Re: Thursday Night Countdown Chart)

[mwaters@mail.wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Steve Ordinetz wrote:
>Aha, herein lies the rub...if someone who's a radio nut could barely stay
>tuned in because of the obscurity/general awfulness of some of these songs,
>how do you expect your average oldies station listener (who actually looks
>forward to hearing "Sherry" again) to stick around?
<snip>

        Basically, I agree that it's a problem. But just blame it on the
people who were responsible for making and liking all those bad recordings
(oh, that would be, ahhh, all of us!). I suggested that WODS could use one
of the local lists as "its starting point." I guess I'm conceding that some
rewriting of history is probably inevitable, although I'm not sure how I
really feel about that.
        If you had the Billboard chart in front of you and one of the local
station lists and you came up with your own, and didn't need to cross out
more than a couple songs altogether, you could have some wiggle room. You'd
still be more or less "genuine" and not have your nose get too long when
you said it was the top 20 from such-and-such-a-week in such-and-such a
year.

>A second problem with using a local survey (WRKO
>excluded for the most part--their playlists seemed to be a committee effort
>between all the stations in the RKO-General family) is actually FINDING a
>lot of these songs.
<snip>

      Some of the ex-WRKOers here may be able to shed light, but my
recollection is that the WRKO list did have a local basis, at least partly.
Like most other stations at that time, they needed to recognize that each
market had a tilt. Sometimes it could be more subtle--like how often in the
rotation, etc. I also believe that the RKO / Drake consulted group did work
together as you said. Sometimes they'd all a song, or it would be a
situation where one station would try a song, it would hit, and the others
would all try it. But then they watched for the feedback in each town.
        I even think the WRKO published list said something about its
sources at least including local record stores and their phone line. One or
more copies may be posted on the Big68 Remembered website.
        All the way up until we got to the '90s, IMO, playlists within a
certain format were a lot less homogenized between markets than now. For
example, in the '60s, a "top 40" station in the South definitely sounded
different than one in Boston--a lot more twanging. That sort of thing.

>let alone songs like "Come Share The Good
>Times With Me" by Julie Monday which peaked at #99 (I think) in Billboard,
>but reached the top 15 on WBZ (and was a fave of mine in the summer of
>'66...oh, for a clean copy!!!!)

        Gee, I wonder if WBZ has thrown out its records <g>? Actually, WBZ
always was an odd duck. A lot less rocky in its music than WMEX, although
another way to say it is that their music was a broader range. They had the
Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra both on there. There were some songs WBZ
never played that were hits on WMEX. For no special reason, other than it's
one of my favorite songs, I seem to remember that, for example, "Ask the
Lonely," an early Four Tops, was either not on at all or barely on WBZ.
        And, oh, I'm afraid I don't have a copy of Ms. Monday's song . . .