Investigation of a random radio sampling method for selecting ecologically valid music programme material

When performing subjective tests of an audio system, it is necessary to use appropriately selected programme material to excite that system. Programme material is often required to be wide-ranging and representative of commonly consumed audio, whilst having minimal selection bias. A random radio sampling procedure was investigated for its ability to produce such a stimulus set. Nine popular stations were sampled at six di↵erent times of day over a number of days to produce a 200-item pool. Musical and signal-based characteristics were examined; the items were found to span a wide range of genres and years, and physical similarities were found between items in the same genre. The proposed method is beneficial for collecting a wide and representative stimulus set.