Surprise

November 14, 2025

When was the last time you surprised your listeners. I’m not talking about contests, or promotions, or celebrity interviews. I’m talking about your music.

Work with me here.

For the longest time, radio dominated the music space. Even as formats fragmented, listeners discovered and heard the music they loved on the radio.

Radio survived all sorts of competition. From eight track tapes to cassettes to CD changers, radio was still the go-to medium for music. Even when some more sophisticated listeners created personalized mix tapes – radio was #1.

That all changed with the release of the iPod. Up until then, listener controlled playlists lacked one key element—surprise. That six CD changer in your trunk was predictable. And you always knew what came next on that mix tape.

But the iPod added the element of surprise with the shuffle feature. All of a sudden you did not know which of your 500 songs would play next.  This has been further refined in the age of streaming.

As music distribution became more diverse, radio retreated into the safe list zone. If you have ever done any focus groups, you know this response from a P-1: “I can predict the next song they will play.”  Of course, they can’t, but perception is reality. Any station in any format has become predictable. We are locked into our format silos. I’m not saying that formats are bad; they are just a bit restrictive.

In the age of the ever-expanding playlist, the average, say, 35-44 listener likely has multiple genres on their Spotify playlist. Now, I’m not suggesting a station plays everything. (Jack style formats say they do, but they really don’t.)

So, how do you surprise your listeners with music? What can you play that will get them to actually look at the radio and say “huh”? There have been obvious social media trends that have driven surprises. Same for TV shows and movies (think Stranger Things). Radio’s reactions to those things are smart. However, we are following, not leading.

Surprise your listeners with forgotten or so-called deep cuts that tie into a cultural moment. Birthdays, historic events, local trends. Anything that allows you to break format for three or four minutes. Of course, these surprises need context. There needs to be a reason for playing that song and there needs to be a strong set-up.

Think of it this way—how many different formats played “Monster Mash” a few weeks back? Did anyone put that in their call-out?

Pop, Rock, Soul, Country, etc. music has been around for about 70 years. That is a ton of familiar songs. Mine for those nuggets and surprise your fans.

Remember—

a surprise generates an emotional response. And isn’t emotion radio’s greatest strength?

-Steve Allan, Programming Research Consultant

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