How far did you go to get your hands on the charts?

[lasvegaskid]

I never worked in radio, so I relied on Casey from the time I found the show circa 79/80 to 1983. Then around spring of ’83 I found out that Billboard sent the next week’s top 20 out over the AP Wire on Friday mornings, a full eight days before Casey would count ‘em down. I now feel sorry about all the calls I made to the evening/weekend DJ at my local CHR station for next few years, bugging him for chart positions of my favorite tunes. Also at that time, Entertainment Tonight would run the top 10, on an inconsistent basis, on Friday night’s program, so I was usually tuned in. For about a year my local newspaper, also inconstantly, ran that AP release in their Sunday morning TV section, though like ET, they usually trimmed it down to the top 10.

But it didn’t stop there. I remember there was one week in 1984 I was particularly interested in, so I called the NY office of Billboard on Friday, again eight days before AT40 aired, and fortunately found a helpful soul at the other end that provided me with the data I craved.

This continued until 1986, when I moved to a bigger city and found out that there were records stores, and a nearby library that received subscriptions of the magazine itself. If I was lucky, the mailman would deliver the issue on Monday that Casey was counting down that coming weekend. I tried to rotate the my weekly stops as not to make a pest outta myself, but the librarians would probably still run if they saw me coming today since they always had to dig around and find the magazine “in the back”. For whatever reason, it took them days to get to put the latest issue on the shelf.

I did this for the better part of a decade. I stopped around 1995 because I was losing interest in current music. Also around that time I discovered the ‘net and I could get the top 50 right off the Billboard website without burning that pricey $1.50/gal gas running to the record stores.

[matt]

From the time I discovered AT40 in 1980 until about 1987, I just tuned into AT40 and America's Top 10 for the charts. However, when I was in 7th grade, I discovered my jr. high school had the latest copy of Billboard in the library. So...every time I got the chance to get my hands on the magazine, I could browse through the charts. What I really started to like more than anything about browsing the Hot 100 each week, was discovering songs that didn't make the top 40. There were so many good ones over the years that fell short of the top 40...

[pointpark04]

Somewhere in 1986 I think, I began reading the Billboard magazine at our local news stand. I knew one of the clerks who worked there - we went to school together - and she always let me stand there for as long as I wanted to, reading the magazine from cover-to-cover and analyzing every chart.

I did that for about three years.

Funny story: I've never been a subscriber to Billboard, but for my birthday last year, my fiance bought me a year subscription. It really has changed after all of these years. Then again, so has everything else. Including myself.

Edit: One thing has stayed the same. I love listening to Casey Kasem and the American Top 40!

[saltrek]

I started getting access to Billboard in 1977. My next door neighbor commuted to NYC and he would buy the magazine from a newsstand in Grand Central Station on Mondays when it came out. He would let me stand out on his front porch and read it Monday evenings.

The next year I was off to college, and the college library carried a copy of the magazine.

After graduation in 1982, I moved to Florida, and one of my college buddies actually photo-copied the Hot 100 and mailed it to me for a while. Sometime in '84 or '85 I got my own subscription which I kept until around 1990.

[Deleted]

To the Merritt Square Mall on my way to work in high school. So, 20 miles.

[johnnywest]

I used to ask the guys working at Sam Goody (or musicland) if I could have the Billboard Hot 100 chart after they were done with it. They'd post it for a week over the cassette singles.

[davewollenberg]

I started subscribing to Billboard in the summer of '81. I'll be switching to the online charts, though.

[atruefan]

Jul 18, 2013 17:23:54 GMT -5 davewollenberg said:

I started subscribing to Billboard in the summer of '81. I'll be switching to the online charts, though.

You actually have me beat. I started subscribing in March of 1978 and continued through March of 2006. I got a paper route to pay for it initially (why that magazine was so ridiculously expensive was beyond me). Amazingly, for several years (2002-2005) I also subscribed to Radio and Records. Now, I think of all the other things I could have done with that money.

[Deleted]

It's been my experience that weekly trade publications usually are. Since it is assumed most of the subscribers are radio stations, record labels, music stores, and music professionals they charge a premium for it. Keep in mind, prior to the Internet it was through Billboard many in the industry found out what was going on and also looked for jobs. Plus with a large portion of this base being businesses, Billboard knew they could charge even more since they make more as a whole. Ever seen the commercial prices for Directv? Click on the links below for an example of how much more they pay than residents (especially NFL Sunday Ticket). As Billboard was more commercially geared, they charged more.

www.directv.com/DTVAPP/content/business/bars_restaurants/packages

www.directv.com/DTVAPP/content/business/bars_restaurants/sports

[atruefan]

A year's subscription (along with online access) is 249 bucks, but a print only subscription is "only" $149. That's definitely less than what I was paying 8 to 10 years ago. I'm actually surprised they still charge that much. With so much information available online, I suspect there are very few non-business types who subscribe anymore.

[Deleted]

I would be surprised if the # of businesses who do is a cash cow anymore either. Radio business news you can get from places like all access for free. And let's face it, more and more people care less and less about their charts. They don't even print the entire ones in the magazine anymore unless they started doing so again (a few years ago when I subbed monthly for a little while they weren't). A huge portion of stations are owned by Clearchannel who has their own chart and is the one most everyone in the radio countdown world relies on now. I know the radio and music world doesn't revolve around music charts and radio shows, but when a grand total of NO ONE is using you as a chart source anymore in any public way, eventually your name value dies and you with it. It doesn't help when you keep changing methodology and are now including youtube views in the tabulation. That's as dumb as it would have been to read 24 years ago "Billboard will now include tabulations of votes to 1-800-Dial-MTV and Nightracks voting into our Hot 100!" Once you continually make yourself a mockery you eventually become one.

[donwa001]

I was lucky enough to have my Mother land a job at a pop radio station when I was in high school. She wasn't a DJ. She worked in the main office. After she had been there about 2 months, I went over to pick her up after work and she made me wait in the lobby until she was ready to go home. Sitting in the lobby, there was a pile of radio industry magazines on the table next to my chair. I looked through them and found a copy of Billboard. I was so excited having never seen Billboard before. I quickly turned to the HOT 100 and saw it the chart for next week. I took the magazine over to my Mother's desk and asked her if I could make a photocopy of the HOT 100. For the rest of my high school years, my Mother would copy the HOT 100 each week when Billboard came in and it would be waiting for me when I got home from school.

After high school, I headed to college and was able to follow Billboard at the undergraduate library. After a while, the lady behind the Periodicals table knew me so well that I didn't have to ask to see Billboard. Once she saw my face, she got the magazine and handed it to me. Then I would photocopy the pages I wanted.

After college and landing my first job, I decided since I now had a weekly paycheck that I would subscribe to Billboard. I've been a subscriber ever since (over 30 years). I will say my excitement of seeing the HOT 100 each week is not what it was back in the 70's and 80's.

[cdman71031]

I started subscribing to billboard in 1989 and off and on from 1989 on have been every since. From 1991 to 1993 my subscription had stopped. That's when I decided to get every top 40 hit. Every Friday I would go to my local Tower records store the big on in NYC pick up the latest billboard and get every one of the new singes then on cassette. This has not changed but now I sit in front of my computer on Thursday mornings and get my songs download then to my iPod where I have every top 40 hit since 1970 including radio airplay only tracks . I also get other charts number ones have every #1 album since 1970 and everything to make at40 when it was not the hot 100. I have the top 40 songs arranged in order from Joel Whiteburn's top pop annual book, my friends love it 3 of then give me there iPods to be updated excited always asking what new songs are being added. My future wife likes to wake up to a new song on the charts on her I clock every day before work.

[mga707]

Jul 18, 2013 19:33:53 GMT -5 atruefan said:

A year's subscription (along with online access) is 249 bucks, but a print only subscription is "only" $149. That's definitely less than what I was paying 8 to 10 years ago. I'm actually surprised they still charge that much. With so much information available online, I suspect there are very few non-business types who subscribe anymore.

I think I was paying about $150/year towards the end of my 10-year run as a subscriber, 1977-87!

[Deleted]

I think it was over $300 at one point though in the 90s though wasn't it?