Live Radio

How do radio stations decide to play a studio recording versus a live recording of a song?

For example, I feel that the studio recording of "Slow Ride" by Foghat sucks while the live version is dang good. Why would the radio stations not play the live version? Does this have to do with a business decision? On the other hand ... radio always plays Peter Frampton's live songs rather than the studio recordings. What's up?

Public Comments

1. Yeah, it's business. DJ's have a song set list they have to follow. As far as Peter Frampton, his live version of "Do You Feel Like We Do" was better and more popular than any of his other studio stuff, got it gets airtime. I agree with you, the live version of "Slow Ride" is better, and not just because I'm a bass player.
2. Enough requests changes everything. Believe it or not, it doesn't take more than 20-50 requests in a month or too to get a song attention.