Finns are good at a lot of things, writes Irene Pleym Jakola – ice hockey, or driving rally cars. Radio, however, is not exactly one of the things Finns are good at. In fact, Finnish radio is rubbish. Of course this is not a fact, simply my personal opinion. Somehow Finnish radio stations must have figured out that no one will listen to their station if they play anything else than mainstream pop and sad Finnish love songs. So that's what they play.

I have had an especially bad experience with a radio station called Radio Nova. Their slogan is Paras sekoitus klassikoita ja tyylikkäimpiä uutuuksia, which means 'the best mix of classic hits and stylish new music'. Personally, I wouldn't really call any of the music they play classic hits or stylish new music. But again, not categorising 'Sorry seems to be the hardest word' by the pop-group Blue either as a classic hit, or as stylish new music, is simply my humble opinion.

So why not just turn off the stupid radio if it bothers you that much? Sadly, stations like Radio Nova are given airtime everywhere. It's what I hear when I am at work, in the toilet after lunchbreak, at the gym, in the grocery store, even on the snowboard slope. Worst of all, they seem only to have a play list of about 30 songs.

These are played every day in a different order. One day, 'Do You Believe' with Cher in the loo, and 'Eternal Flame' with The Bangles when I'm sweating in the gym. The next day they play the exact same songs, only the other way around.

This really started to bother me, so I decided to call Radio Nova and find out if there’s a reason they play the same songs over and over again, and there is. Mikko Harjunpää, who is responsible for the music Radio Nova plays, tells me it’s Radio Nova policy to play the most popular songs four times a day. The reason, he says, is that their average listener only listens to Radio Nova for about two to three hours a day. So to make sure that as many as possible get to hear their favourites, they have to play the biggest hits every three hours.

But why only mainstream pop? Harjunpää explains that their focus is on listeners between 25 and 40 years. So to find classic hits, they have to know what songs were the biggest hits when their listeners were teenagers. They do surveys among their listeners four times a year. When it comes to stylish new music, they have to use their intuition a lot. Harjunpää compares choosing music to making food for children: you find out what they like to eat, and then you mix this so that they don’t have to eat the same dish every day. Radio Nova has about 1, 6 million listeners every week. I have to admit that with 1, 6 million kids I would make a lot of spaghetti with meatballs, too.

With my 23 years, I am not really in Radio Nova’s target group for another two years, so I decided to ask a few people who actually are in the target group what they think about Radio Nova.

Nearly everybody I asked listened to the station, some because they chose it themselves, others because the radio at work was set to Radio Nova. Some liked Nova for the music, or the traffic news, or the DJs. Mikko, 28, a restaurant chef, said it was his ‘second-favourite station.’ One person said it was a good radio station for long distance driving, while a couple of people said they listened to Radio Nova just because of the strong signal.

Some complained about the music, though. One person pointed out that they play the same music all the time, another complained about too much pop, a third said the music was old fashioned.  Elina, 31,  a researcher, said ”the songs are very samey, kind of old. At the same time if you want to hear evergreen Finnish songs, it’s tolerable background music. But it never plays anything new. If I want something Finnish, I listen to SuomiPop, because they play new stuff.”

It would appear, however, that for many listeners Radio Nova knows what they’re doing. Personally I’m just not in Radio Nova’s target group. In theory I should be there in two years, but I strongly doubt that I ever will enjoy hearing the soundtrack from ‘Fame’ twice a day.