How things change.

[gr8oldies]

Firepoint, indeed AT40 was designed to keep the music flowing and the music was edited, cut and Casey’s precision was tight. You may note Casey was IN the music vs overpowering it, which for the time was actually fairly revolutionary.

It was believed that since everyone knew the hits being played, the music was second to what Casey was saying and the audience accepted literal snippets of the music in favor of energy and moving toward the number one song “faster.”
That kept listenership higher for the show and over the years.

Additionally, remember there were/are national spots and local spots so maybe Atlanta would have a larger local adv load than say Pittsburg, so each market would have different timing.

Today’s AT40 (on Hippie and nationally) is from 1979. You may also notice an extra from Prince which was literally released two months before this week back in 79 and hit number 11 two months from now before becoming number 1. So that “fill” is a good example of keeping the extras within the time frame, but not yet on the charts.

Notice how the segments are dissected and often the intended breaks become back to back segments without a commercial.

That may sound completely different in various markets and is designed that way.

Now on with the countdown. LOL.

The SiriusXM 70s on 7 version rolls through the breaks or airs a promo and/or jingle. No Premiere extras air. Folks on the live Twitter chat that goes with the noon ET Saturday airing refer to the bottom songs as the Dirty 30.

 

[firepoint525]

Firepoint, indeed AT40 was designed to keep the music flowing and the music was edited, cut and Casey’s precision was tight. You may note Casey was IN the music vs overpowering it, which for the time was actually fairly revolutionary.
It was believed that since everyone knew the hits being played, the music was second to what Casey was saying and the audience accepted literal snippets of the music in favor of energy and moving toward the number one song “faster.”
That kept listenership higher for the show and over the years.
Additionally, remember there were/are national spots and local spots so maybe Atlanta would have a larger local adv load than say Pittsburg, so each market would have different timing.
Today’s AT40 (on Hippie and nationally) is from 1979. You may also notice an extra from Prince which was literally released two months before this week back in 79 and hit number 11 two months from now before becoming number 1. So that “fill” is a good example of keeping the extras within the time frame, but not yet on the charts.
Notice how the segments are dissected and often the intended breaks become back to back segments without a commercial.
That may sound completely different in various markets and is designed that way.
Now on with the countdown. LOL.

Tibbs, I generally agree, although I believe that if a station was going to "bury" a countdown during weird hours, it would be the Rick Dees countdown. Some of his "humor" is so sophomoric, and this is coming from a guy who loved "Disco Duck" and grew up listening to it.

I know that the current version of the countdown just skips over some of the commercial breaks, and by so doing, creates SOME space for an extra. But they still must abbreviate certain other songs in order to do so, apparently even more than Watermark did back in the day. I'm enjoying this weekend's 1979 countdown, as well as the '78 countdown on '70s on 7. But I also have access to website with all of the cue sheets on it, so if something was entirely taken out of the countdown, I can see it at a moment's notice. Interesting that "Oh Happy Day," played as an extra, was clipped from the '78 countdown, evidently to improve the flow of said countdown.

And now, on with the countdown, indeed.

 

[firepoint525]

The SiriusXM 70s on 7 version rolls through the breaks or airs a promo and/or jingle. No Premiere extras air. Folks on the live Twitter chat that goes with the noon ET Saturday airing refer to the bottom songs as the Dirty 30.

I would be REALLY careful with calling those "stiffs." "Peace of Mind" by Boston peaked at #38 in 1977. But it is still considered a classic. But then "You Light Up My Life" was #1 basically forever, also that same year. Which of those would YOU play on YOUR station?

 

[gr8oldies]

I would be REALLY careful with calling those "stiffs." "Peace of Mind" by Boston peaked at #38 in 1977. But it is still considered a classic. But then "You Light Up My Life" was #1 basically forever, also that same year. Which of those would YOU play on YOUR station?

Relax, it doesn't mean there are no good songs on the bottom 30. Some are climbing, some are dropping, some are known more from play on AOR stations, not from the single. No, I'd likely not play YLUML even though it was number one for 137 weeks.

 

[fedacct1]

If you aren't looking for hits, and you have access to the internet, why bother with radio at all?

I rarely listen to terrestrial radio anymore since I mostly stream even in the car with unlimited cellular data. In fact, I’m wondering if in the future that’s where radio is headed. No problems with reception, and cheaper on the stations than transmitting a radio signal. In fact, I installed an FM radio antenna in the attic and I wonder now why I even did it. I can stream most of the stations I receive over the air.

 

[fedacct1]

One of the reasons many if not most Top 40 stations played American Top 40 early on Sunday morning was that the early hours burnt off the mostly-stiffs under 25 ranked songs so that the higher audience hours at 8 AM or 9 AM got to play the biggies.

I guess I’m one of the few then that like a lot of those below 25 songs even decades later.

 

[fedacct1]

There were plenty of songs that a few people bought, but the inference was that the "rest" were not buying because they either did not like the song all that much or they actually disliked it.

Or because the listener wasn’t exposed to the song because their local station didn’t play it.

 

[gr8oldies]

Or because the listener wasn’t exposed to the song because their local station didn’t play it.

Most people weren't......and aren't.......music geeks.

 

[firepoint525]

Or because the listener wasn’t exposed to the song because their local station didn’t play it.

I still remember that my then-local station literally never played ANYTHING from the Cars' debut album. Most people are absolutely flabbergasted when I tell them that. Aside from the countdown, they literally never played ANYTHING from that first album. The first single got to #27, so definitely should have gotten high enough to at least reach lower rotation. But I never heard ANYTHING from that first album on that station, until a d.j. played something from it about five years later. I believe that I actually liked that first album BECAUSE they ignored it! If I remember right, I bought that first single, and later the album.

 

[firepoint525]

I guess I’m one of the few then that like a lot of those below 25 songs even decades later.

Some of those have gone on to become classics that just weren't appreciated back in their heyday, for any number of reasons.

 

[firepoint525]

I rarely listen to terrestrial radio anymore since I mostly stream even in the car with unlimited cellular data. In fact, I’m wondering if in the future that’s where radio is headed. No problems with reception, and cheaper on the stations than transmitting a radio signal. In fact, I installed an FM radio antenna in the attic and I wonder now why I even did it. I can stream most of the stations I receive over the air.

I remember back when I was in high school, I put an FM antenna on the roof of our house. It opened up a whole new world of music for me that I wasn't getting exposed to, locally. Of course, many of those were local Memphis hits (including one that actually mentioned the call letters of the station, so it couldn't get played anywhere else) that couldn't really be played outside of the local Memphis market. There were one or two like that in my own market that didn't get played anywhere else. I found a brand-new, still unopened, album by one such group about a year or so ago.

 

[sjs1959]

I remember back when I was in high school, I put an FM antenna on the roof of our house. It opened up a whole new world of music for me that I wasn't getting exposed to, locally. Of course, many of those were local Memphis hits (including one that actually mentioned the call letters of the station, so it couldn't get played anywhere else) that couldn't really be played outside of the local Memphis market. There were one or two like that in my own market that didn't get played anywhere else. I found a brand-new, still unopened, album by one such group about a year or so ago.

Might that have been "My radio's pickin' up FM 100"?

 

[gdstout]

I remember back when I was in high school, I put an FM antenna on the roof of our house. It opened up a whole new world of music for me that I wasn't getting exposed to, locally. Of course, many of those were local Memphis hits (including one that actually mentioned the call letters of the station, so it couldn't get played anywhere else) that couldn't really be played outside of the local Memphis market. There were one or two like that in my own market that didn't get played anywhere else. I found a brand-new, still unopened, album by one such group about a year or so ago.

What a great post! Who was the band?

 

[firepoint525]

What a great post! Who was the band?

The Windows. With a name like that, you can see how googling them might be tough. But as I said earlier, I found a brand-new (unopened!) copy of their album at Great Escape last year. Quite a find!

 

[firepoint525]

Might that have been "My radio's pickin' up FM 100"?

Yes, that was one of them. "Germantown Blues" was another. Amazingly, I have been able to find 45s of some of these on ebay. Even so, the wife WON'T let me record over the straight-off-the-radio tapes that I made of some of these songs years ago. I call it my mix-tape, sometimes my FM 100 mix-tape.

 

[Greg Goodfellow]

Some of those have gone on to become classics that just weren't appreciated back in their heyday, for any number of reasons.

Like certain movies, such as “A Christmas Story”. My future son-in-law and I went to Cleveland yesterday for a Cav’s game, with our itinerary including a tour of the house, along with a visit to the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame-my first encounter with all three!

 

[briancraig]

I miss the days when radio would make local songs “hits.” I know this died out after the 1960s in most markets, but in Memphis lots of local music was played into the 1980s.

Rock 103 played Keith Sykes as much as Bob Seger or John Mellencamp and Calculated X as much as the Human League. FM 100 was all over The Breaks. Local funk acts like Xavion got heavy airplay as well as local heavy metal like Medieval Steel. Even records by local wrestling stars like Jimmy Hart and Handsome Jimmy Valiant got substantial airplay.

 

[firepoint525]

I miss the days when radio would make local songs “hits.” I know this died out after the 1960s in most markets, but in Memphis lots of local music was played into the 1980s.

Rock 103 played Keith Sykes as much as Bob Seger or John Mellencamp and Calculated X as much as the Human League. FM 100 was all over The Breaks. Local funk acts like Xavion got heavy airplay as well as local heavy metal like Medieval Steel. Even records by local wrestling stars like Jimmy Hart and Handsome Jimmy Valiant got substantial airplay.

I found that Keith Sykes album at Phonoluxe here in Nashville several years ago, and picked it up. Thanks to Rock 103, I was already familiar with most of it. Miss those days. The local flavor was great!

 

[gdstout]

John Kilzer? I remember KDF playing "Memory in the Making" in the mid to late 80's? I assume he was a big deal in Memphis?

 

[briancraig]

Rock 103 was all over John Kilzer in 1988.

What a nice guy, but sadly he had personal demons he could not overcome.