The ratings are in. There is a TSL (time spent listening) problem. The cume went up, but average quarter hours are down. Management wants an explanation. The first thought is to examine the music library.depth.
It’s always the music. It’s either too loose or too tight. Then the research comes back and the perceptual confirms it. Listeners say your station repeats songs too much. That confirms it. The only solution is to add more titles and increase the variety. That will fix the TSL problem, right?
Listeners always say stations play the same songs too much. You’ve probably heard them complain that, “I can predict the next song because you only play the same 10 songs over and over.” Air talent is constantly complaining about having to play the same music each day.
What’s a programmer to do? The natural reaction is logical. The answer is obvious, right? Fix a TSL problem by adding more titles to the library to reduce fatigue and increase variety.
There’s just one problem.
It won’t work.
