FM radio, like all broadcast radio, is geared to morning and afternoon drive time as people go to work and back home. In some markets, off rush hour programming has added syndicated shows to attract listeners but the ad rates are much lower, reflecting the lower number of them.
What you’re missing completely is that 1- many stations subscribe to programming services that tell them which songs to play and when to play them. Here in Tidewater & Central Virginia, there are 4 Classic Rock stations that play basically the same songs daily but in a different orders. If you don’t like the majority of those songs, you won’t like those stations. 2-Satellite radio has siphoned off listeners that spend a lot of time driving and wish to control their programming by using the stations on it dedicated to specific artists and genres. 3-Most people don’t even own an FM receiver anymore. They listen to music on their laptops, tablets, smart phones, etc. 4-When I was on the road for work I used my cd player far more than I listened to any radio stations.
To your other point about FM signal compression - that is going to be constant whether the sound source is digital or analog, and most major radio stations stopped using turntables decades ago.
What you’re missing completely is that 1- many stations subscribe to programming services that tell them which songs to play and when to play them. Here in Tidewater & Central Virginia, there are 4 Classic Rock stations that play basically the same songs daily but in a different orders. If you don’t like the majority of those songs, you won’t like those stations. 2-Satellite radio has siphoned off listeners that spend a lot of time driving and wish to control their programming by using the stations on it dedicated to specific artists and genres. 3-Most people don’t even own an FM receiver anymore. They listen to music on their laptops, tablets, smart phones, etc. 4-When I was on the road for work I used my cd player far more than I listened to any radio stations.
To your other point about FM signal compression - that is going to be constant whether the sound source is digital or analog, and most major radio stations stopped using turntables decades ago.