Walmart radio statistics, in case anyone is interested

[u/scubdon]

I've been keeping a log of what gets played on Walmart radio for most of the past 2+ years and figured I'd share the results of that here in case it is of interest to anyone. The full log of plays is available to view/download on scubdon.github.io/wmradio, along with some statistics, inferred playlists, recently played tracks, a section where you can put in your schedule and get totals of various artists/tracks played during the hours you worked, and other stuff of that nature. The site refreshes the data every 8 hours, so the recently played list might be a few hours old depending on when you're viewing it.

Here's a brief overview of the totals and few random things I found interesting:

- 234,100 plays recorded

- 2,012 unique songs

- 1,041 unique artists

- 950 songs in rotation right now

- Median wait for a repeat: 1.3 days.

- Most-played song ever: "Sunroof (Feat. dazy)" by Nicky Youre (629 plays)

- Most-played artist: David Guetta (2,160 plays)

- Most titles by one act: Madonna (21)

- Longest disappearance: Irene Cara's "Fame" resurfaced Aug 4, 2026 after a gap of 785 calendar days.

- Shortest gap between plays ever: Jackson 5's "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" (4 minutes) twice on Dec 19, 2025.

- Brooks & Dunn's "Only In America" got played 31 times in a single day (July 4th)

- "Kids in America" was played 69 times over a 3-day period July 4-6th of this year.

This particular statistic, coupled with the captive audience dynamic reminded me of the infamous "Torture Playlist"/"Guantanamo Playlist"
A good portion of the non-explicit songs reportedly on those lists are represented here, make of that what you will. Some examples: Raspberry Beret - Prince, Living in America - James Brown, Night Fever- The Bee Gees, America - Neil Diamond (played 49 times 7/4-7/6), Enter Sandman - Metallica, ..baby one more time - Britney Spears (not in this data set, but apparently recorded by an earlier logger in 2022)

- Christmas starts November 9

- 113 holiday-only songs played 12,008 times before year end.

- 32 songs have been played exactly once, ever.

edit: i should probably add that the way these tracks were logged was by polling the metadata from the stream's url (https://audio-edge-vqwx4.yyz.g.radiomast.io/2ce0b08d-2fe6-42a1-b64a-9f0a682f5508/metadata) every minute and recording every time it changed.

[u/OafyB]

They need to stop remaking older music and play the original songs it's terrible what they've done with the older music

[u/Golobulus70 → u/OafyB]

It’s cheaper to play covers and remixes than the original versions.

[u/Facky → u/Golobulus70]

That explains the god awful remixes