Re: Newspaper article on WHCN format change

["Roger Kirk" <rogerkirk@ttlc.net>]

> Aaron 'Bishop' Read wrote:
> >So anyways, I've had Kiss108 in the background for 10 hours at a
stretch,
> >twice a week, for the past two weeks....and I swear to God I can feel
my
> >IQ dropping.  Ugh...no lie, I've heard the same Nickelback single AT
LEAST
> >six times a day now.

SteveOrdinetz replied:
> But CHR/Top 40 has always been repetitive.  If you'd had WMEX on for
10
> hours straight 40 years ago you probably would have heard the same
Chubby
> Checker song at least that many times.  While I can't say I'm
particularly
> fond of today's song/jingle/song/sweeper/song/sweeper/song/promo...
with a
> fairly low jock profile, I doubt CHR is any more repetitive than it's
ever been.

Let's see:  10 hours divided by 6 Nickelbacks = 1.67 hour separation.

At WRKO in 1970-73, the Top 30 playlist was played through before
repeating.  Add in 3 Hit bounds and 2 Goldens - that's 35 songs at
approximately 3 minutes each or 105 minutes of music.  Combined with
commercials, it averaged out to about 15 songs per hour (45 minutes of
music)  Of course, a newscast would eat 10 minutes, so realistically,
the
rotation on a Top 30 song was around 2 hours - give or take.  Back
in the early 60's, the average Top 40 song length was somewhere around
2:30 - 2:45, so a Top 30 with Hitbounds and Goldens would be ~ 90
minutes of music.  Given the slow increase in average song length since
then (Billboard had an article about that, wish I could find it) and a
Top
30 Playlist plus a few extras, the actual rotation should be longer, but
we
all know that there really isn't a Top 30 any more and rotation is
computer
controlled on a per-song basis.  Hence the return to ~90 minutes
rotation for
a HOT song.

In the interest of research and morbid curiosity, is there anybody on
the list
that can give a "representative" look at the rep rate on a contemporary
CHR
for HOT songs, Warm songs, recurrents and Oldies?  No giving away
format secrets, now!

Roger Kirk

p.s. Given the title "How You Remind Me", a 90 minute rotation is apt.

rmk