I'm surprised this thread has continued as long as it has. Although KRTH seems to generate a great deal of passion. To clarify a couple of points from a prior post. The fact that "hey Jude" - whether one likes the song or not, not finding itself in a classic hits / oldies top 500 countdown is still rather shocking to me.
"Rappers delight" *by the sugar hill gang amassed enough votes on this years survey to come in at number 189
"On the dark side", not musically surprising, but much like Bryan Adams "summer of 69" - was not a record to my knowledge ever played on KRTH previously - and being such is difficult to believe would attract enough votes to make the survey and beat out perennial favorites.
Ratings slippage for one book may not be indicative of anything. However many here have been citing KRTH issues when they were at 3.8 - 3.5 may be cause for concern.*
As for mr.Sebastian - no doubt top 40 music on am was in deep trouble when he replaced Michael spears in 1978. If memory serves me correct, within months, he blew up the format of the previous 13 years. He is remembered as the one who brought drastic, maybe desperate changes to the playlist, took away the personalities and removed the jingles all in part to make KHJ sound more "fm". It didn't work. By the time chuck Martin took over in 1979 the damage done was too deep.
I stand corrected on "Rapper's Delight".
Again, remember that the list was asking people, from the top of their heads to name their three favorite songs. Not "what do you think was big or important". If you figure that the bulk of votes were likely people in their 40s and "Hey Jude" is 45, it's not a surprise. I'm 57. "Hey Jude" might...maybe...have made my three favorite songs the first month it was out. Not since.
Some people here think the countdown is rigged if it's only songs on the KRTH playlist. I agree that those songs are most likely to get votes from KRTH listeners, but it's clear that when you say "your three favorite songs", there will be others. It doesn't surprise me that either Bryan Adams or John Cafferty had enough common votes.
"Rapper's Delight" surprises me.
6+ tells you nothing about demos. This would be a good time for David to tell us if there was any significant change 25-54.
As for Sebastian, well, KHJ really wasn't a model of stability. Within 7 months of Bill Drake's departure from RKO, Gerry Petersen was playing 180 records total at 48 RPM and writing memos telling jocks like Danny Martinez and Tony Mann to drop their "g"s to sound more relatable.
A year later, Charlie Van Dyke hired the best voices in the business (keeping only Machine Gun Kelly) and put on a polished, precise sound).
After two and a half years, Michael Spears tried making the station more adult, which scaled back production values, curtailed jock talk and instituted no-talk, no ID music sets.
And the numbers fell. Teens and young adults began bolting...not to KFI or KTNQ, but to KLOS and KMET, which blew past KHJ.
Sebastian was hired because in 1978, he was the most successful AM Top 40 programmer in the country. KDWB was huge, beating not only Top 40 challengers, but AOR.
When he got to KHJ, he realized it was KMET and KLOS that was eating KHJ's lunch. And he stopped it, reversed it for a book. Stayed ahead of KLOS and the other Top 40s, but KMET came back. John chose to defend against them.
In 20/20 hindsight, he could never have won that. But at the time, it was KMET that was taking KHJ's audience. And he kept KHJ #1 among Top 40s while he was there.
Did it work? Not in the long term. What would have?
