I know this is kind of a weird question, but I have noticed that radio stations (at least a few of the ones around here) play an edited version of certain songs. The 2 I know of off the top of my head are Possum Kingdom by the Toadies and Stars by Hum.
I'm not talking about cutting out curse words, it just cutting out part of the song for no apparent reason. Like towards the end of Possum Kingdom, they cut out some of the "Do you wanna die?" lines that are repeated a bunch of times.
Maybe someone around here has worked at a radio station and could answer this because it bugs the shit out of me.

wtf?

It's just more agenda of the pussification of America.

I've heard radio stations edit out "high" like we're back in the 60's on the Ed Sullivan show.

Some of this may have to do with time constraints. Often, pop stations only deal with songs that are 4 minutes or less (Lady Gaga is the major exception with that). They want to pack in as many songs on their lists. Other stations aren't as strict about it, AFAIK.

I always notice this when they play Down with the sickness, and cut the abuse part.

It's almost always because of the length of the song. Radio stations like songs that are a little over 3 minutes.

I do remember November Rain getting played in its entirety though. But that's when Guns N Roses was the biggest band in the world.

It's rarely the radio station doing this. Record companies often provide stations with 'radio edit' versions of songs specially mixed for airplay. These edits are not just cut for content but also for time. Sometimes they'll pare down a guitar solo, or cut out a long intro. Sometimes it's only a difference of ten seconds and you have to listen closely to figure out the difference.

It was a beautiful song but it ran too long.
If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit.
So they cut it down to 3:05.

Sometimes, if a song is close to the 3:30 mark and the record company didn't provide a radio edit, they'll speed up the play to meet time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_edit

Thanks for the answers guys

In some cases the artist will record a seperate shorter version for the single. Every Three Dog Night single was a seperate, different version than the album version. The Guess Who did it on a few songs. Not sure if the Rare Earth hits were different versions.

One of my great joys, being a child of the 70's, was buying an album for the songs I'd heard on the radio a million times & finding out there was a whole nother 3-4 minutes of it I'd never head. Seems back then, everything was edited to 3:35 even though the album cuts ran 5-8 minutes.

As with everything else, it's all about cramming in more commercials.

what do expect with corporate US radio stations - they already suck and their days are numbered anyway

Haha, that popped into my head as well.

I think everyone has mentioned it, that Radio Stations like songs that get straight to the point.

When one of my friends' old bands were recording their last album (to be more Radio Friendly), they were told by their management to pretty much refrain from doing long intros and to have songs start in around 15-20 seconds (or less)

Yeah, I hate the fuckin' man, too.

Terrestrial radio? People still listen to that?

My XM just went on the fritz and I have been listening to terrestrial for the first time in almost 10 years. The commercial load is incredible. It's pretty common to browse through all the presets on my radio and not hear a single song. Also, the playlists are 90% identical to what they were a decade ago.

What's worse is when DJs talk over the front and back end of a song. God I'm glad I switched to pandora.

I like official radio edits by artists, they are usually so logical and meaningful, but I hate when radiostations cut whole verses or bridges off

You guys *still* listen to the radio?

And yes, they....well, KROQ in my particular case...have been doing this for DECADES! It's nothing new. It's one of the reasons I stopped listening to the radio altogether in the late 90's.

I used to listen to KROQ during college back in 1984. I remember Richard Blade and I loved Rodney B.'s show.

I have also noticed that a shortened radio-edit version of "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden gets played on either KROQ or Star 98.7, or both (I don't remember).

Another example off the top of my head is the Door's "Light My Fire". The version played on 95.5 KLOS is the long album version, but the one played on K-Earth 101 is the shortened version which eliminates the roughly five minute instrumental in the middle of the song.

One more thing, is it my imagination or do some/most radio stations play music at a higher speed (about 1.4x speed)? It sounds faster than when I play a CD on a regular CD player.

Two high profile examples I can think of off the top of my head:

Prince-1999
Virtually everyone knows this song, it's a radio staple, but the version that's played on the radio and featured on all of Prince's hits packages is the single version. The version on the album is different. Not extremely different, but slightly and it has a spoken intro. The single version isn't a "radio edit" but nevertheless...

UB40-Red Red Wine
Probably the bands biggest hit. The version played on the radio is VERY shortened, and not only that, the video is a shortened version of the song too.