Speeded-up music on radio

[Laura--I wuv u all :)]

Some of us were talking about this on ML. The "Old Music Collector" said that sometimes radio stations speed up songs in order to make more room for commercials. I had noticed this phenomenon, but I didn't know that was the reason.

I remember back in the mid-'80s, one of our local top 40 stations went through a phase where they speeded up their songs. On some songs, it wasn't that noticeable, but others just came out sounding TOO darn fast! To give you some idea, just imagine a chorus of Munchkins singing "One Night in Bangkok". It was pretty ridculous, if you ask me! A friend of mine was a dj there and she had noticed it (I think they taped all the songs on cartridges to play on the air), and she didn't know why they speeded 'em up! I didn't either until I read this post on ML--it was to make room for more ads. Yay.

I remember reading somewhere that some radio stations speeded up their songs in the '70s also, and I think one of the local stations here maybe did that, but it wasn't as noticeable; it just sounded like the songs were in a slightly higher key.

So have you guys ever noticed this phenomenon? I don't think they do it anymore--at least I hope not.

[H2IZCOOL]

laura said:

Some of us were talking about this on ML. The "Old Music Collector" said that sometimes radio stations speed up songs in order to make more room for commercials. I had noticed this phenomenon, but I didn't know that was the reason.

I remember back in the mid-'80s, one of our local top 40 stations went through a phase where they speeded up their songs. On some songs, it wasn't that noticeable, but others just came out sounding TOO darn fast! To give you some idea, just imagine a chorus of Munchkins singing "One Night in Bangkok". It was pretty ridculous, if you ask me! A friend of mine was a dj there and she had noticed it (I think they taped all the songs on cartridges to play on the air), and she didn't know why they speeded 'em up! I didn't either until I read this post on ML--it was to make room for more ads. Yay.

I remember reading somewhere that some radio stations speeded up their songs in the '70s also, and I think one of the local stations here maybe did that, but it wasn't as noticeable; it just sounded like the songs were in a slightly higher key.

So have you guys ever noticed this phenomenon? I don't think they do it anymore--at least I hope not.

I hadn't heard that before, but I'm not surprised, Laura. It's all about the mighty dollar. I suppose you could speed a song up by 5 or even 10% and it would barely be noticeable. You grab, say ten seconds or so off a song, and you have time for a new commercial every two songs.

back in the '60s they just talked over the intros all the time, and quite often it was some kind of commercial.

[Triple J]

I've noticed this for years and years and years. They do it for TV shows too. It's irritating.

[Laura--I wuv u all :)]

triplej said:

I've noticed this for years and years and years. They do it for TV shows too. It's irritating.

I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but I hate when they speed up the closing credits when I am trying to read them to find out who the actors are. Or they squish them over to the side so you can barely read them, while on the "main" part of the screen they show previews for some upcoming show.

[Pete70s]

This practice has been done for years, in Boston there is a station called "Kiss 108" that was notorious for doing this in the 80's (I don't know if they still do this or not).

So when I did college radio years ago, we'd occasionaly up the pitch control slightly ("Let's Kiss 108 it" we'd say..)

The reason stations do this is to make the song sound "hot" and "exciting". They claim the song has more impact on the listener this way.