On February 19 (2011) Kix Brooks' American Country Countdown cut the length of the show from four hours to three, dropping the venerable "Top 40" to 30.
In a trade press interview announcing the move, Bryan Switzer, Citadel Vice President of Programming and Distribution and a long time music promotion executive said the switch came at the request of the affiliates who "were uncomfortable with the level of unfamiliarity the songs in the 30s had on their stations."
"ACC Top 40" remains on the countdown's website, based as it is on Nielsen/BDS/Billboard monitored airplay, which lists 60.
Last week, when I asked a promotion executive what had happened in March to a song that she had been pursuing, she told me that one and six other tunes suddenly dropped off all monitored charts in a few weeks after Kix stopped counting down #31 to #40.
The self-evident veracity of that got me to scratching my head.
If the only thing that keeps some songs on the weekly countdown this week is the spins on last week's countdown, isn't it time to rethink what we're doing and why?
Are we countin' 'em down? Or, propping 'em up?
7 years ago
1 comment:
Actually, the show is still four hours long. But the countdown goes from 30 to one. The space held by the other ten songs is now filled with recurrents, gold and other more familiar songs.
Great point, though. I talk to record reps every week who are worried about their syndication spins going up or down. The whole chart/record promotion system is broken anyway, but that's a whole 'nother story.
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