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Why do rock stations tease like this?

Imagine, you are young and listening to the classic rock station for the first time, scratching your head, wondering why this crap was so popular. Whoever established the so called "classic rock canon" really missed the mark.
 
I have listened to ‘classic rock’ stations since I was a teenager. I also find the music very repetitive, but also following the same formula. Their list of tunes rarely includes music from before 1975, unless it’s an anthem from a huge band like the Stones. Back in the 80’s the classic rock station here played music from the 50’s through the 80’s and even included local New Orleans R&B like Fats Domino, Benny Spellman, Lee Dorsey, etc. I’m a fan of that music because I was exposed to it back then. Now they include stuff from the 90’s like Red Hot Chili Peppers- not my speed and this is “classic”? There is a local station here that plays all of that older style rock and roll and the local stuff. They call themselves and ‘Oldies’ station.
 
There is definitely a schedule on the station I have on at work. Depending on the day, at about 11 and 3 you get Bob Marley or Pink Floyd. Both are going to play, its just a coin toss which is going to be on at 11. If its Bob at 11, you get Floyd at 3. Today is Thursday, so I'm pretty sure Bob o'clock is 3 pm. There are maybe a half dozen songs from each that get played.

El Rubio said:
Now they include stuff from the 90’s like Red Hot Chili Peppers- not my speed and this is “classic”?
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Same here, Pearl Jam and other 90s bands. I guess I'm old now, this is the stuff that I wasn't really listening to in high school when it was current. Same program director for the classic and the "non-classic" rock station and the playlist has loads of overlap.

When I was a kid the oldies station was playing lots of that 50s doo-wop, rockabilly, and early Brit Invasion stuff. I still enjoy that, but its basically gone from the air now. The oldies station is playing pop stuff from the late 70s and 80s now. I guess Madonna is "oldies" these days.
 
Wow, reading this I feel lucky to have a few good choices:
The Wizard plays classic rock, including doubleshots (two songs by the same artist) on weekends https://www.wizn.com/
The Point plays a range of new and old rock https://pointfm.com/
The Buzz plays alternative/grunge https://www.999thebuzz.com/
Farm Fresh Radio plays a really wide mix of stuff http://farmfreshradio.com/

All of these offer live streaming for those of you not close enough to be in transmission range and show their playlists.
 
FM radio is easily 80% of my listening time and is truly the background soundtrack of my life. I am lucky enough to have listened faithfully to the same NON-classic rock station for 40 years. WXRT 93.1 in Chicago. I suppose they are considered alternative contemporary rock and, since they have been contemporary since the "album rock" days and play plenty from all eras including the present. Saturday mornings they pick a year (60's through early 2000's) and feature it, always a nice trip down memory lane. For you out-of-towners they live stream and I recommend them.

Since they feature current artists some of the songs are overplayed, so again, I am lucky to be in a market that has two other "classic rock" stations as well as others playing "popular rock" through the decades, country, jazz, classical, etc. that I can turn to if the mood arises.
 
Big issues here. Used to be FM Radio was the more artistic, more creative radio band, or was background music. FM is now what AM was in the 1955-1980 era, the main radio band (though AM now has low powered FM translators often). Radio is also a business and must make a profit to stay on the air, therefore it is a business (even NPR, College Stations, and independent non-commercial stations must make enough revenue to sustain themselves)
 
Corporate radio took over. Short play lists, the morning circus yak, and too many ads.
It really does sound like old AM. And people call in to play the same songs that
Are always in rotation. Led Zep, zztop, ac/DC and Van Halen.
I have found a few online stations that can go 24 hours without repeating a song.
Most local stations can't go an hour without a repeat.
I've flipped the dial between 3 stations and heard the same song playing on two of them
All the time. That's a short play list
 
Having worked in radio for 12 years, I see both sides.

Unfamiliar breeds apathy, and makes people change the channel. Programmers fear this more than the possibility of pleasing true enthusiasts like us. So, like most everything else, it becomes homogenized to please the greatest percentage of people.

I'll stump again for the radio station I worked for many years ago. They play WAAAAYYY left field stuff.

www.wdnsfm.com
 
My main station listening is an Entercom station, as of the last couple days they are now Audacy (no more radio.com ads). I am one of those graveyard shift workers so much of my listening will be post 9 pm and right before or early drive time in the morning. Weekday morning show time team signs on around 6 am or so but don't start yakking much until 6:30 to 6:45. Off night often listening often in the wee hours. Variety often better and not many ad buyers in those hours and on Fridays and holiday weekends they encourage call in requests (I guess someone somewhere gets to program them in to the automated system) and you get more unusual songs. Sometimes find likeable songs I have not heard before that way. How did I miss the Irish Rovers and Wasn't That a Party or Toby Keith's Red Solo Cup. I guess I normally don't listen to those genres.

It becomes clear the Entercom station does like classic top 40, maybe not repeat a group of songs every two hours maybe more like 12 hour cycle.

Not like Z93 back in the mid to late 80s would mix some novelty songs in the middle of the day, particularly around lunch time. They became corporate now the Wolf country. Dick broadcasting owns just two local stations, but their classic rock station runs way more ads than the Entercom one I listen to does. Those ads gets annoying. Then again Kevin Powell likes to run his ads on my station.

If the FM station has a good mix going, I tend to keep listening. Gets too bad start queuing up mp3 playlist in VLC on the PC and listen to those for hours.
 
I've heard a station (Don't know which one, sorry) when driving around Eugene, Oregon (which is just a couple of hours away from me in Portland), which seems to play a lot of stuff from artists that would be considered "classic rock," but they mix it up by playing more well worn hits along with album tracks. It's still basically the same familiar formula, just with some lesser well known tracks mixed in. I found this to be a refreshing approach and had to wonder why more stations don't do this kind of thing..?
 
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This is the current online version of the radio station I grew up with and the playlist resembles more what it used to be like - it's a non-classic rock playlist, with someone curating it, mixing in those lost gems you never ever hear anymore. Looks like some sort of Yes double shot weekend is going on. Lots of Yes.
https://onlineradiobox.com/us/kzew/playlist/?cs=us.kzew
 
131east23 said:
This is the current online version of the radio station I grew up with and the playlist resembles more what it used to be like - it's a non-classic rock playlist, with someone curating it, mixing in those lost gems you never ever hear anymore. Looks like some sort of Yes double shot weekend is going on. Lots of Yes.
https://onlineradiobox.com/us/kzew/playlist/?cs=us.kzew
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Ha... Some days my house is a bit of a "Yes themed radio station." I have a few other albums but mostly my thing is the early stuff with Bill Bruford. Alan White is a good enough drummer, but somehow after Bruford left, they lost a certain spark for me. Don't even get me started on the 80s era stuff post-Steve Howe. Those early albums, particularly The Yes Album, Fragile and Close to the Edge though are real good stuff in my book...
 
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