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Great songs that were Top 40 hits that you never hear on the radio

The Katrina Radiothon was so cool to be involved in.Doing the children's hospital radiothon for Curtis for 4 years was so memorable.I heard so many heartwarming stories of kids and families with more courage than I could ever imagine.I miss seeing the faces of all those amazing people in Chapel Hill every November.

Allen
 
allenv said:
Double J,
Hang onto that issue if you can.I'd like to read the article.Sounds interesting..

Allen
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I will, it's still at the station and I tried to photocopy it but the magazine was too big to copy. I'm not sure if Radio and Records has this same article on their website.
 
The most unusual song I can recall ever hearing on a store's sound system was the Anthology version of "I'm Looking Through You" by the Beatles. Which is interesting because the fab four decided not to release that version of the song themselves. Yet there I was hearing it in the store, 30 years later.

The only drawback to in-store listening is that they interrupt the music for their "in-store" commercials! :mad: I feel like screaming out, "hey, I was listening to that!" :mad: It's bad enough that they interrupt it to page someone, but that is usually only for a few seconds.
 
firepoint525 said:
The most unusual song I can recall ever hearing on a store's sound system was the Anthology version of "I'm Looking Through You" by the Beatles. Which is interesting because the fab four decided not to release that version of the song themselves. Yet there I was hearing it in the store, 30 years later.

The only drawback to in-store listening is that they interrupt the music for their "in-store" commercials! :mad: I feel like screaming out, "hey, I was listening to that!" :mad: It's bad enough that they interrupt it to page someone, but that is usually only for a few seconds.
Click to expand...

I cannot speak for other retailers, but as far as I can tell (I really can't stop to listen to find out except at lunch and breaks) Wal-Mart does play the whole song and except for the interruptions for paging someone that is the only interruption there is. But in most reailers you are right they do interrupt the music for a commercial which is really weird and would never happen on the radio.
 
w00t said:
I seriously don't know the actual answer to this, but my stab in the dark...

Radio needs to capture you NOW. You're punching the buttons, you need a song you know NOW. RIGHT NOW. Not later, and they know if you don't know the song you're going to keep punching (and maybe not come back for a long time -- again, that's not NOW).

In the grocery store you have a captive audience who's more focused on which brand of milk will save them 15 cents. They don't care what's playing, and they probably want something relaxing. You're not going to run from Food Lion and drive straight to Lowe's Foods because you didn't like the song. But, if 101.5 is playing something you don't like, it's not hard to push the button and go to 103.3.
Click to expand...
With me, Food Lion will lose sales if they're not relaxing. The music is the loudest around soup, which requires the most concentration. If the music is too loud, I'll just forget soup that day.

They used to have it turned up so loud all over the store that people could actually hear the advertising. So every time I walked in I had to tell them to turn it down. One manager refused to do it but the 800 number got so many complaints about him from me he didn't last. Eventually they did start playing the music more softly. It's a good thing,m because some of the songs are really loud now.
 
Is it a fast song? There was a fast dance song by O'Brian I think Baby turn on your Love light, tonight will you please be mine it may be O Bryan
 
;D ;D ;D :eek: Great 1st Post??? But, What are you talkig about???
 
w00t said:
Tight playlists are not why radio is in the state it's in. The computer you're sitting at right now, iPods, satellite radio (to an extent), cell phones that hold music, etc etc etc are why radio isn't doing well. Radio had tight playlists since the beginning, but until this century it did not have such easily accessible sources of music working against it.

Just like surfdude and I already said... listeners want instant gratification. They want their favorite song RIGHT NOW. Radio can't do that, but their iPod and phone can. The current generation, myself included (I'm 23) have grown up getting what we want, on demand, when we want it. I love radio because I used to be in it. Nobody else I know with access to any kind of musical device gives two craps about music-formatted radio. And even if they tried, radio couldn't please them. People can custom-tailor their playlists to be what they want, when they want it, and there aren't enough frequencies between 88.1 and 107.9 to replicate this. HD radio is a temporary solution to a permanent problem. It too will go by the wayside.

Just like someone who wants cable where they move, I made XM a requirement when I bought my current car. I've had a satellite subscription for 4 years or so now, but there's one thing I still turn back to terrestrial radio for... talk radio. That's the one thing left that radio has going for it. Rush isn't on satellite, and the AM stations I listen to are at least semi-local, moreso than the couple FM's I frequent. Wide playlists are not the future of radio, localism is. I know people my age who listen to Pirate Radio. I don't know people my age who still care that 93.3 plays top 40. Hell they probably couldn't even name the top 40 station.
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The above was posted a long time ago, but I still agree with most of it including the advantage of localism. The only thing I would add as a consideration is that you have to consider offices that might lock in on a safe adult contempory station. I also have friends that work as laborers where a foreman will put on a country or classic rock station and it'll stay there all day. So not every situation offers the possibility of an iPod, XM or HD. Consider all the places you find yourself throughout the day where you don't have control of what you're hearing.
 
Tom Wells said:
w00t said:
I seriously don't know the actual answer to this, but my stab in the dark...

Radio needs to capture you NOW. You're punching the buttons, you need a song you know NOW. RIGHT NOW. Not later, and they know if you don't know the song you're going to keep punching (and maybe not come back for a long time -- again, that's not NOW).

In the grocery store you have a captive audience who's more focused on which brand of milk will save them 15 cents. They don't care what's playing, and they probably want something relaxing. You're not going to run from Food Lion and drive straight to Lowe's Foods because you didn't like the song. But, if 101.5 is playing something you don't like, it's not hard to push the button and go to 103.3.
Click to expand...

Very important point! A byproduct of which is why we have such awful AM radios.
In order to do this, we give away the ability to TUNE, rather than select at fixed 10 khz steps "on freq".
Another discussion on engineering would show how institutionalized "bad AM" sound has been created by this "concept".

As soon as manufacturers began to address pushbutton select on radios (1937), the actual performance of the
radio was a step lower than when an "extra" RF gain preselector stage was state of the art.
Well, except for car radios with the cam-and-coil rocker, which was built like a tank, but only gave 5 or 6 presets,
and you had to remember which were for AM/FM.

Back to the point, maybe the NAB should lobby for limits on punch rate, or a timer, or something to prevent all
this bouncing around. The radio would just be stuck for a while after too many changes too soon.
It could unlock after 30 minutes or so. ;)

On the retail sales music,
I've noticed this too. A month ago in Baton Rouge at gas station where I heard two songs somewhat off the beaten oldies
path that I have on my pt 15 format. They were both songs once overplayed, dropped many years off oldies if they ever were
in "oldies", but stand up well in retrospect. Neither one was " Pictures of Matchstick Men" but I play that too.
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What we need is a Radio Dictator.

"You will listen, and you will like it!!!" ;)
 
;D Thought we already had one..named "Clear Channel"!
 
"Sweetheart" - Frankie and the Knockouts
"Shakedown Cruise" - Jay Ferguson
"Video Killed the Radio Star" - Buggles
 
I am playing almost 95% of these songs on Cable 7 in Greenville NC. I remember the great Top 40 format. I do however refuse to play "You Light Up My Life" Debbie Boone. I heard that song a thousand times an hour during 1977 and refuse to hear it again.
 
MAB said:
I am playing almost 95% of these songs on Cable 7 in Greenville NC. I remember the great Top 40 format. I do however refuse to play "You Light Up My Life" Debbie Boone. I heard that song a thousand times an hour during 1977 and refuse to hear it again.
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To each his/her own, but I think that you'd be doing a disservice to those who have never heard the song before. And believe it or not there are those out there who have not. Not to mention those who would love to hear it again but don't hear it on their local stations anymore because of the same thinking by many PDs/MDs/consultants. Just because you may not like the song doesn't mean that there aren't others out there who do. Probably more who do than don't.

I used to despise Fleetwood Mac's Tusk and I had heard it on the radio until I would puke, but after a few years of not hearing it on the radio I played it one day and I have come to like it now. Age and time have a way of changing our perspective on things.
 
Hey, Great to see you guys still around!! I'd forgot about this thread...BIG APE!
 
Yep I'm still here. I was surprised when the thread got re-awakened.
 
You'll hear a few of these tunes with me on 1070 in the AM....Cable 7 plays great music mostly from the world's largest music library of John Creech..Joel Whitburn ain't got nothin' on John..My library is small peanuts compared to his..

Allen
 
Double J said:
squarehead said:
Double J,
If you haven't already checked out Q rock radio, then go to:

http://www.qrockradio.com

I think you will really enjoy the music and presentation.

blaine
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Sounds good! Probably the best online processing I've heard to date.
Click to expand...

JJ!!! I'm shocked, shocked I say. :eek: My processing is insulted. I'll now go into a corner and sob uncontrollably. :p
OBTW, while we're all shamelessly promoting our stations, let me pile on. Radio 252 has added a new AAC+ stereo stream. It's so new I haven't even linked it on the website yet. Try http://72.20.6.90:8552 with Winamp, VLC or any other player that can handle AAC+.
Now, back to my corner...
 
Marathon Don said:
Double J said:
squarehead said:
Double J,
If you haven't already checked out Q rock radio, then go to:

http://www.qrockradio.com

I think you will really enjoy the music and presentation.

blaine
Click to expand...

Sounds good! Probably the best online processing I've heard to date.
Click to expand...

JJ!!! I'm shocked, shocked I say. :eek: My processing is insulted. I'll now go into a corner and sob uncontrollably. :p
OBTW, while we're all shamelessly promoting our stations, let me pile on. Radio 252 has added a new AAC+ stereo stream. It's so new I haven't even linked it on the website yet. Try http://72.20.6.90:8552 with Winamp, VLC or any other player that can handle AAC+.
Now, back to my corner...
Click to expand...

I didn't mean to offend there. I as trying to say that their processing sounded very good. I guess the words came out a little wrong. Your processing sounds the best.
 
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