“Aaron Lewis had the #1 country song in 2020 with “Am I the Only One” and it never got a minute of radio play.”
This is fascinating, to watch the waning influence of radio. (Radio was fascinating when I was growing up - all those 50,000 watt stations keeping a teenage girl up all night - and baking pies at the same time, isn’t that crazy? I later worked at several small market country radio stations - so I could play what I wanted to.) And I don’t remember the last time I turned the radio on for any reason. Just not interesting anymore. Everything programmed from some central location when it used to be local.
The purpose of this rant is to point out that this has been going on for awhile. Remember 13 year old Leann Rimes? Everyone seemed to love her hit Blue. But at the end of the year this happened: Billboard had two end of year charts - a sales chart, and an airplay chart. The sales chart had Blue at #1, and the airplay chart didn’t list it at all. It wasn’t controversial, it was just country. And a lot of stations wouldn’t play it. But it was still the #1 seller.
Yep, most music play on radio stations is syndicated and centralized. You can hear the same “dj” in several different states now. Kinda started with the morning shows but now it fills up the entire day. Same playlist of 200 songs are played and various locations across the country. At least with country music, there’s some new stuff although “country” doesn’t necessary apply to it all. I listen to classic rock so it’s the same stale playlist over and over for years.
It’s like all other media. Half a dozen conglomerates control it all. I-Heart Radio etc.