side To Side
22:48 The Chainsmokers / Halsey - Closer
21:42 Dj Snake / Justin Bieber - Let Me Love You
21:10 Ariana Grande / Nicki Minaj - Side To Side
20:24 The Chainsmokers / Halsey - Closer
19:17 Dj Snake / Justin Bieber - Let Me Love You
18:55 Ariana Grande / Nicki Minaj - Side To Side
18:39 The Chainsmokers / Halsey - Closer
15:30 The Chainsmokers / Halsey - Closer
15:11 Dj Snake / Justin Bieber - Let Me Love You
14:37 Ariana Grande / Nicki Minaj - Side To Side
13:24 The Chainsmokers / Halsey - Closer
13:12 Dj Snake / Justin Bieber - Let Me Love You
12:29 Ariana Grande / Nicki Minaj - Side To Side
11:24 Dj Snake / Justin Bieber - Let Me Love You
11:04 The Chainsmokers / Halsey - Closer
10:47 Ariana Grande / Nicki Minaj - Side To Side
09:26 Dj Snake / Justin Bieber - Let Me Love You
09:07 The Chainsmokers / Halsey - Closer
08:41 Ariana Grande / Nicki Minaj - Side To Side
07:30 Dj Snake / Justin Bieber - Let Me Love You
07:02 The Chainsmokers / Halsey - Closer
06:37 Ariana Grande / Nicki Minaj - Side To Side
05:44 The Chainsmokers / Halsey - Closer
05:04 Dj Snake / Justin Bieber - Let Me Love You
Apart from the songs you listed, the only other song (from the chart) I have heard on the radio in recent times is “Generator” by the Foo Fighters (IMO, the only decent song in the chart). With that being said, I do agree with you in terms of the quality of the music. A lot of the music which was released in the Y2K/Millennial period generally isn’t played much by stations nowadays.
Speaking of songs from that period of time, I happened to hear “Blue” by Eiffel 65 on Max (channel 805) this morning. The song was a massive hit back in 1999, however I don’t think I have heard it on the radio since 2004! It’s interesting how songs can simply fall into obscurity over time.
And here’s why Nova, Hit 2Day and Kiis are as bad as each other. Same or similar songs on their playlist on repeat but in a different order.
TOP songs on KIIS 1065
jonas blue ft jp cooper - perfect strangers
Major Lazer ft Justin Bieber & MØ - Cold Water
THE CHAINSMOKERS FT.HALSEY - CLOSER
DJ Snake ft. Justin Bieber - Let Me Love You
CrashUsher — Crash
Calvin Harris - My Way
SIA - THE GREATEST
I’d take that 2000 playlist over most of today’s garbage, though. At least cringeworthy acts like S2S could sing a bit, rather than having to rely on autotune and vocoders.
How old does a song have to be before it’s classified as a ‘Classic Hit’?just wondering.one day on 4KQ I heard songs from 1988(a great year for music)as their ‘Classic 9 at 9’
Well some radio stations play music up to and past 2000 as classics. If you consider the terms ‘old school’ and ‘throwback’ to be equivalent of ‘classic’ then music from just a couple of years ago could be included. Nova played Riptide by Vance Joy from 2013 today and described it as a throwback.
Because this descended into rambling about my car - I’m taking my reply to this over here:
I end up listening to AM music stations mostly because I’ve got a bunch of flawed options in the car. My stereo’s just new enough to have a CD player, but not new enough to do anything fancy like MP3 CDs or have an AUX input or steering wheel controls.
I’ve got an FM transmitter for my iPod - but that gives me nothing to skip songs easily, so I mostly just use it for listening to podcasts.
I can burn CDs - but I’m limited to the 80 minutes, and the hassle of needing to change discs or make new ones all the time to minimise repetition.
Then there’s FM radio - I’d usually listen to Triple M - but they are so often doing talk, and spend half of the year with sport replacing the weekends. I like CHR stations in limited doses, so occasionally will skip between Nova, KIIS and Fox - then eventually I’ll skip through all three and still not find something I can listen to.
So at that point I usually hit the AM button and bounce between my presets there - which are 7SD, 7BU, 7AD, 3MP and 3GG. That followed by just turning off the radio and having silence.
If I drove more I might consider getting a DAB+ headunit installed, but my commute is by train, so I’m not listening to radio enough to care.
I have a Bluetooth transmitter in my 2004 Honda and I use Spotify as it is uncapped on Optus (if you activate the option online first). Otherwise I will listen to Nova especially during drive.
