Hello, kchkwong...
Thank you very much for posting this exhaustive list of I-Heart Classic AT-40 shows!!!! Just like the station lists, this, too, is a labor of love!
When I was growing up in Brooklyn, NY, my father (before he'd make a big speech to the family) would start with: "If I ruled the world..." It's a bad habit I picked up from him and still use that phrase,
to this day. Whenever I use it at work to voice my displeasure with some procedure, the people I'm speaking to always groan afterward. Hopefully, few will groan, here, so I'll give it a shot.
If I ruled the world (in this case, I-Heart Radio's AT-40 site)...
I'd program all previously aired AT-40 shows according to the month of each show date, coinciding with the month the show is being played in. If we're in May, I'd play every show that came out in May,
alternating between 70's & 80's shows.
When I-Heart stations go "All Christmas," I'd play every top 40 show - past & present - that we wouldn't hear while Christmas music is on from November through December. True, most local stations are
playing AT-40, but the stream quality isn't as good as I-Heart. I will admit that some have improved, greatly, including KOKZ & WMGN. Many others are either in mono, or have terribly low bit rates.
If I were to play a year-end countdown, I'd play the ENTIRE Top however-many-songs-of-the-year show that originally aired. To only play half (part 2) of a year-end countdown is highly frustrating, as
we're not hearing the first half of the songs that made #1 (or stayed on the charts the longest) of a particular year. It's like giving someone a brand new car, but not letting them have the keys to it!
With all due respect to the people who program AT-40 for playback:
I've been in this business long enough to transition from carts to digital playback to automation. I've worked with everything from Prophet & Audio Vault, to Scott System & Simian. Playback systems are
only as good as the people who maintain them, regularly, and load them up, properly. Ensuring the show files are encoded & loaded, correctly, and manually "spot checking" the playlist for errors is very
important to guarantee there are no problems when shows air. The lack of human intervention is the reason why so many stations have problems when playing back AT-40, and that's why segments are
lost to what aired the previous week.
The only station I've ever heard where there are no (zip, zilch, nada, bupkis) mistakes is when Mike Eiland presents AT-40 on WODC. Every show is PERFECT...except when the automation slips in a spot
just before Mike returns to tell us what song number is next. This extra local spot sometimes (albeit, rarely) cuts off Mike & the segment's rejoin. Otherwise, the show always runs without incident, since
human intervention is involved.
Side note to Countdown Mike: Could you, please cut your numbers ending with "six" down by about 10 "S's?" For example: When you say, "We're at number Thirty Sixsssssssssssssssssssss" you bang into
the rejoin jingle. That quarter-second gap means soooooooo much!!! Many thanks! }
Moving on...
I'd keep the promise to play every AT-40 show that aired over the past weekend. Remember when Larry Morgan would say: "If you miss any of this week's shows, you can hear them on the Classic AT-40
I-Heart Radio web site"? Why was this practice stopped? The 70's & 80's shows airing over any weekend (both "A" & "B") should have a generous rotation on Classic AT-40 the following week, as many of
us actually do miss an occasional show here and there.
Play out the entire show!!! I've heard Casey's sign-off where he gets cut before he can say "...and keep reaching for the stars/...and keep your radio tuned right where it is!" Larry Morgan bangs in with
"Remembering Casey Kasem..." If any of these countdowns contain the entire show close, PLEASE let it play out!!! What's the rush? It's not like I-Heart has to hit the top-of-the-hour newscast. We love
this silly stuff!!! I understand that the show close was shortened, as it takes up time that could be used for spots, or to get the next show on in a hurry to satisfy the PPM quarter-hour credit. Still, that
doesn't mean the Classic AT-40 site can't also let whatever show close theme music exists play out to the end - even if it does fade early. As for the older re-mastered countdowns that aired from 2006,
those show close themes ran out in their entirety. If I aired them, I'd let the show close music play out to the last note - clean!
Before I give up the "World Ruler's Throne"...
Ask the average person which "thing" they'd most likely throw out their high-rise apartment window, and they'll say it's their computer. The average user is not (completely) "computer savvy." When things
go wrong, many will take it to Geek Squad (where personality reigns supreme) and pay up to a few hundred dollars to get it "fixed." Meanwhile, many of us "tech-savvy" engineers can recognize a problem,
immediately & fix it, ourselves. The same goes for many of those who've been using PC's for years. We know how to keep our home & work PC's running, flawlessly.
When the Broadcast Industry transitioned from carts to digital playback/automation, stations had to utilize, literally, dozens (if not hundreds, as in the case of CBS Radio, Sirius/XM & I-Heart) of machines.
Each one has to be custom-configured to run audio without burping, belching or freezing, just because Windows wants to update. Of course, there's also Java, Flash Player & security updates. Each one
of these machines must be updated, "de-fragged" and cleaned of all garbage & temp files on a weekly basis, because of their 24/7/365 use. To do this, all systems about to have maintenance must move
to their respective back-up servers & playback systems. It's not perfect, as machines will still freeze, but it's as good as it will get to ensure low outages (read: "Dead Air").
Back in the day, on-air mishaps were caused by five issues:
1) Talent/engineer made an on-air mistake
2) Cart jammed
3) Jock locked himself in the bathroom
4) Jock forgot that, while locked in the bathroom, "Stay," by Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs was far shorter than two minutes
5) The transmitter blew up & burned down the radio station
Today, we have automation systems, "jock-assist" & basic live methods to get shows on air. Automation systems aren't perfect, but the trade-off is that no tape machine maintenance is required, as IT
now fills that role in keeping playback systems up & running. It's far cheaper than when tape & analog machines were involved. Although money & the progress of technology played a major factor, what
became an "acceptable" problem was when these digital playback systems failed. Program Directors understood that this was the way of things...but to a point.
Depending on the frequency of problems, either the IT Department got yelled at, or the machines/systems were replaced. Believe it or not, most often times the engineers are no longer involved with any
of the playback system's maintenance. This (for the most part) is what Management wants, so they have to deal with the consequences. Thankfully, this is not the case at CBS Radio, as engineers are a
major part of any digital playback system maintenance. Our IT people are, strictly, "Broadcast IT" - not office-type "System Managers" with no actual broadcast experience.
Basically, no matter how well maintained (assuming it's done, regularly) a digital playback system is; no matter how perfectly the machines are loaded & checked (assuming they are), problems are going
to happen - if not with the playback machine, then with the LAN/WAN network and/or other digital processing & routing points from the studio to the transmitter - including the digital transmitter, itself!
Then there are streaming encoder systems at the studio end which feed an outside server company providing the stream and web sites to listeners. With, literally, thousands of digital processing units
to pass through before listener can hear it, somewhere the Novell Netware backbone will bottleneck, or the server will buffer and we'll experience large drop-out segments in the show while listening. It
can't be helped, but we've got to learn to live with it.
Welcome to the 21st Century!
