geo wrote:

Excellent question, Mr. Patterson.     Likewise nostalgia radio.    What does one think of when the year 1980 is musically recalled?    "Another Brick in the Wall" (Pink Floyd) that stayed at #1 for four (4) weeks?   Or "Another One bites the Dust" (Queen) that was #1 for three (3) weeks?     

This morning's Top Ten at Ten on AM 740 ignored those in favor of tunes such as "Sailing" (Chris Cross), "Shining Star" (Manhattans) and "Cupid" (Spinners).     In a more recent post, the board moderator asks "how to fix what's wrong" . . . could credibility bring some back?       

They either have a dominating female audience or...as is usually the case when it comes to radio 'polls'...they're lying.  Sailing I can see.  It's a true contender.  The other 2?  Come ON!!!  Bullshit.  [unless only women are voting.]
 

Dale Patterson wrote:

I've always wondered about radio station music charts. Did music directors really call each and every record store to find out the sales numbers? Or if it was just a sampling of stores, how was it decided which stores were chosen for the sampling? Getting the figures alone would be labour-intensive, but nothing compared to the task of adding up all the figures in that pre-computer age and sorting them into a ranking. I imagine it must have been tempting on a busy week, and close to deadline, just to make up some of it. Just saying.

Did anybody here ever put together a radio station music chart, or know how it was done? Please share. There would probably be some good stories.

I used to do one for CKAR in Oshawa back around 1981 - 1983 or so; Dan Wilmott was the PD, and a really good one at that.  I used to have a list of the 7 main record stores in town at the time, and once a week I'd call the manager at each store and ask them to rank the sales on a particular 45 from 1-5.  By the end, every song would have a score somewhere between 0 and 35, and I'd sort 'em in order, research the tracks and write the script, then hand it off to Tarzan Dan for voicetracking - mind you, he was "Mike Daniels" in those days.

Can't remember what we did to break ties, though.

Last edited by Neil Hedley (August 9, 2018 1:31 pm)

A question for you Neil.

I was listening to your countdown on holiday Monday in the car and you were on the segment after the top 10 and the year was 1967, a personal fave. I was able to listen to four or five songs and then out of the car. My question is that after song  #22 I believe you played two chart extras and I did not recognize the songs, both were in the pop/country vein and did not sound like they were from 1967 more like Ann Murray and Olivia Newton John. What were those songs ?
 

Ms. C. wrote:

Neil Hedley wrote:

     Top Ten at Ten is ALWAYS the songs from THIS WEEK in whatever year we decide to profile.  Sometimes, admittedly, the chart itself is a hybrid of the Hot 100 and the CHUM Chart simply to breathe some fresh air into it.  

Speaking of hybrids, neither Sailing by Chris Cross, Shining Star by the Manhattans or Cupid by the Spinners EVER charted on 1050 CHUM.       All three did chart Billboard Top 40 (arguably a more relevant chart for AM 740 listeners than the Hot 100) -- Sailing peaked in July of '80 and both Shining Star and Cupid in May of that year.       
 

There's no such thing as the "Billboard Top 40." There's the "Billboard Hot 100" but they don't publish a separate Top 40 chart because it would be the same songs one through 40.

Most likely those songs didn't chart on CHUM because they didn't play them. Why would they chart a song not on their playlist?

=12px>> Anyhow, their chart positioning couldn't be verified given our meagre resource.

If any one of you has a cell phone, you can Google it.

Dale Patterson wrote:

Ms. C. wrote:

Neil Hedley wrote:

      

Speaking of hybrids, neither Sailing by Chris Cross, Shining Star by the Manhattans or Cupid by the Spinners EVER charted on 1050 CHUM.       All three did chart Billboard Top 40 (arguably a more relevant chart for AM 740 listeners than the Hot 100) -- Sailing peaked in July of '80 and both Shining Star and Cupid in May of that year.       
 

Most likely those songs didn't chart on CHUM because they didn't play them. Why would they chart a song not on their playlist?

Well, that was one of the games CHUM played during the late 70's to early 80's. Before computer monitoring the recording industry had to rely on playlists manually generated and submitted by each station's programmer. It was generally acknowledged that some stations reported and even charted songs that were not on their playlist simply to appease record reps and stay on their good side. 
Now, the case of those three tunes not charting on CHUM happened during a three-year period when they were trying to solidify their image as a rock-leaning station so tunes that were too bubblegum, funky, country, etc didn't make it on their playlist regardless of how well they were charting everywhere else. A couple examples of MIA's from the period were "Physical" from Olivia Newton-John, Funkytown by Lipps Inc, Endless Love Ross & Richie, "Superfreak" from Rick James as a small sampling. The only Christopher Cross tune they did play was "Ride Like the Wind" and "Rapper's Delight" did appear on their chart but to my knowledge was never played. During that time CHUM also charted a number of hard rock and alt rock tunes that didn't make it to most Top 40 radio station playlists.
By early '83, just in time to ride the "Thriller" wave, CHUM returned to a more mainstream Top 40 sound but in those intervening years, many would consider the credibility of their chart to have been compromised.