A Calgary radio station is cutting songs in half so as not to “bore” listeners.

As the Financial Post reports, AMP, which plays a mix of Top 40 and Adult Alternative, is the latest station to make use of the Quickhitz format. In this particular approach, AMP edits the usual three or four-minute songs into two-minute “snippets.” With less actual music, they can now play 24 songs an hour over the 12-per-hour of most other stations. Quickhitz was originally developed last September by the Vancouver-based consulting firm Sparknet Communications. Several other stations in the US have already picked up on the format... So, what’s the consensus thus far? “A lot of people can’t detect the music has been edited,” said Hillary Hommy, Sparknet’s vice-president of brands and networks.

Oof. Leave it to a consulting/branding firm to act on adults' now even SHORTER attention spans! (Sigh.) To some degree, I do understand what they're doing; in the past, radio singles were traditionally no longer than 2:30 and some DJs would speed up some songs in order to fit more songs into their show. However, those songs were composed in context of the singles format, whereas the Quickhitz abbreviations are some kinda less means MORE (unsanctioned) edits. Oh, I did listen to AMP for a bit to get the feel of their edits and the abrupt stops were covered by very short segues; it was a little weird. I hear DJs mix like this occasionally and, depending on how in-the-know the clubgoers are, their jarring dead-stop edit/mixes can clear the floor faster than party butt.