American Top 40 (HOT AC) - May 8-9, 2010
Jun 17, 2010 13:52:37 GMT -5
Post by Hervard on Jun 17, 2010 13:52:37 GMT -5
Another that I remember was on 1984's year-end chart. "Taking It All Too Hard" by Genesis was way up in the teens and as I recall, it peaked somewhere in the 30s. Yet, "Sunglasses At Night" by Corey Hart somehow didn't make it, even though it peaked in the Top Ten.
And what was up with the 1985 year-end charts? The printed surveys were totally different from the one they counted down on New Year's Eve. On the latter, "The Power Of Love" was number one. Yet, on the printed survey, "Sussudio" was number one.
(And I seem to recall that a few album cuts, which didn't chart beyond the "Extras" mysteriously made the list(s). Seems that someone at the station made a list of all the songs that charted on WLS through the year (even songs that fell off the chart after the first chart of the year - explaining how 1984 songs like "Hard Habit To Break" were included) and picked out their 89 favorite songs and ranked them in order of their preference.
And speaking of year-end charts, Z95's Top 95 of 1990 was completely weird. It was totally inconsistent with the Z95 Top 30 charts, with songs that hit the Top Five on that not making the chart, yet songs that did not even chart on the Z95 chart were included. Seemed more like a slightly rearranged version of the national year-end charts. But yeah, I tuned in, looking forward to hearing all the songs that never made the AT40 or Casey's Top 40 charts (as well as the ones that charted low on those countdowns), only to be disappointed and confused as to what the deal was. (And, of course, that was the last Z95 year-ender, as the station flipped to simulcast with its AM sister WLS, which by now was talk radio). Oh well, the station had become pretty much a joke by them, making a lame attempt to hurt B96's arbitron ratings by adopting a rhythmic Top 40 format as well. Had Z95 stayed a regular Top 40 station, it might not have died as fast as it did.
I think I remember that 1985 chart too. The printed copy was not the same as the one they used on the radio, which was stupid in that no one could follow along with the printed copy. I guess they wanted to mix up the order in order to keep people listening, though it did not matter because as you said, songs that probably weren't even released made those year end charts! Maybe they went by record sales only which sometimes differ significantly from what is played. But even as a 15 year old, I new when I was getting gyped!
Ah yes! The last days of Z95. What "fun" days those were! You knew a station was in big trouble when they renamed themselves "Hell" 94.7! I remember they brought in the same "consultant" who programmed the old "Power Pig" CHR station in Tampa, Florida. How that station dominated the ratings there is beyond me! Hell 94.7 basically resorted to rude deejays (a problem even before 94.7 literally went to "Hell"!), attacking B-96, ripping off their rhythmic playlist. Their ratings plummeted from an already low 2.0 to a disasterous 1.3, even after they dropped the name Hell and went to Hot 94.7. And just the fact that they catered to 12 year olds did not fulfill their objective of being a mass appeal station, and the listeners in Chicago thankfully did not fall for this train wreck of a station.
You just had to love this sort of "humor":
Station announcer: "Tune in for a big announcement at 7:20 this morning."
Deejay at 7:20: "B96 still sucks!"
Uhhh, yeah.
Sorry for bumping this back up, but I had forgotten about our WLS/Z95 discussion last month...
Anyway, I was away at college in Mishawaka in the 1990-91 school year, so I did not listen to Z95 since that station didn't come in very well at all there, so I missed that "scandal" that you speak of, but it's no wonder that 94.7's ratings went down so much. The term "be yourself" definitely applied here. B96 was one of the most popular stations in Chicago at the time, so many of the listeners who also listened to 94.7 and heard them say "B96 sucks" were probably so insulted that they stopped listening to 94.7 for good. If my theory is correct, that would be what hurt their already low ratings. And naming their station "Hell 94.7" - what was up with that? Again, I never heard about this until many years later, when I got Ron Smith's "Chicago Top 40 Charts 1980-1990" and read the intro. Basically, 94.7 knew that their ratings were going down and they only dug themselves deeper into the hole with their tactics that made absolutely no sense. The only thing I really knew, since I didn't usually listen to Z95 even after I was back from college, was that they seemed to play a lot more rhythmic music than they had previously. But if I knew the real story, I wouldn't have been at all surprised the morning of October 27, 1991 when I tuned into Z95 to listen to AT40 only to hear that the station had flipped to talk radio.