70s YE question

[vince]

This is my guess. I will start with AT40's 1st year. They did a top 80 because it fit into two 3 hour shows, the same was the case for 1972. When they did the Christmas countdowns in 1971 and 1973 they probably did not want to be away from the weekly countdowns too long so they decided to just do top 40s which fit into one weekly show. In 1974 the year end countdown was expanded to two 4 hour shows so they could do a top 100. This was the case for all years through the end of the 80's, except for 1979. This was because they did a top 50 of the 70s in addition to the year end countdown.

[mct1]

I think Vince's comment is right on. To expand a bit further:

Why was there a year-end Top 80 or 100 most years, but three years (1971, 1973 and 1979) with a countdown only half that size (Top 40 or 50)? Because the year-end countdowns were split over two weeks, and in those three years AT40 chose to use one of the weeks that would have normally been devoted to the year-end countdown for something else instead. In '71 and '73 the first week was used for a Christmas countdown, and in '79 the second week was used for a decade-end countdown. As a result, those three years got year-end countdowns that were only one week, and therefore half as long as the years around them.

Why was the year-end countdown originally a Top 80, then was later expanded to a Top 100? I don't know for certain, but I suspect that the explanation Vince provided is correct. Since AT40 typically counted down 40 songs in a 3-hour show, in the beginning it probably made sense for each week of the year-end countdown to be the same, making 80 over the two-week period. Over time, either someone decided it made more sense to use 100 as a nice round number, or as AT40 became more popular there was a desire to put more songs in the year-end countdown. And so it was expanded to 100, editing songs down so that 100 would fit in the time normally used to count down 80.

[OldSchoolAT40Fan]

And with the 70's era year-ender being the top hits of 1978 recently, this would allow for two 4-hour broadcasts. But did many radio stations that choose to air only the latter 3 hours of a 1979 or late-1978 weekly show apparently air just #87 (or around there) to #51 one week, and the following week the radio stations skipped over #50 to #30-something and pick up from, say, #37 and continue to #1?

I am not certain if this was the first rebroadcast of a year-end show that was from the late 1970s that Premiere started airing in late-2011 or early-2012, as the 1978 year-ender falls within that realm. And the year-end countdown of 1979 was just a top 50 because they were airing the top songs of the 1970's during the transition into the 1980s.

This is every good reason why I prefer 1980s broadcasts more than 1970s era. At least with the 1980s, you're guaranteed a full broadcast, except for some slight editing.

[michaelcasselman]

Jan 7, 2013 13:59:41 GMT -5 OldSchoolAT40Fan said:

And with the 70's era year-ender being the top hits of 1978 recently, this would allow for two 4-hour broadcasts. But did many radio stations that choose to air only the latter 3 hours of a 1979 or late-1978 weekly show apparently air just #87 (or around there) to #51 one week, and the following week the radio stations skipped over #50 to #30-something and pick up from, say, #37 and continue to #1?

I am not certain if this was the first rebroadcast of a year-end show that was from the late 1970s that Premiere started airing in late-2011 or early-2012, as the 1978 year-ender falls within that realm. And the year-end countdown of 1979 was just a top 50 because they were airing the top songs of the 1970's during the transition into the 1980s.

This is every good reason why I prefer 1980s broadcasts more than 1970s era. At least with the 1980s, you're guaranteed a full broadcast, except for some slight editing.

There was only an edited version (3 hours) of the 1978 year end like we heard over the last two weeks, with songs heavily edited so that 100-51 and 50-1 fit into two three hour blocks.

[Shannon Lynn]

1973 is perplexing only because that was also the debut year for country cousin American Country Countdown - they did a Top 100 of 1973.

[matt]

Jan 7, 2013 13:59:41 GMT -5 OldSchoolAT40Fan said:

And with the 70's era year-ender being the top hits of 1978 recently, this would allow for two 4-hour broadcasts. But did many radio stations that choose to air only the latter 3 hours of a 1979 or late-1978 weekly show apparently air just #87 (or around there) to #51 one week, and the following week the radio stations skipped over #50 to #30-something and pick up from, say, #37 and continue to #1?

I am not certain if this was the first rebroadcast of a year-end show that was from the late 1970s that Premiere started airing in late-2011 or early-2012, as the 1978 year-ender falls within that realm. And the year-end countdown of 1979 was just a top 50 because they were airing the top songs of the 1970's during the transition into the 1980s.

This is every good reason why I prefer 1980s broadcasts more than 1970s era. At least with the 1980s, you're guaranteed a full broadcast, except for some slight editing.

The 1978 Top 100 aired this past week was the same version that Premiere aired in 2007, in which they edited the songs down to fit 50 songs into 3 hours for the two parts of the show. The only other show for which this was done was the 10/14/78 show, also aired in 2007.

The first show aired in the Oct '78 - Dec '79 period that had the first hour truncated was 11/3/79 on the weekend of Nov. 6, 2010, and they didn't start providing the optional first hour until the 4/28/79 show this year. Premiere has yet to offer a year-ender in the 70's series with a full 100 songs in two full 4-hour versions, even with the optional 1st hour configuration currently offered. I have to admit I was pretty disappointed they didn't offer the '78 Top 100 as two full 4-hour shows.

[torcan]

I still can't figure out why some years AT40 went with Billboard, and other years their own chart. Considering Billboard's wasn't published in mid-late December, most likely the AT40 staff would NOT have seen Billboard's before deciding if they should do their own or not.

FWIW, I would have preferred that AT40 did their own every year - I think there would have been more consistency.

[vince]

Jan 8, 2013 17:44:43 GMT -5 torcan said:

I still can't figure out why some years AT40 went with Billboard, and other years their own chart. Considering Billboard's wasn't published in mid-late December, most likely the AT40 staff would NOT have seen Billboard's before deciding if they should do their own or not.

FWIW, I would have preferred that AT40 did their own every year - I think there would have been more consistency.

I can not say for sure why AT40 decided to do thier own thing some years, but I do have a guess for the early 80's.

Billboard's survey period for 1980 ran from 10/6/79 to 9/27/80. AT40 might have got an advanced copy as early as October and decided no way we can use this list. Number one songs like "Another One Bites The Dust" and "Woman In Love" were not included and "Upside Down was only at #18, thus AT40 did their own ranking. Until BB counted the full chart run in 1985, AT40 did their own list because they didn't want big #1's ranking low or not being included.

[mstgator]

Jan 7, 2013 13:08:03 GMT -5 mct1 said:

And so it was expanded to 100, editing songs down so that 100 would fit in the time normally used to count down 80.

Just to clarify, AT40's Top 80 year-enders were broadcast as two three-hour shows. When they expanded to a Top 100 year-ender in 1974, it was run as two four-hour shows (making these the only four-hour AT40 shows until the regular countdown expanded in October 1978).

[mct1]

Jan 12, 2013 13:03:18 GMT -5 mstgator said:

Jan 7, 2013 13:08:03 GMT -5 mct1 said:

And so it was expanded to 100, editing songs down so that 100 would fit in the time normally used to count down 80.

Just to clarify, AT40's Top 80 year-enders were broadcast as two three-hour shows. When they expanded to a Top 100 year-ender in 1974, it was run as two four-hour shows (making these the only four-hour AT40 shows until the regular countdown expanded in October 1978).

Thanks for that clarification -- I didn't know that. I didn't discover AT40 until early in 1980, so my only direct exposure to '70s year-end shows is through the Premier rebroadcasts. That definitely bolsters the idea that the expansion from 80 to 100 was prompted by AT40's growing popularity, and a desire to have a bigger year-end countdown.