We have aged out of the radio demo. Where the hits were more important in our 20's and 30's, our musical tastes widen in our 40's, and top 40 radio becomes repetitive and stale. I listen to very different musical selections than what my stations play, but then again I am over 50.
I'm not sure that is true. The "radio demo" covers a lot of ground and many genres. I haven't changed genres, only the delivery method. Because there are far fewer OTA stations that provide my preferred music I find them on other platforms. I could still listen to a T-40 playlist from any period 1955-1985 and be pretty satisfied with the song selection. But current T-40 (or whatever they call it now) nada.