A method and apparatus for more efficiently scheduling transmission of page messages over a paging channel in a radio access network (RAN). The RAN, which generally assigns slotted messages a higher transmission priority than non-slotted messages, may determine a level of occupancy of the paging channel either periodically, continuously, or responsive to a triggering event. Thereafter, the RAN may compare the level of occupancy to a load threshold, which may either be based on (i) a predicted probability of non-slotted messages that will result from slotted messages in the RAN, or (ii) a ratio of non-slotted messages to slotted messages in the RAN. If the load threshold is based on the ratio, the RAN may determine the load threshold before making the comparison. After making the comparison, the RAN may assign non-slotted messages a higher transmission priority than slotted messages if the level of occupancy exceeds the load threshold.