The Chart show as it stands today in the Sunday 4-7pm spot has been in this slot since 7th January 1962 as part of the light programme, although it has been when it was a shorter show not occupying all of this slot, with the first programme in March 1992 taking up the whole of the 4-7pm slot. Why do you think this slot was chosen way back in 1962 as the home of the chart, and kept in this slot.

 

 

Well the OCC say they start to count the week's sales at 12:01PM I think, which takes a few hours to do and it is 3 hours long because of the adverts and actually playing the song, following the top 100 published at 7:00PM. Any later and it wouldn't really be relevant on the radio imo.

Sunday is a day when most people are off work so that's why it was chosen initially.

Sunday is a day when most people are off work so that's why it was chosen initially.

 

Yes, that too :unsure:

 

Common Sense lol :w00t:

Well the OCC say they start to count the week's sales at 12:01PM I think, which takes a few hours to do and it is 3 hours long because of the adverts and actually playing the song, following the top 100 published at 7:00PM. Any later and it wouldn't really be relevant on the radio imo.

Adverts? Apart from the odd mind-numbingly tedious trailer, what adverts? :unsure:

Sunday is a day when most people are off work so that's why it was chosen initially.

I think it has more to do with kids being off school that day, nothing on TV (before the days of Sky & Freeview), and pre 1994, there was no Sunday trading.

 

 

 

And the 6:00-7:00pm slot was one where both Radios 1 and 2 could play the chart (yes kids, the chart did used to be shared between Radios 1 and 2) in the era when Radio 1 was on 247m and couldn't be received across the whole country.

And the 6:00-7:00pm slot was one where both Radios 1 and 2 could play the chart (yes kids, the chart did used to be shared between Radios 1 and 2) in the era when Radio 1 was on 247m and couldn't be received across the whole country.

 

 

I once read somewhere that the Top 20 show around the mid 70's, with Tom Browne mainly, had so many listeners that the TV channels didn't bother to schedule anything that they wanted good viewing figures for at that time.

I once read somewhere that the Top 20 show around the mid 70's, with Tom Browne mainly, had so many listeners that the TV channels didn't bother to schedule anything that they wanted good viewing figures for at that time.

Quite right. It peaked at 17 million in 1976. BBC & ITV scheduled Songs Of Praise, Stars On Sunday & kids serials against it. It started to wain when ITV showed "Jesus Of Nazarath" & continued to do so. 14 million by 1979, 11 million by 1986. Today less than 1 million. Though if you include 2.5m of dodgy Big Top 40 listeners & about .1 of internet charts & tv charts (at the same time slots) it's some 3.6m in total.

 

Don't know if some Big Top 40 dodgy followers noticed a big glitch last week, when the compilers failed to place Taylor Swift in the top 10? They tried to say she fell out of the top 10, during the week. SOME mistake!

Quite right. It peaked at 17 million in 1976. BBC & ITV scheduled Songs Of Praise, Stars On Sunday & kids serials against it. It started to wain when ITV showed "Jesus Of Nazarath" & continued to do so. 14 million by 1979, 11 million by 1986. Today less than 1 million. Though if you include 2.5m of dodgy Big Top 40 listeners & about .1 of internet charts & tv charts (at the same time slots) it's some 3.6m in total.

 

Don't know if some Big Top 40 dodgy followers noticed a big glitch last week, when the compilers failed to place Taylor Swift in the top 10? They tried to say she fell out of the top 10, during the week. SOME mistake!

Do you have any listening figures for the Network Top 40 from 1984 onwards? It would be interesting to compare listening figures for the Radio 1 top 40 with the Network Chart from when the latter started in late 1984.

 

Do you have any listening figures for the Network Top 40 from 1984 onwards? It would be interesting to compare listening figures for the Radio 1 top 40 with the Network Chart from when the latter started in late 1984.

Hi Robbie. Network Top 30 started on 3m in 1984. Peaking at 5m in 1987. It never surpassed it.

 

Radio 1 were on 10m in 1988 & that figure more than halved in the next 10 years. The Pepsi Chart aka Neil Fox, boasted overtaking Radio 1 in 1994. Radio 1 overtook again in 2004, when Independant Radio split shows i.e. Hit40UK, The Smash Hits Chart (Mark Goodier/Robin Banks) & The A List (Melanie Sykes etc).

 

In general, Indepedant Radio have been quite constent between 5 & 2m. Radio 1 have a lot to answer for, with a loss of 9m in 15 years. Possibly ageism on Radio 1 is a contender in all their output on all shows, as well as Top 40. Though don't forget some dreadful presentation/production.

 

I remember Simon Bates expressing his concern in 1978, that Tom Browne had some 3m more listeners than he. Bernie Andrews handed Simon, ITV viewing figures for the April 1978 period. It was indeed Robert Powell's fault.

Edited November 9, 201410 yr by MikeR

Thanks for the info Mike.

 

So it looks like it wasn't really The Network Chart / Pepsi Chart that led to listeners deserting the Radio 1 Top 40 in their millions, though of course some listeners would have switched over to listening to the former. It reads more like a general decline in interest in chart shows amongst mainstream listeners setting in from the mid to late 80s onwards.

Edited November 9, 201410 yr by Robbie

Wow, 17m for the Top 20 in 1976!!

The Chart show as it stands today in the Sunday 4-7pm spot has been in this slot since 7th January 1962 as part of the light programme, although it has been when it was a shorter show not occupying all of this slot, with the first programme in March 1992 taking up the whole of the 4-7pm slot. Why do you think this slot was chosen way back in 1962 as the home of the chart, and kept in this slot.

 

Probably because Radio Luxembourg moved its "chart show" early on. The old Pick of the Pops was broadcast at 11pm, which also tied in with the Luxembourg show.

The BBC have always been slow at coming forwards. They needed a kick up the pants every now and then and the Commercial Radio did just that. The BBC didn't like the idea of the top 40 for one thing, which was too American for them. Pick of The Pops also didn't actually run down the chart like today. It selected records to be played. Thus avoiding any records that were restricted in the playing of.

By the late 70's the show was broadcasting the top twenty only. The main reason for this is that the top twenty was the only bit that the BBC could be certain it wasn't fiddle by the Record Industry. Though many times it was. Most commercial Radio Stations by this time were broadcasting local top 40's. They didn't care if records were fiddled. Radio One's chart was also out of date by the time of broadcast, has it had been published by Tuesday the week prior to the Sunday. They got around this by using the week ending date, which makes the chart look up to date even during the week when it's printed.

The ILR stations got together to broadcast a top 30 at the same time as the out of date chart on Radio One. Radio One responded by playing selected records from the top 40, with the top 20 in full. Eventually they got rid of the news slot at 4.30 and broadcast the full chart. The BBC never considered broadcasting the full top 75. In fact DJ's were told not to even mention records outside the top 40.

Years later the BBC switched to an up-to-date chart, broadcasting just after it was published. However Top Of The Pops then became the one broadcasting an out of date chart, so it killed off the show.

 

The chart shows became so popular that TV broadcasters cleared the schedules for the Sunday spot, putting on religious shows instead. The broadcasters gave this slot the nickname of the "God Spot".

But ITV realised they could put some decent shows on at this time and the God Spot vanished from the ITV channels. It stayed on the BBC, due to it's charter and restrictions.

 

The first ever 4-7pm chart (playing the entire Top 40) was 15th March 1992 with Bruno Brookes, it was Mark Goodier and on from 4.30pm -7pm before that IIRC.

 

Capitol Radio was doing top 40 charts in the middle 1970's, long before Radio One. By 1980 my own Station Radio Hallam was doing a top 50 chart based on local sales from 2pm on a Sunday running till 6pm.

It was far les restrictive about the records played. I have a recording of Rhoda and The Specials The Boiler which features the sound of woman being raped! It lasts 5.24 minutes, recorded from the top 50.

It's sad to see the decline in listeners to the Radio 1 Top 40 but it's not that surprising. The Top 40 on a Sunday used to be an event but it lost importance due to the midweeks info being released. The format of the radio show was tinkered with too much - records would be skipped, features would be added, and I outgrew what was the target audience as Radio 1 panicked about appealing to anyone older than their remit would allow.

 

I couldn't imagine sitting glued to a 3 hour radio show now. Times change. Fearne and Reggie were the final nail in the coffin for me.

Evidently, interest in the current music scene is as healthy as it was back in the 70's and 80's (judging from sales) but for some reason interest in the charts has waned considerably, further evidence of this is the demise of British Hit Singles and other such books, (i would estimate that sales of BHS peaked in the early 90's, figures anyone?) I think the the nail in the coffin for people being interested in the charts was the demise of vinyl and then the physical single altogether. IMO the majority of big chart fans were also record collectors.

Edited November 11, 201410 yr by fiesta

The BHS was always an expensive book, but I think the main reason for it's decline was due to the fact that they messed around with the layout too much. For example re-entries were not listed etc. The chart fans like myself like that kind of data. Also a lot of people would only be interested in their teenage years. For a great deal of the population these were the 60's, 70's, 80's and to some extant the 90's. Once these decades were covered, many of the baby boom generation had all the information they needed. So they didn't need to buy another book. Many of the artists who had had hits in these decades, had stopped having hits after 2000. So there was little need to buy another of these expensive books.

 

The BBC chart show is no longer relevant, most insiders now quote the iTunes chart for record placements. Some years ago lots of people were on forums complaining about the quality of the presentation of the chart show. They didn't like the fact presenters regularly got facts wrong, but also the lack of information that was given about the track, chart stuff etc.

I suppose it might have it's moment in the limelight again. Like when Facebook people stopped the X-Factor record from going to the top. But the chart now is so manipulated, especially by the use of streaming, to stop a public takeover again.

I'm surprised it yields that many listeners. I feel sorry for the youth of today - as a child of the 90s, the first half of the decade in particular was great. The charts were rammed with climbers, new entries and some bug surprises. Now... isn't it basically the same 40 singles in a slightly different order to the previous week? Incidentally, that post of the top 40 from 1992 is precisely the time I started to listen to the charts religiously. "Stay" was at number one for 8 weeks!