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When did Top 40 stations first call themselves CHR?
- Thread starter wpxt
- Start date
The story I've always heard is that Todd Storz who's credited with the birth of top 40, acquired WTIX in the New Orleans market. Rival WDSU was doing a top 20 show, so Storz made the decision to one-up them, go to the top 40, expand the show by an hour. There's so much more to the story, but that's the bit that I remember off the top of my head.
Here's a cool special edition R&R issue called "The top 40 story" with more details.
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-R&R/R&R Top 40 Full Color.pdf
There's a book from 1987 by M.C. Keith called "Radio Programming: Consulting and Formatics" that I've read some years ago that pointed out that the CHR format and name came about in the late 70's. At that time, AOR and other FM's were gaining great traction, and "top 40" was seen, as AM, as less desirable. The innovative leaders were seen as the FM's. Playlists were tightened up and moved to FM, the energy was ramped up while most other stations/formats were mellowing out, and a shiny new name differentiated the format from stodgy ol' Top-40. CHR came into use in those days in the late 70's and early 80's when Mike Joseph was consulting his Hot Hits stations.
Here's a cool special edition R&R issue called "The top 40 story" with more details.
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-R&R/R&R Top 40 Full Color.pdf
There's a book from 1987 by M.C. Keith called "Radio Programming: Consulting and Formatics" that I've read some years ago that pointed out that the CHR format and name came about in the late 70's. At that time, AOR and other FM's were gaining great traction, and "top 40" was seen, as AM, as less desirable. The innovative leaders were seen as the FM's. Playlists were tightened up and moved to FM, the energy was ramped up while most other stations/formats were mellowing out, and a shiny new name differentiated the format from stodgy ol' Top-40. CHR came into use in those days in the late 70's and early 80's when Mike Joseph was consulting his Hot Hits stations.
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