AT10 - April 3, 2004

[Hervard]

Here is this week's AT10 show:

LC TC SONG/ARTIST
01 01 First Cut Is The Deepest/Sheryl Crow
02 02 White Flag/Dodo
03 03 You Raise Me Up/Josh Groban
07 04 100 Years/Five For Fighting
04 05 Forever And For Always/Shania Twain
05 06 Unwell/Matchbox Twenty
06 07 Drift Away/Dobie Gray
08 08 Calling All Angels/Train
10 09 Ain't No Mountain High Enough/Michael McDonald
09 10 Dance With My Father/Luther Vandross

AT10 Extras:
You Keep Me Hanging On/Kim Wilde
I Can Dream About You/Dan Hartman
Down Under/Men At Work
At This Moment/Billy Vera & The Beaters

Long Distance Dedications:
Dreaming Of You/Selena
I'll Remember/Madonna

AT10 Archives:
1965: It's The Same Old Song/The Four Tops
1972: Listen To The Music/The Doobie Brothers
1976: If You Leave Me Now/Chicago
1977: I Just Want To Be Your Everything/Andy Gibb
1980: On The Radio/Donna Summer
1984: I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues/Elton John
1998: Torn/Natalie Imbruglia
2000: Breathe/Faith Hill

AT10 Spotlight: (Successful Duos)
I'd Really Love To See You Tonight/England Dan & John Ford Coley
Danny's Song/Loggins & Messina
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go/Wham!
Truly Madly Deeply/Savage Garden
Unchained Melody/The Righteous Brothers
It Must Have Been Love/Roxette
You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling/Daryl Hall & John Oates

I must say, I was at first very disappointed when they played the Roxette song after number three because, that was already the sixth themed extra and I was thinking, "What about the most successful duo of them all, Hall & Oates?" But then, they surprised us and played a seventh themed-extra. I guess they just played one less AT10 Archive songs than they usually do and actually went back to playing 31 songs instead of 30, like they've been doing for the past two weeks.

And, as usual (for the three weeks they've been running AT10), there was a pretty good selection of extras. How often do you hear "It's The Same Old Song", "Listen To The Music" and "If You Leave Me Now" on AC radio (of course, I'm sure these are very commonplace songs on oldies station). I'm not sure all oldies stations play "I Just Wanna Be Your Everything", especially the ones that shun disco music, but the last time I heard that on radio was longer ago than I care to remember (last time I heard it at all was on the October 8, 1977 AT40 that I listened to about this time last year).

As was pointed out earlier, they played 31 songs instead of the 30 they played the first two weeks of AT10, instead of looping about four or five songs so they are virtually played twice. I did notice looping of at least two songs - "Listen To The Music" and another song that I can't think of right now (it may have been "I Can Dream About You", but I'm not 100% sure). I was surprised that they didn't loop "I'd Really Love To See You Tonight", since that song only runs for two and a half minutes.

The thing that would make AT10 even better is if they would play a future hit (equivalent to Dick Clark's "US Music Survey Preview). That would help to promote a new single so people would call in and request it and help it to become a Top Ten hit. Ever since AT10 began, there have been no debuts on the show (not even songs that were on the AT20 chart during its last two weeks) and that could change if some sort of a Hitbound song was added to the show - in place of one of the AT10 Archive songs, since there are usually about eight or nine of those anyway.

Anyway, that's my commentary on this week's show.

[johnnywest]

I wish they played the show where I live. I enjoyed it when I heard it on vacation recently. It's great that they're playing oldies like you said.

ulij20 said:

The thing that would make AT10 even better is if they would play a future hit (equivalent to Dick Clark's "US Music Survey Preview).  That would help to promote a new single so people would call in and request it and help it to become a Top Ten hit.  Ever since AT10 began, there have been no debuts on the show (not even songs that were on the AT20 chart during its last two weeks) and that could change if some sort of a Hitbound song was added to the show - in place of one of the AT10 Archive songs, since there are usually about eight or nine of those anyway. 

I think that's a good idea too. But one of the reasons for cutting the chart in half is because AC stations don't want to play more than 3 currents per hour. And with a 3-hour show, you've already got one hour that's got 4 currents in it. But just once, I'd like to hear Casey announce: "Here's this week's Sure Shot, a song that we feel will go a long way..." :)

[chebingeo]

Yeah no redundency on this chart. In fact, we've had the same 10 songs since the format shrunk.

[Arson]

I thought this week's countdown was a good listen.

A chart-bound feature would be nice, but there would soon be a shortage of candidate songs. They would have to reach further and further down the Top 30. Most of these sureshots would never reach the Top 10.

Or you could have a situation in which a song is deemed 'chartbound', but the song doesn't reach the Top 10 until 5 months later.

[Hervard]

Arson said:

I thought this week's countdown was a good listen.

A chart-bound feature would be nice, but there would soon be a shortage of candidate songs.  They would have to reach further and further down the Top 30.  Most of these sureshots would never reach the Top 10.

Or you could have a situation in which a song is deemed 'chartbound', but the song doesn't reach the Top 10 until 5 months later. 

The "chartbound" feature wouldn't necessarily have to be every week (in fact, that would be impossible - as chebingeo said, the same ten songs have been on the countdown since Casey's A/C show was butchered). But it could possibly be once a month, or maybe every six weeks, give or take a week. I know that most AC stations don't want more than three current songs being played every hour, but back when the show was AT20, there were about seven current songs being played an hour. The thing is, a countdown show is not regular programming. I don't think any A/C station will lose ratings if they play more than three current songs an hour.
However, we'll just have to see what happens. Since AT10 is only into its first few weeks, the permanent format might not be finalized, though, then again, it might be finalized. If that's the case, then that's cool because I like the new format, with the extras being a good variety, not the same "As I Lay Me Down" and "One Sweet Day" being played week after week as I feared it would be when I heard about the change. I still think it would have been nice if they left the show as it was, but it could have been worse (and it may still, if they decide that the songs they play don't fit the typical AC format and we have to hear "Truly Madly Deeply" every week).

[Hervard]

I wonder if "This One's For The Girls" will debut on the April 10 AT10? And if it does, what will Casey say, since it's already been on his AC countdown? Maybe he'll say either "Entering the top ten this week..." or just say, "That's Martina McBride and "This One's For The Girls", this week, survey song number ten", sort of like he did the week that the CHR/Pop chart went to PPW (not sure if he did this when the AC chart was converted, since the chart moves were nowhere near as bizarre).

[EvanJ]

It would be nice to have the first American Top 10 debut.

[lacrosseboy]

The reason why they probably wouldn't ever play a future hit is because it opens the show up to criticism and scepticism.

IE: "Are they paying the show to play this song?"

That's why AT40 never did this in the first place.

[Hot AC Archiver]

AT40 during the Shadoe era did have the "Sneek Peek", which played the most added song to pop radio. (The "most added" data came from R&R, not BB.)

[mst3k]

And of course the new AT40 has the "Out Of The Box" feature.

[Hervard]

Exactly! Why can't AT10 have something like this (of course, as stated earlier, it would be virtually impossible to make it a weekly thing).

[EvanJ]

mst3k said:

And of course the new AT40 has the "Out Of The Box" feature.

And Rick Dees' Sure Shot.