Why do radio stations all seem to go on commercial at the same time? - eviltoast

Might be a local thing, but in the US I feel like all the similar radio stations go on commercial break all at the same time. Is this just an iheartradio monopoly thing or is it some odd coincidence due to standard ad deals?

  • adarza@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    frequency (the time between them) of station id are mandated, i don’t think the exact times of them are.

    the real reason they all seem to go on ‘break’ at the same time is there’s only a few companies that own most the radio stations. they aren’t dummies. they know if they all go on breaks at about the same time, then people switching stations still land on ads… and it might still be theirs.

    • fakeaustinfloyd@ttrpg.network
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      4 months ago

      Agreed. For an example of station id happening at slightly off times, listen to a live sports broadcast (like baseball). Due to the shorter time between pitches, station id will instead happen between batters, which won’t line up with any given time.

      Same thing with hockey, where radio station id will happen when the clock stops.