Which countdown do you prefer in the post AT20 era

[radiobrett]

Now that it's been three months since Casey called it quits, I'm curious to see what countdown everyone chooses as their favorite. I really can't say I'm overly thrilled with any of them. I want to like Rick Dees simply because, after Casey, he was probably the second most well known countdown host. But his show, especially the Hot AC version, is quite sloppy when it comes to overall production value. While I want to hate on AT40, the production quality is often times top notch. None of the shows follow an official chart anymore. Thoughts?

[MostInterestingManInTheWorld]

If Ryan Seacrest could do his Top 40 in a similar fashion as the Bob Kingsley Country Top 40, I would be sold.

But I can't stand his current show for two primary reasons -

1) He really doesn't talk music, instead pandering to the lowest common denominator with television and movie personality interviews (and sometimes not even that, ahem, Paris).

2) The lack of a recurrent rule - this is one area where Dees has a huge advantage.

[musicfanpete]

Oct 4, 2009 22:04:58 GMT -5 MostInterestingManInTheWorld said:

If Ryan Seacrest could do his Top 40 in a similar fashion as the Bob Kingsley Country Top 40, I would be sold.

But I can't stand his current show for two primary reasons -

1) He really doesn't talk music, instead pandering to the lowest common denominator with television and movie personality interviews (and sometimes not even that, ahem, Paris).

2) The lack of a recurrent rule - this is one area where Dees has a huge advantage.

Ditto for me, though you can Dees technically does not have a recurrent rule either. He just purposely gets rid of older songs a lot faster than AT40 does.

I've stated this several times here. AT40 needs a recurrent rule. Not 20 weeks below the top 15 which would just lead to songs falling out of the chart from the top third with regularity. But a reasonable recurrent rule, say 60 weeks below the top 20 would work great. That way you can still allow for songs to hang around for quite awhile while at the same eliminating the ridiculous runs that we have seen from the likes of Sara Bareilles, Lifehouse and others in recent year. Put in a recurrent rule like this and "I'm Yours" would have been gone awhile ago as it had fallen out of the top 20 a month or so ago before it jumped back in.

But as things stand, I would rather see the "dartboard" type chart Rick comes up with that moves songs off the chart faster than the "official" AT40 chart where songs don't move at all.

[KelownaGuy20]

I'm someone who honestly doesn't give a crap about charts. I don't care if any of these countdown shows reflect an actual chart. I just want 4 hours of music, and a variety of music at that.

For me, the show that best fits my needs is Rick Dees. He can use a dartboard all he wants, but the fact is, it results in songs moving around, new songs being added to the chart, and older songs leaving in a timely manner.

Ryan Seacrest may have the personality, but all I give a shit about is the music, and Dees delivers in that sense.

[MostInterestingManInTheWorld]

The recurrent idea I have is to, after 20 weeks on the chart, start applying a multiplier, say 0.98, and build on it each week. For example, if a song has 2,000 plays in its 21st week, credit it for 0.98*2000= 1,960 plays. If a song has 2,000 plays in its 22nd week, credit it for ((0.98)^2)*2000 = 1,921 plays. This way, a song doesn’t get 15/20’d or whatever, yet it will have a progressive slide after a reasonable run on the chart.

[musicfanpete]

Oct 5, 2009 0:08:19 GMT -5 KelownaGuy20 said:

I'm someone who honestly doesn't give a crap about charts. I don't care if any of these countdown shows reflect an actual chart. I just want 4 hours of music, and a variety of music at that.

For me, the show that best fits my needs is Rick Dees. He can use a dartboard all he wants, but the fact is, it results in songs moving around, new songs being added to the chart, and older songs leaving in a timely manner.

Ryan Seacrest may have the personality, but all I give a s**t about is the music, and Dees delivers in that sense.

I believe you stated once that you don't like Rick as a personality but you like his chart. Ryan may be able to relate to his audience better than Rick, but charts aside, at least Rick sticks with music and artist info far more than Ryan does. Yes Rick has his "Dees Sleeze" as well, but he doesn't dominate his show with useless Hollywood junk like Ryan does!

[musicfanpete]

Oct 5, 2009 16:23:41 GMT -5 MostInterestingManInTheWorld said:

The recurrent idea I have is to, after 20 weeks on the chart, start applying a multiplier, say 0.98, and build on it each week. For example, if a song has 2,000 plays in its 21st week, credit it for 0.98*2000= 1,960 plays. If a song has 2,000 plays in its 22nd week, credit it for ((0.98)^2)*2000 = 1,921 plays. This way, a song doesn’t get 15/20’d or whatever, yet it will have a progressive slide after a reasonable run on the chart.

I'm just wondering if Rick already isn't doing something like this. My theory is that maybe once a particular station on his panel drops a song into recurrent status, maybe he counts the number of plays from that station as zero, or he partially reduces the number of plays as you suggested. This lets the downtrending songs slide down the chart in a linear manner until they accumulate at the bottom of the chart to wait there until there are enough new songs to take their place. Interesting theory though tim.

[Mike Schwartz]

As someone who goes back to the early 70s with Casey Kasem (1973 to be exact), I grew up appreciating his format; interesting artist tidbits, teasers and chart trivia. While there really isn't a show like that anymore (more due to evolving audience tastes then anything else), I have cast my lot in with Rick Dees. I find that he does try to bring interesting perspectives to the hits and chart trivia-albeit in a very restricted manner. It makes for an enjoyable listen while I am on line.

[gin]

I'm a Dees fan all the way, even if I'm less than flattered with his countdown as of late.