No One Direction on Virgin CHR's

[NostalgiaKills]

Interesting that Virgin 99.9, "Toronto's #1 Hit Music Station" isn't spinning either of One Direction's two hit singles, according to Nielsen BDS. Every CHR in Canada except Virgin T.O. is on them.

What's the story? Was Virgin overlooked for Z or Kiss when the band was in town for a promo tour and this is payback? Or is Virgin deciding to buck the next boy band wave at Top 40 Radio? Music scheduling error maybe?

edit:
After receiving a heads up and checking for myself, it appears all Virgin CHR formatted stations in English Canada (Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton) are withholding One Direction airplay. Sounds like a programming decision from Astral headquarters.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

It might be in an effort to tear away from the "Tween" audience and lean more teen/twenty something.
Sort of like how, in 1997 many CHR's steered clear of Mmmmbop even though it was still an okay song.

 

[ksradiogeek]

Ha! That's funny! "ALL THE HITS" my ass!

 

[azumanga]

Doing the Google search, the fact that Astral's Virgin stations are ignoring One Direction is highly exaggerated:

https://www.google.com/search?num=1...9.0.168.1982.16j4.20.0...0.0...1c.KaoROGhPKsU

 

[Frank72]

I'm a CHR programmer in Canada (not Astral) and the first single tested mediocre for us. We dropped One Thing after it tested dead last out of about 25 songs. It's not a hit.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

I'm a CHR programmer in Canada (not Astral) and the first single tested mediocre for us. We dropped One Thing after it tested dead last out of about 25 songs. It's not a hit.

Not doubting your point or intending to challenge it in any way, but when you say not a hit, do you mean not a hit at all?
Or perhaps not for the age group your station prefers to have?
Is it a hit for an audience that's just too young perhaps?

 

[Frank72]

I'm a CHR programmer in Canada (not Astral) and the first single tested mediocre for us. We dropped One Thing after it tested dead last out of about 25 songs. It's not a hit.

Not doubting your point or intending to challenge it in any way, but when you say not a hit, do you mean not a hit at all?
Or perhaps not for the age group your station prefers to have?
Is it a hit for an audience that's just too young perhaps?

I mean it's not a hit. In the sense it will likely peak outside the top 10 (US). Even on national callout, it's testing #44 out of 55 songs.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

Ah, okay, thanks very much!

 

[ksradiogeek]

I'm a CHR programmer in Canada (not Astral) and the first single tested mediocre for us. We dropped One Thing after it tested dead last out of about 25 songs. It's not a hit.

Not popular in Canada? Odd! If it is popular here in the states, it usually spreads to the North! Unfortunately, it doesn't really happen the other way around...

 

[Yeziknoradio]

I'm a CHR programmer in Canada (not Astral) and the first single tested mediocre for us. We dropped One Thing after it tested dead last out of about 25 songs. It's not a hit.

Not popular in Canada? Odd! If it is popular here in the states, it usually spreads to the North! Unfortunately, it doesn't really happen the other way around...

Radio in the States has more room for over play of (non) hits, as long as the song playing is not a threat to a sister station.
Companies there can own up to 60% of a market.
Radio in Canada is still restricted to Two AM and two FM in a market.
As a result, it's harder to just play anything, justifying that it's played simply because it's music that is not a threat to a sister station.
(the above point is best maintained when speaking of songs that are chiming in as "Song 41" though.)

 

[NostalgiaKills]

I'm a CHR programmer in Canada (not Astral) and the first single tested mediocre for us. We dropped One Thing after it tested dead last out of about 25 songs. It's not a hit.

Not doubting your point or intending to challenge it in any way, but when you say not a hit, do you mean not a hit at all?
Or perhaps not for the age group your station prefers to have?
Is it a hit for an audience that's just too young perhaps?

I mean it's not a hit. In the sense it will likely peak outside the top 10 (US). Even on national callout, it's testing #44 out of 55 songs.

One Thing, the song that is supposedly "not a hit," just went platinum in Canada. If a single has platinum sales numbers from a band that is tailor made for my mother/daughter CHR demo, you better believe I'm going to play it. Callout should only be used as a tool, not the be all and end all of good programming.