Your Favorite Songs, Abridged

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Last Friday, a Top 40 radio station in Calgary, Alberta, introduced listeners to a new format. As one on-air stinger put it, "90.3 AMP: Now twice the music."

When they say "twice the music," though, they actually mean half the song. That is, this station plays songs that have been heavily edited: long opening riffs, instrumental breaks, even a chorus or two might disappear. The goal, the station's representatives say, is to keep listeners from getting bored.

The programming man behind this venture is Steve Jones, vice president at the Canadian radio firm Newcap, who says the three- to five-minute pop song is out of date: a relic of the era of 45 RPM singles. Hear his conversation with NPR's Melissa Block at the audio link.