Ignoring a #1 hit?

[SomeRadioGuy]

I once programmed an adult leaning Hot ac on the west coast.. and my GM who was 62 and awake from 4am till 8am and only ever listened to us.. complained we played the same songs too much.

I told her "You clearly don't understand the format than....... stations that run some flavor of hit music will play their powers 4 to 12 times a day. We play ours 4, our competitors across town do 8 to 12. Our listeners want to hear whats familiar to them"

then one sales person who was 60 said her client told her we needed to play more 90s to which i replied ,"no no no and no... then we become something other then our current format and slide much closer to our competitor which we dont wanna do for multiple reasons, including the fact we'll never ever beat them"

 

[seatownmedia]

To take this topic back 45 years, the two Seattle top4o’s at the time KJR and KING didn’t play the number one hit “Disco Lady”. I guess they felt it was too urban for their listeners.

 

[Kelly A]

To take this topic back 45 years, the two Seattle top4o’s at the time KJR and KING didn’t play the number one hit “Disco Lady”. I guess they felt it was too urban for their listeners.

And everyone knew that only white folks listened to KJR and KING. KYAC was enough for the minority population in Seattle back in the day.

 

[TexasTom]

To take this topic back 45 years, the two Seattle top4o’s at the time KJR and KING didn’t play the number one hit “Disco Lady”. I guess they felt it was too urban for their listeners.

Seattle was a very "white" market at the time -- but the thing is that I do remember hearing "Disco Lady" on Top 40 radio when it was current. Since I lived in Tacoma at the time, it is possible that KTAC played it while the Seattle stations held back on it.

 

[Gregg.]

I remember when the Top 40 station in Portland ME was also nearly all white. It was WJBQ 106.3 FM and 1440 AM. (Not the current 97.9 WJBQ which has a playlist similar to other markets.)

My family would vacation in Maine for a couple of weeks every year. I kept wondering why this station sounds so much different than the Top 40 stations in NYC? Then eventually I put my finger on it. I wasn't hearing ANY urban crossovers. The only African American artist they played was Stevie Wonder. But I assume it wasn't prejudice. The station simply made the decision in a market that was 90+% white, this was the way to go.

 

[seatownmedia]

Of course these decisions were made on what the perceptuals gathered. Or were made on what the PD’s believed. The two didn’t always go hand in hand.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Maybe some thought that the lyrics of "Disco Lady" were too suggestive at the time. The lyrics of "Who's Making Love" probably cost Johnnie Taylor the #1 Hot 100 position, as the lyrics of "Brown Eyed Girl" probably cost Van Morrison the #1 Hot 100 position. Many markets censored them, and the sales were lost in those markets.

I remember that WLS wouldn't play "Rapture" by Blondie because it was at least phonetically ambiguous what two rhyming lines of the lyrics were.

 

[CTListener]

Maybe some thought that the lyrics of "Disco Lady" were too suggestive at the time. The lyrics of "Who's Making Love" probably cost Johnnie Taylor the #1 Hot 100 position, as the lyrics of "Brown Eyed Girl" probably cost Van Morrison the #1 Hot 100 position. Many markets censored them, and the sales were lost in those markets.

I remember that WLS wouldn't play "Rapture" by Blondie because it was at least phonetically ambiguous what two rhyming lines of the lyrics were.

There also was a snipped version of the Spinners' "One of a Kind Love Affair" missing a shouted line in the fade that some interpreted as "you've just got to f--- her, yeah." Since it was an ad-lib, it doesn't appear in the published lyrics, but some say that the word was actually "hug." Others say it was "hurt." Anyway, it was apparently so potentially offensive that a radio edit was made.

I wonder if censorship of lyrics really hurt sales of any record enough to cost it significant sales. Did listeners actually buy more copies of "Brown Eyed Girl" in places where the Top 40 station was airing the "making love in the green grass" version than they bought in markets where the station played the prudish radio edit? Obviously, sales would be minimal in any market where no station aired either version.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Hall and Oates even waited until the very end, where stations could easily fade out on "Rich Girl" where they used both rhyming adjectives describing the "girl", as the B word was already becoming more taboo than many others. Only Meredith Brooks could get away with it when describing herself, as part of a multifaceted personality. Elton John was apparently describing himself also.

 

[seatownmedia]

Hall and Oates even waited until the very end, where stations could easily fade out on "Rich Girl" where they used both rhyming adjectives describing the "girl", as the B word was already becoming more taboo than many others. Only Meredith Brooks could get away with it when describing herself, as part of a multifaceted personality. Elton John was apparently describing himself also.

Interesting…if you call yourself a bitch it is OK. Never really thought about that when those songs came out.

 

[tall_guy1]

Hall and Oates even waited until the very end, where stations could easily fade out on "Rich Girl" where they used both rhyming adjectives describing the "girl", as the B word was already becoming more taboo than many others. Only Meredith Brooks could get away with it when describing herself, as part of a multifaceted personality. Elton John was apparently describing himself also.

Was that word censored when it first came out? The stations in KC play it uncensored. I've also heard "The Bitch is Back" by Elton John.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Was that word censored when it first came out? The stations in KC play it uncensored. I've also heard "The Bitch is Back" by Elton John.

While the Rich B**** epithet was out there for a long time, by the time "Rich Girl" came out, it was already on the way out. Where both words were used together, it was at the very end, where an early fade out on a cart could have been used if they found it objectionable.

"Rhapsody In The Rain" by Lou Christie was also banned by many radio stations, and only reached #16 Hot 100. BTW, the lead background singer ("together together together") on that and "Lightnin' Strikes" is Peggy Santiglia (Farina), who is one half of the songwriting team who wrote "Beggin'" in 1967. The remake by Maneskin recently reached #1 in numerous countries, #13 Hot 100 US, and was performed on The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live recently. Peggy was interviewed recently and said that the lyrics were written on a napkin during a relationship that was going badly, and were refined and put with a melody together with Bob Gaudio.

 

[seatownmedia]

Interesting…if you call yourself a bitch it is OK. Never really thought about that when those songs came out.

Seattle was a very "white" market at the time -- but the thing is that I do remember hearing "Disco Lady" on Top 40 radio when it was current. Since I lived in Tacoma at the time, it is possible that KTAC played it while the Seattle stations held back on it.

I noticed this as a teen when I listened to American Top40 with Casey Kasem. When he introduced the number one song in the spring of ‘76, I thought “what?” because I had never heard “Disco Lady” before as my Seattle stations didn’t play it.

 

[davideduardo]

How would it "mirror a company playlist."

Mirror: looks identical.

 

[Kelly A]

Was that word censored when it first came out? The stations in KC play it uncensored. I've also heard "The Bitch is Back" by Elton John.

Answer: No, there wasn't a 'radio airplay' edited version of either song mentioned. If a station didn't want those words used in the lyrics, they just didn't play the song(s).

 

[b-turner]

Funny thing, I was jocking an only station in town small market station along the Texas border. We were top 40. We played "The Bitch Is Back" by Elton John but our GM said we probably shouldn't mention the name of the song. I recall an editorial, however, where he criticized the city council for "bitchin' and moaning" instead of working on a remedy to a problem.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Funny thing, I was jocking an only station in town small market station along the Texas border. We were top 40. We played "The Bitch Is Back" by Elton John but our GM said we probably shouldn't mention the name of the song. I recall an editorial, however, where he criticized the city council for "bitchin' and moaning" instead of working on a remedy to a problem.

Like some other words that are taboo, it seems to be that some can be a noun or a verb or an exclamation, and with suffixes, adjectives, and that makes a difference. Also, some you can refer to yourself and it‘s more OK, but to others, not OK. Various editing, where for example, beeping it out, say in “The Fish Ain’t Bitin’” by Lamont Dozier, or just dropping the word from the vocal track and not the instrumental tracks, like “Absolutely”, by Nine Days, or just fading it early at the end or cutting out parts in broadcast versions.

 

[landtuna]

"Bitchin'" was popular back in the 60's by none other than the Beach Boys (not necessarily in their songs but in their interviews).

"Bitch" was a common noun from one female to another (with intense dislike of course).

"It's a bitch" was to describe something terrible and I don't think it was ever considered a cuss word.

"Bitchin'" was actually a positive description of something very neat i.e., a custom car. Not applied to another person.

I tried explaining the above to my foreign-born daughter and her 10 year old American daughter. My daughter could not understand. Granddaughter understood immediately.

American English is great, no?

 

[seatownmedia]

“American English is great, no?”. Yes.

 

[MVB13]

The English language is one of the hardest languages to learn. No wonder people struggle. I still have trouble with English lol and it's my first language! 😄 🤣