Some songs live in my head on a loop. I could tell you what is coming before the next drumbeat lands.
Depending on the format, it might be “The Boys Are Back in Town,” “Livin’ on a Prayer,” or “I Want It That Way.” It might also be any monster record parked in a station’s safest category for 20 years.
When you work in programming, however, you do not hear those songs the way a listener does.
You hear them while monitoring the station. You see them on the music log. Then you hear them again during an aircheck. You debate their rotations in meetings. Meanwhile, the competition is playing them too. Eventually someone drops the song into a music test and plays you the hook one more time.
By the time a listener hears the song once, you may feel as though you have heard it 10 times.
That creates one of the most dangerous occupational hazards in music programming. In short, we confuse staff fatigue with listener fatigue.
What Miami Taught Me About “Piano Man”
I learned this firsthand while programming in Miami. “Piano Man” was regularly a bone of contention. Did it belong on the station? Was it too old? Was it too slow? Had Billy Joel become too predictable?
Of course, there were legitimate programming questions involved. Looking back, though, I believe another factor was at work.
I was tired of hearing “Piano Man.”
Other people inside the building were probably tired of Billy Joel, too. But that did not mean the listener shared our exhaustion.
The Listener Hears a Memory
Recent consumer research offers an interesting parallel. A March 2026 Illinois Institute of Technology report examined why consumers keep choosing familiar brands, even when better alternatives exist. Researchers found that familiar choices deliver an immediate, dependable reward. Exploring something unfamiliar, by contrast, requires uncertainty and effort.
In many ways, that describes much of music consumption.
A familiar song is not necessarily an uninspired choice to the person listening. Instead, it may be a guaranteed emotional payoff. They know the chorus. They remember where they were when it was popular. Above all, they know exactly how it will make them feel.
The programmer hears inventory. The listener hears a memory.
“A Hit Is a Hit” Is Not a Strategy
Still, that does not mean stations should play 300 songs on repeat and call it strategy. “A hit is a hit” should never become an excuse for lazy programming, suffocating rotations or a library that sounds identical every day.
Songs can burn. Listeners can get tired. Repetition can absolutely become irritating.
But frequency alone may not be the entire problem.
Optimove’s 2026 Marketing Fatigue Report found that consumers do not automatically reject brands for communicating frequently. Instead, the greater problem arrives when the messages feel irrelevant or disconnected from the customer’s needs. Relevant communication can hold engagement even as message volume climbs.
Ultimately, radio should think about music fatigue the same way.
Context Matters More Than Count
Maybe the problem is not simply that you played Van Halen again. Maybe it is that you played Van Halen beside the same four artists, in the same part of the hour. Maybe nothing around it offered personality, surprise or context.
As a result, the song becomes part of a predictable pattern rather than an individual experience.
Radio also remains a remarkably resilient part of the audio environment. Nielsen’s first-quarter 2026 listening report found that AM/FM radio still commanded the dominant share of ad-supported audio time in America. That is happening while listeners have nearly unlimited access to music elsewhere.
They can ask for almost any song ever recorded. Yet millions continue choosing programmed audio.
Stop Listening Like a Programmer
This week, I listened to a major-market morning show. I heard several songs I once would have described as beaten to death by classic rock radio.
Then Van Halen kicked in.
Instead of rolling my eyes, I turned it up.
I have stepped away from listening only to classic rock. These days, I spend far more time moving among different formats. That distance changed the experience. The record had not changed — my exposure to it had.
Programmers listen unnaturally. We accumulate quarter-hours in offices, cars and studios while analyzing every element of the station. The listener, meanwhile, may spend 20 minutes with us on the way to work and another 15 heading home.
We should never assume those two people hear the same amount of repetition.
So before eliminating a proven record because everyone in the building groans, step away from the log. Stop listening like a programmer. Try hearing it like someone who just turned on the radio.
The song may not be burned.
Maybe you are.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.
David Hill serves as a Music Radio Editor, Columnist and Features writer for Barrett Media. A radio lifer with more than 30 years behind the mic, in the control room, and in the program director’s chair, David’s career spans influential stops at brands such as WIYY 98 Rock, WBAL-AM, and 99X. He has worked across multiple formats and ownership groups, including iHeartMedia and Cumulus Media, developing talent, breaking music, and navigating every major industry shift from diary to PPM and terrestrial dominance to streaming disruption. When he’s not writing or analyzing the industry, Dave runs The Tune Farm, a marketing firm built to help artists and brands grow audience the same way great radio always has—by creating connection, not just impressions. He can be reached at David@BarrettMedia.com.