IS Virgin Radio's playlist seven songs long?

Cafe Society
1

My 5-year-old loves Virgin Radio because it’s mostly dancey music.

As near as I can tell, however, Virgin is going through a cost-saving measure of having just ten songs they can play, seven of which are rotated regularly - “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele, “ET” by Katy Perry, “Dangerous” by Kardinal Offishall," “Let’s Play” by someone without much talent, that newish Black Eyed Peas song, and songs called, I think, “Gimme Everything” and a new one by Britney Spears. They mix it up now and then by throwing in an older Katy Perry song and running commercials for how you can win a trip to see a Katy Perry concert.

It’s not that I’m tuning in at a certain time and so always catching the top hits; I drive the Small One around at many times and it’s always, always the same songs. I honestly cannot remember tuning in for longer than 15 minutes and not hearing Katy Perry’s “ET” and the “Let’s Play” song.

Once - once - they played a song called “My Name is K” which might actually have been the worst song I have ever heard. It was at least as bad as “Friday” and, in some ways, was worse. I haven’t heard it since though, so maybe it wasn’t good enough to wiggle in past the 35% Katy Perry content rule.

I know Top 40 stations aren’t known for their willingness to play alternative music, but this isn’t even Top 40. There’s no way in hell they play 40 different songs. Just how short IS the Virgin playlist? Is this the future of radio - 7-10 songs, max, played in an endless loop?

2

That’s optimistic. It’ll be more like the sound of a CD skipping, in between the ads. It’s been a slow creep, but it won’t be long before they figure out that the people who are still listening to commercial radio will tolerate* anything.*

Of course, some times there can be rare exceptions that are better than the average.

3

No info on Virgin Radio, but I gotta say commercial radio is weird. There’s a new station in Chicago playing a generic 70s and 80s mix that has a really unnerving format. There’s a “DJ” between songs that’s does little “call in” business talking to “fans” of the station. From what I’ve heard, he never self-identifies and the station doesn’t solicit call-ins as far as I can tell. So…it seems like it’s a pretty clearly just prerecorded bits of completely fake “patter” padding out an automated playlist. It’s…creepy.

4

( HP Lovecraft mode ) Commercial radio is the *decayed *branch of the entertainment family. ( /HP Lovecraft mode )

5

sings This playlist’s just 6 songs long, this playlist’s just 6 songs long…