Question about U2 and radio play

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UltravioletU2

The Fly
Joined
Aug 15, 2002
Messages
222
Not sure if this is the right place to post, but here is my burning question!

I have heard Electrical Storm on the rock radio stations, but have not heard it at all on any Top 40 stations (pop). This strikes me as odd, because these top 40 stations play Creed and Nickleback and punk bands, who are more rocky than Electrical Storm.

What dictates radio play? If a song is released as a single, don't the radio stations have to play it, even minimally? Why is ES played on rock stations, but no top 40 stations?
 
Simply releasing a song does not mean it is going to get played. Tens of thousands of songs are released, but there is a limited amount of airtime. Radio programmers play songs they think will get them the most listeners. Top 40 can include all different kinds of music and is there for more difficult to crack than a strictly "rock radio" format when your a rock band. Of course if thousands of people start calling a radio station and requesting a song that they are not playing, they will start to play it.
 
Thanks, Sting, but it still pisses me off.

I listen to radio all day at work. Kelly Clarkson will ballad me to sleep every hour, and I have yet to hear ES.

It still suprises me, though. I mean U2 are a pretty hot band. You'd think the top 40 stations would give them SOME airplay.

Ok, enough venting.
 
I just heard ES on the radio for the first time yesterday on our local Top 40 station (at least I guess that's what you would call the format), I was really surprised. I had pretty much given up on ever hearing it on local radio, especially since we don't get any "modern rock" stations, but I was driving home from work and it came on! And after the song ended the DJ said it was an "excellent" tune. And what's funny is the DJs at this station generally just play songs and don't comment on what they think of them! I wondered why they didn't play it before if they think it is so good. Maybe they were waiting for the Best Of to come out? Maybe now that the Best Of has been released and is selling pretty well, ES will get a boost on the singles charts and receive more radio airplay.
 
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