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?
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?
I’m just speculating here… but suppose a station were deliberately out of phase with most other stations. When other stations go on break, frustrated listeners would search for other stations and find the out-of-phase one. They’d listen to that station until its next commercial break, at which point they’d repeat the process and return to their original stations. The out-of-phase station would get a reputation as the station for listeners who always change stations when ads come on, which would make it impossible for that station to find advertisers.
My local public radio stations were often out of phase. Makes sense, not really relying on advertisers the same way.