Why are radio playlists so narrow?

I do not understand it. As a listener (and I think I speak for many listeners) I like hearing familiar music, but there has been so much music that's been released that I can't figure out why they can't mix it up a little bit at least. What are your thoughts?

Money stuff. It nets them that bottom line

Easy to remember songs + simple and catchy = most listeners on their behalf

They've already figured out on their end that listeners are attracted to a not-so-diverse selection of chorus music, so in their minds it'd be bonkers to do it any other way.

The sound engineer for one of the stations here was off for the day so the hosts could play what ever they wanted. I'd say it was the best station I'd ever heard, they even played music from a bunch of local bands that aren't well known, or rather, not at all known.

That is what music should be about, the local artist. Those mainstream artist are over paid and over played

A radion station cannot play music without permission .... or they can get sued by the owner of the song

I swear they play the same 10 songs over and over. Then after many months ONE new song will get popular, thus they dump the least popular of the ten and replace it with this new song. And this process repeats over and over...

There are like 3-4 acceptable stations around my area that stick to rock and have a good selection of songs. Other than that, the stations are absolute drivel with one particular station being so God damned bad you can seriously hear the same song more than once in a single hour...

At the very least, we have an amazing morning talk show here AKA Dave and Chuck the Freak. Guys are absolutely HILARIOUS! Seriously sad for people who don't get the chance to listen to them in the morning.

Most radio stations cater to those driving and commuting from A to B. Thats why you see at most an hours worth of music more or less recycled throughout the day. Long term radio listeners dont exist its all about pumping out as much chart topping shit to please the most listeners in the shortest time possible.

Im a night shift worker and have no choice to listen to commercial radio channels and you can hear the same song 5 times within an 8 hour shift. But it makes sense....who listens to the radio for 8 hours solidly through choice nowadays.

Its music for the masses.

This is why spotify, deezer, the million and one online radio stations are growing and growing and growing.

Because they're trying to cater to the widest audience possible, so they only play the stuff they think everyone likes.

I almost never listen to music in the car anymore...I listen almost exclusively to Sports talk radio. My daily commute is fairly short and the radio becomes background noise after a few minutes when I'm driving anyway.