Your most popular songs -- current and gold

[whit979]

Just for fun...
Among your audience, based on requests/emails/callout data/etc
What is the most popular CURRENT song on your station right now? and
What is the most popular GOLD song on your station right now?

For us:
- most popular current hit: "Bubbly" by Colbie Caillat
- most popular gold hit: "Pour Some Sugar On Me" by Def Leppard

 

[Beejus]

Just for fun...
Among your audience, based on requests/emails/callout data/etc
What is the most popular CURRENT song on your station right now? and
What is the most popular GOLD song on your station right now?

For us:
- most popular current hit: "Bubbly" by Colbie Caillat
- most popular gold hit: "Pour Some Sugar On Me" by Def Leppard

Right now... new music wise...

Colbie Caillat suddenly took off... the song didn't look like it was going to do much, then the requests started flooding in (and it's not like a Fan Club swamping the request lines).

I took a page from Q101 in Chicago's playbook and gave some test spins to Hanson's "The Great Divide," but didn't tell the listeners who it was. They liked it, I told them who it is... and kept playing it. It's doing pretty good.

Finger 11's "Paralyzer" has been a MONSTER of a hit on my station... probably the #1 song of the year so far... and the phones still haven't ceased for it.

Collective Soul's "Hollywood" is doing well for us too, same for "Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance.

For gold titles... it varies. I see songs come and go in waves... but usual staples for my station:

AC/DC- You Shook Me All Night Long
Presidents of the USA- Peaches
Cake- The Distance
Cake- Sheep Go To Heaven
Tone Loc- Funky Cold MEdina
Tone Loc- Wild Thing
Red Hot Chili Peppers- Love Rollercoaster


Not your typical Hot AC golds I know... but my listeners eat it up!

 

[JimmyJames]

I love your station's take on Hot AC. You play music people like but you're willing to see what people like rather than assume their tastes are narrowly formatted. Good strategy.

 

[Beejus]

I love your station's take on Hot AC. You play music people like but you're willing to see what people like rather than assume their tastes are narrowly formatted. Good strategy.

Well the way I look at it is this... let's say we're looking at a 35 year old female right now. Go back to her college years and through her 20s... and that'd be... 1992-1998ish? What was popular then? A lot of Alternative Rock that now is fine for Hot AC. They're fun songs that fit the flow very nicely, and that no one else is playing. I kid you not (and I've probably said it before) when I threw Cake- The Distance into the gold library... I started getting requests for it like it was new music.

Hot AC stations need to be able to open up their playlists. Adult Hits took a chunk of many station's older ends with a wider playlist of hits. If a Hot AC station can open up their playlist and tailor it to the market, then the usually dim ratings can brighten. It did for me. Jumping 1.5 points and from #14 to #6 in the market in one book? I thank the artists in my first post and more for that

 

[whit979]

Well the way I look at it is this... let's say we're looking at a 35 year old female right now. Go back to her college years and through her 20s... and that'd be... 1992-1998ish? What was popular then? A lot of Alternative Rock that now is fine for Hot AC. They're fun songs that fit the flow very nicely, and that no one else is playing. I kid you not (and I've probably said it before) when I threw Cake- The Distance into the gold library... I started getting requests for it like it was new music.

Hot AC stations need to be able to open up their playlists. Adult Hits took a chunk of many station's older ends with a wider playlist of hits. If a Hot AC station can open up their playlist and tailor it to the market, then the usually dim ratings can brighten. It did for me. Jumping 1.5 points and from #14 to #6 in the market in one book? I thank the artists in my first post and more for that

I have to agree with Beejus that a lot of Hot AC Program Directors sell the interests of their audience short. We sometimes get locked into a fairly basic playlist for an audience that often wants more. It's the risk-takers who are making things happen for Hot AC, and Beejus is definitely part of that group!

 

[FOZZIE BEAR]

Finger 11's "Paralyzer" has been a MONSTER of a hit on my station... probably the #1 song of the year so far... and the phones still haven't ceased for it....same for "Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance.

It is cool for me to see and read how much other stations are diggin on FINGER ELEVEN etc... I personally jumped on it maybe 4 months ago if not a little bit longer. I knew as soon as I heard the track on the ACTIVE ROCK that I also work for...that it was going to cross over. So, I stuck it in rotation. People loved it from the get go. Then FINALLY it got onto the charts for CHR and I knew I had made the right call for our station. The same thing happened with MY CHEMICAL/BLACK PARADE... GNARLS BARKLEY/CRAZY along with, luckly for us, many others. We jumped on them before they were even close to being the hit it they later became. The reason why I enjoy getting in on something early or taking a chance on a track...is that when these tracks finally become the #1 tracks in the country or something close to that...our listeners know that when they hear that track on another station....they know it as OUR SONG. We have branded it as ours. I know I might be giving to much credit to the listeners when I say that...Or I might be wishing that is what they think when they hear it. However, I think it works for us. I will be honest though... somtimes there are tracks that we decide to spin, get behind, and they dont do as well nationally. Thats a risk you take. You just have to know your market. When that stupid PARIS HILTON track came out...that NEVER played on our station. And sure enough...it came and went...like PARIS in a county jail. That BRITNEY SPEARS track...haven't played it...won't play it. It's a novelty thing and no one is requesting it anyway. I don't care how well it supposedly does on the charts. Is that bad programming? I dont think for our market it is. Like I said we get no calls for that track.

Please understand... I am not saying that I am some sort of PROGRAMMING GOD.... in no way, shape or form am I coming close to saying that. I just dig it when my hunches, ideas...whatever you want to call them...pay off.

**One track that is really surprising me is that ALY & AJ track...POTENTIAL BREAK UP SONG. I would think that song would do well in CHR. However, as of today, it hasn't done much.

 

[spongebag7890]

Both Hot ACs and CHRs are jumping on that Finger Eleven. From what I've heard it's gotten great response espeically during the evenings.

 

[FOZZIE BEAR]

Here's something for ya... Give NEVER TO LATE from Three Days Grace a listen. We placed it in rotation. Its working for me.

 

[Beejus]

Here's something for ya... Give NEVER TO LATE from Three Days Grace a listen. We placed it in rotation. Its working for me.

I've got it in medium rotation right now. My listeners like to rock, so it's getting some spins. I don't know if this will have "A" potential... but we'll see.

 

[JimmyJames]

Is Paramore's Misery Business doing much there? Our listeners are going for it.

 

[FOZZIE BEAR]

Is Paramore's Misery Business doing much there? Our listeners are going for it.

Its doing ok for US. It's kinda in the middle as far as listener favs are concerned.

 

[drpickle]

I despise Finger Eleven. Im so tired of these baldf headed tattooed whiners! Awful just awful!

 

[Primitive]

I despise Finger Eleven. Im so tired of these baldf headed tattooed whiners! Awful just awful!

Um, yeah...

They were talking about Finger 11 seven months ago, dude. You're a tad late to the discussion.

 

[qid937]

I despise Finger Eleven. Im so tired of these baldf headed tattooed whiners! Awful just awful!

Um, yeah...

They were talking about Finger 11 seven months ago, dude. You're a tad late to the discussion.

"Paralyzer" is a great song with good hooks and rythym and with the right blend of pop qualities that are making it a staple on CHR/HOT AC. When I first heard that dreaded "One thing" cut by Finger 11 I was figuring it was a cross over hit coming from a group focusing on soccer moms and religous types (though I wonder if any of them caught onto the inuendo in the groups name?) Then came Paralyzer and I can only wonder who and why it was decided to release "One thing" first being such a lame song, IMHO.