LDD's being cut out by affiliates

[bandit73]

Man, am I floored to find this site!

Anyone know of any instance where a station refused to play an LDD?

I have a more specific question that's been itching my brain for 18 years now...

In late 1987 (I think), Q-102 in Cincinnati actually cut an LDD out of AT40. In the teaser for it, Casey said something like, "Coming up, a Long Distance Dedication from a person who's torn between two lovers." But when it came time to air the LDD, the station just cut it off.

I'm pretty sure this was sometime during the last 4 months of 1987. It could have been in '88, but I doubt it.

Does anyone know what song was played, or why the station may have refused to air the LDD?

[BrettVW]

Well, it could be several things.

a) The affiliate did not like the topic of the dedication, torn between two lovers. There was another LDD in December 2002 of a similar topic that caused much contraversy in the AT40 community.

b) The affiliate did not wish to play the song that was used for the LDD. Perhaps they thought it was too far 'off' of their playlist

c) The affiliate goofed and skipped a segment

If you remember the exact show date, you can check out Rob's website, which lists every song that has ever been used as a Long Distance Dedication.

[Deleted]

The decision to cut the song because it is too far off the playlist doesnt sound like a "1987" move, so I doubt it was that. Unless it was possibly a song that the station decided couldnt be played before a certain hour, I don't know what the dedication was or if radio stations were often restricting time for certain songs or what. I know in early 93 before WAPE went to the stupid no-rap/no hard rock BS and stopped playing all kinds of "rap," they wouldn't air "Rump Shaker" if it started or ended a CT40 segment before I think 10 or 11am.

[mstgator]

I recall one week (in either 2000 or 2001) when WFLZ cut out "I Will Always Love You". They played Casey reading the LDD, but a few seconds into the song they faded out and went to a local commercial. If I remember correctly, there was a charting song following the LDD in the same segment, and WFLZ just played it from their own music library (no Casey intro or outcue) before returning to the regular countdown with the next segment.

This was during a period when WFLZ would routinely cut out one full show segment every week (usually from one of the first two hours) for timing purposes (they played too many local spots), but it seems in this instance they went out of their way just to avoid playing the Whitney Houston track.

[bandit73]

mstgator said:

This was during a period when WFLZ would routinely cut out one full show segment every week (usually from one of the first two hours) for timing purposes (they played too many local spots),

They've got a lot of nerve doing that to a countdown show, of all things. I haven't regularly listened to countdowns since AT40 abandoned the Hot 100, but nonetheless, it does break up the continuity of the countdown to just skip from, say, #34 to #31.

A few years ago, Mix 94.1 in Cincinnati was doing this with the AT40 Flashback (old AT40 reruns from the '80s). Must be a Clear Channel thing.

[Deleted]

nah, it's a sign the stations dont care about the shows and the lack of complaints shows most listeners don't care.

[Radioman]

paul said:

The decision to cut the song because it is too far off the playlist doesnt sound like a "1987" move, so I doubt it was that.

Doesn't sound like 1987 ?
The whole drama with non playable songs began in 1987 wich George Michaels megahit !!!
That song would have gone to number 1, if there wasn't the influence of selling AND playlists to the Hot 100 back then.
I guess you know what song I mean, because I think if I print this out here, the auto censorship will starting to work because of that word.

So as a long time listener I can't remember a certain example before that, were a #2 Top 40 song wasn't played for almost it's entire countdown life, except for the first few weeks or so.

So what become naturally in the early 90's, before formats made a more sharpe split, started in 1987.

And by the way: I'd like to mention that the LDD's are not that much important to the majority of radio stations (and ordinary listeners), than the producers or most of the die hard listeners thought they would be.
You can watch about on the current shows. They have been cut down from 3 to 1 for each week, with limited talking time besides that. I believe it is a more recent phenomenon ( "more music, less talk" etc. ), but could infect some stations also back then in the 80's.
Just like Paul has mentioned above - they don't care, wich also belongs to the listeners.

[Matt Cameron]

radioman said:

Doesn't sound like 1987 ?
The whole drama with non playable songs began in 1987 wich George Michaels megahit !!!

In 1987, my local AT40 Affiliate played George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" every week on the countdown. Though I don't remember Casey ever saying the song's title - he'd just say something like "At Number 2,here's George Michael."

As for the '87 dedication, it could be something was wrong with that segment of the vinyl record on which the segment was recorded. Who knows?

[bandit73]

Q-102, which was the Cincinnati affiliate, always cut that particular George Michael song out of AT40.

At the time, Q-102 used to air AT40 at both 9 AM and 9 PM on Sundays. During the week when this song debuted on AT40, I noticed that a chart position down in the 30s (#36 maybe) was skipped completely. I seem to remember that "Pleasure Principle" by Janet Jackson was #35, and thinking, "That's #35? What happened to #36?"

Anyway, I suspected that the station had intentionally skipped a song, so I listened to the rebroadcast at 9 PM. This time, they got up to that point in the countdown, played the standard #36 jingle, followed by a sound effect of a record scratching, accompanied by what sounded like a distorted clip of one of the station's regular DJ's laughing.

However, Q-102 did not cut out the George Michael song when it appeared on the year-end top 100 special. In fact, a couple of years later, Q-102 finally began playing this song unedited as a regular noncurrent.

[bandit73]

liberaljag said:

In 1987, my local AT40 Affiliate played George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" every week on the countdown. Though I don't remember Casey ever saying the song's title - he'd just say something like "At Number 2,here's George Michael."

I think he did say the title once. Maybe it was when it was in the droppers, or when it was played on the year-end top 100. All I remember is that he said the title really fast, as if he was embarrassed to say it.

[Matt Cameron]

By the way, bandit73, as Casey used to say when announcing new AT40 affiliates each week, "Welcome Aboard!" ;D

[Deleted]

radioman said:

paul said:

The decision to cut the song because it is too far off the playlist doesnt sound like a "1987" move, so I doubt it was that.

Doesn't sound like 1987 ?
The whole drama with non playable songs began in 1987 wich George Michaels megahit !!!
That song would have gone to number 1, if there wasn't the influence of selling AND playlists to the Hot 100 back then.
I guess you know what song I mean, because I think if I print this out here, the auto censorship will starting to work because of that word.

So as a long time listener I can't remember a certain example before that, were a #2 Top 40 song wasn't played for almost it's entire countdown life, except for the first few weeks or so.

So what become naturally in the early 90's, before formats made a more sharpe split, started in 1987.

And by the way: I'd like to mention that the LDD's are not that much important to the majority of radio stations (and ordinary listeners), than the producers or most of the die hard listeners thought they would be.
You can watch about on the current shows. They have been cut down from 3 to 1 for each week, with limited talking time besides that. I believe it is a more recent phenomenon ( "more music, less talk" etc. ), but could infect some stations also back then in the 80's.
Just like Paul has mentioned above - they don't care, wich also belongs to the listeners.

There is a difference in not playing a song because it is deemed controversial, and the way I was referring to when i said that.... song doesn't fit the playlist of a certain radio station. Stations were far more open to playing older stuff in '87 if on a radio show then they are now. After I stated that I went into the unless it is controversial...as was the case with "I Want Your Sex"

[Deleted]

radioman said:

paul said:

And by the way: I'd like to mention that the LDD's are not that much important to the majority of radio stations (and ordinary listeners), than the producers or most of the die hard listeners thought they would be.
You can watch about on the current shows. They have been cut down from 3 to 1 for each week, with limited talking time besides that.

This leads to another question...maybe it shuld be moved to another thread but is it possible that because there are now only 2 versions of the show they may not get many LDD's anymore? I have no idea, just a question i am throwing out. I assume AT40 was on more stations when he hosted it then the other two were.

[Topay]

paul said:

radioman said:

paul said:

And by the way: I'd like to mention that the LDD's are not that much important to the majority of radio stations (and ordinary listeners), than the producers or most of the die hard listeners thought they would be.
You can watch about on the current shows. They have been cut down from 3 to 1 for each week, with limited talking time besides that.

This leads to another question...maybe it shuld be moved to another thread but is it possible that because there are now only 2 versions of the show they may not get many LDD's anymore? I have no idea, just a question i am throwing out. I assume AT40 was on more stations when he hosted it then the other two were.

I always figured AT20 had the most support, or at least was seen as being the most successful from 1998-2004. After all, it's the only one of the three that's stayed the same since the three shows appeared in 1998. No host switching, no chart switching, no "Top 10 with spotlights" changing. Although I guess AT40 may have in fact had more stations.

In other words, I always assumed the AT20's (esp. the Hot AC show) were generating more LDD's.