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1982
Apr 18, 2011 20:53:54 GMT -5
Post by dukelightning on Apr 18, 2011 20:53:54 GMT -5
bandit, you are right and some of us on this forum were in AM radio at the time and can vouch for that very thing happening. Even if a song made the top 10, there was no guarantee that it would be on their playlist. BTW, that also may answer the question as to the ratio of FM and AM stations in Billboard's panel. Would seem to indicate that they shifted to a heavy FM ratio of stations in the early 80s. As they should have given the dynamics of AM and FM stations then.
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1982
Apr 20, 2011 1:36:14 GMT -5
Post by bandit73 on Apr 20, 2011 1:36:14 GMT -5
Furthermore, a few of the FM stations on its panel were outright AC. I'm pretty sure they had WYYS Cincinnati on its panel even after they had gone AC.
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1982
Apr 20, 2011 20:26:57 GMT -5
Post by marv101 on Apr 20, 2011 20:26:57 GMT -5
Since 9 of the top 10 singles of the entire decade hit #1 during one glorious 26 month period (May 1981-July 1983), Top 40 radio really enjoyed a resurgence in the early eighties, thanks to PD extraordinaire Gerry DeFrancesco and a guy named Rick Dees doing mornings at KIIS-FM/LA.
By the fall of 1984 KIIS had shot to a 10.0 share when the format was bristling with killer music from every genre imaginable, and a seemingly bottomless stable of songwriters from all formats including country & alternative, and the format was white-hot and boomed for most of the decade as its popularity exploded from coast-to-coast.
NYCs Z-100 was launched in 1983 IIRC with Scott Shannon taking over AM drive after a stellar career in Tampa, and Midwest CHR/Pop powerhouse WNCI was equally humungous, and didn't miss a beat even after their GM left in 1984 and launched Mediabase in 1985.
The format was just flat-out spectacular back then before tailing off at the end of the decade thanks to overreaction by many top 40 PDs to the explosion of rap music at the format in the late eighties.
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1982
May 14, 2011 22:16:43 GMT -5
Post by dukelightning on May 14, 2011 22:16:43 GMT -5
I have not even looked at the chart yet for this week's 80s show but I can sure see many examples of the molasses nature of the chart. Goin Down has been at 17 for 3 weeks. Both Don't Want You Me at 16 and Heat of the Moment at 15 are holding but will end up much higher, the former at #1. Freeze Frame just spent 4 weeks at 4. This is just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more examples.
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1982
Jun 8, 2011 11:27:25 GMT -5
Post by jlthorpe on Jun 8, 2011 11:27:25 GMT -5
For the 1980s, I'd say that 1982 (and late 1981 and early 1983) may have been the strangest inasmuch as you'd expect songs to simply go up and down. Instead during this time there were lots of hits that moved up to a peak, getting stuck there for weeks (often with a bloc of several songs not moving for weeks at a time), and then suddenly falling off the cliff. I found it interesting that for one week (4/2/83), the top 11 songs were in exactly the same positions as the previous week.
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1982
Jun 8, 2011 11:37:37 GMT -5
Post by dukelightning on Jun 8, 2011 11:37:37 GMT -5
jlthorpe, you will find it even more interesting that the week of 8/19/78 featured the songs in the top 14 positions being the same
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1982
Jun 8, 2011 11:47:09 GMT -5
Post by jlthorpe on Jun 8, 2011 11:47:09 GMT -5
You're right. Someone was asleep at the switch that week!
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1982
Jun 8, 2011 13:49:13 GMT -5
Post by chrislc on Jun 8, 2011 13:49:13 GMT -5
At This Moment was originally released on Alfa records. Alfa was a small label without its own dedicated promotion staff, and they would have employed independent promoters. Since independent promoters represent multiple artists and labels, they would naturally "work" the titles most likely to result in payment to them as a result of positive momentum, additional adds and trend. If Alfa lacked funds to pay promoters, the record wouldn't necessarily get added on its own merits, as that's never been how the charts worked. The system isn't explicitly payola, rather it's more the influence and relationships being sold. Most of what we judge as shoulda-been records (pre Soundcan/BDS) are a result of label and station ownership policy and politics than actuality. Then toss in the Billboard chart editors' changes to policy, and era become difficult to compare. It might as well have been payola. It was pretty much a given that if I didn't agree to add a sufficient number of records being promoted (by a large label OR independent promoter) then the giveaways from that source would dry up. So - the decisions to add and play records were influenced by quantifiable gain to the station (not the MD or talent in my experience) - but still not entirely motivated by playing the best songs that we thought would maximize the listenership. It was a wake-up-call for me, and made me a lot more cynical about the business. It's also my first guess for the reason when I see a mediocre song become a big hit.
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1982
Jun 8, 2011 16:27:53 GMT -5
Post by matt on Jun 8, 2011 16:27:53 GMT -5
This is a reposting of a message I posted a couple weeks ago on the AT40 the 80's...This Week's Show thread (it was suggested that it might fit better here, for obvious reasons):
OK, I am going to jump back to the 5/15/82 show for a moment. I noticed that Casey didn't do the usual bit where he tells how many songs debut in that week's countdown and what the dropouts are, so out of curiosity, I decided to look it up.
In looking at the Billboard Hot 100 for that week, there were five songs that dropped out. But get this--of those five songs, the one that had the most modest fall fell 42 notches! That was Stevie Nicks' "Edge of Seventeen", which fell from #26 to #68. The other dropouts fell 44, 45, 45, and 48 notches, with two of those songs ending up all the way down into the 80's.
The other four songs were: "Key Largo" - Bertie Higgins (#23 - #67) "(Oh) Pretty Woman" - Van Halen (#31 - #76) "Let's Hang On" - Barry Manilow (#32 - #80) "If I Had My Wish Tonight" - David Lesley (#36 - #81)
Another small irony is that: 1) Casey made a note of the big jump of Queen's "Body Language" from #62 to #33, and 2) one of the listener questions was regarding the record for the biggest drop out of the Top 40 (Tony Orlando & Dawn's "Steppin' Out" - dropped from #7 to #48 in 1974). Anyway, some of the more interesting chart action on that week's Hot 100, and I wonder if there has ever been another week in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 when the Top 40 dropouts all fell so far.
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1982
Jun 8, 2011 16:58:48 GMT -5
Post by dukelightning on Jun 8, 2011 16:58:48 GMT -5
wahoo, you are wondering whether there is another week where the droppers from the top 40 dropped so far. Yes there is or should I say there are!! How about looking at one year...1970. There were not one, not two, not five, not 10 but 13 weeks where EVERY dropper from the top 40 fell competely off the chart. In fact, this was the rule throughout the 60s and early 70s. The methodology change in June 1973 put an end to this situation.
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1982
Jun 8, 2011 21:38:32 GMT -5
Post by matt on Jun 8, 2011 21:38:32 GMT -5
wahoo, you are wondering whether there is another week where the droppers from the top 40 dropped so far. Yes there is or should I say there are!! How about looking at one year...1970. There were not one, not two, not five, not 10 but 13 weeks where EVERY dropper from the top 40 fell competely off the chart. In fact, this was the rule throughout the 60s and early 70s. The methodology change in June 1973 put an end to this situation. That's interesting--didn't know there were that many cases of songs falling out of the Hot 100 from the 40. I wonder what were the reasons songs fell so hard...
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1982
Jun 9, 2011 7:51:16 GMT -5
Post by dukelightning on Jun 9, 2011 7:51:16 GMT -5
I can only speculate the reasons. I have deduced that the reporting by dealers and radio stations of songs that had peaked was spotty. So if a song had peaked, dealers and PDs would not even list it on their report of records sold or songs played. This is a natural practice since if you were a dealer or a PD, you would only be interested in songs that were new or in their prime selling/playing stage; so as to make sure you have the records in your store to sell or are playing the up and coming songs. It was only after Billboard put more pressure on dealers and PDs to give them a more accurate and comprehensive report that this finally changed.
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1982
Jun 14, 2011 8:37:03 GMT -5
Post by Hervard on Jun 14, 2011 8:37:03 GMT -5
One of the listener questions was regarding the record for the biggest drop out of the Top 40 (Tony Orlando & Dawn's "Steppin' Out" - dropped from #7 to #48 in 1974).
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1982
Aug 12, 2011 16:59:25 GMT -5
Post by dukelightning on Aug 12, 2011 16:59:25 GMT -5
it's another 1982 show and Casey mentioned how Rick Springfield's What Kind of Fool am I fell after 6 weeks at #21. That puts Rick in a tie with Billy Joel's Allentown for the most consecutive weeks at any position outside the top 10. And then we have Hold Me only in its 4th week at #4. It's got 3 more weeks to go and then with 7 weeks, sets the record for most consecutive weeks at any postion besides 1 or 2. That's pre-Soundscan of course. Gotta love it ;D
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1982
Aug 12, 2011 17:46:45 GMT -5
Post by Mike on Aug 12, 2011 17:46:45 GMT -5
On the flip side of the 40 though, it's not very typical of '82, as all four of this week's droppers only fall to the 50s from positions in last week's bottom six - not drastically different from other years during the decade at all.
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