Virgin Radio have banned chart-topping acts such as All Saints and Ronan Keating - because they are too young.
The UK national station will instead return to its original format of classic rock and pop rather than chart songs - the popular format dropped in 1998 after Chris Evans' takeover.
Tracks by Eminem and Ricky Martin have also fallen out of favour as Virgin re-focuses on the 30 to 40 age group.
Performers such as Macy Gray, Robbie Williams and The Corrs will continue to have some airtime as "crossover" artists, though it will be scaled down.
Henry Owens, the Cork-born programme director for Virgin, said: "The majority of radio stations have responded to the trend for manufactured music, competing for a younger age profile of 15 to 24-year-olds and cluttering the market with stations with little point of differentiation.
"Our listeners do not know what is at number one in the charts, nor do they care."