The trend of recording engineers and mixing engineers compressing dynamic range is directly connected with the fact that people aren't listening on the radio, but rather directly on a digital media player. Radio stations incorporate dynamic processing throughout the broadcast day to manage background noise from listening in a car during morning or afternoon "drive time." Even classical stations like WCRB Boston, limit dynamic range during those hours. People listening on earbuds are often in noisy environments too, such as at work, riding a bus, jogging, etc. They don't get the effect of a radio station's loudness processing (Texar Audio Prisms, Optimods, etc.) in those environments because of listening to the player directly. Thus, engineers who grew up in the digital era mix hot for those playback devices. Old guys like me "mix for radio." Having a strong broadcast engineering background really did help my producing career back then. These days though, probably not so much.
