Does anyone here listen to this?

For those who don't know it's a radio station with a playlist of every Top 40 hit from 1952-1999 that gets played at random and won't get repeated until they've got through the entire playlist. There's no presenters and just 1 advert an hour.

The problem with most retro stations is that they never play anything I haven't heard before and often they play something I've heard far too many times in my life. Every time I listen to Retro Charts Radio I hear something I've never heard before.

I honestly couldn't think of a single way you could make it better. Obviously I don't like everything they play but I'd much rather sit through 3 minutes of a boring song than 3 minutes of irritating adverts you get on other stations.

Yes, someone on here drew our attention to it a couple of years ago. I did listen to it a lot back then for a few weeks but got out of the habit. It's good to hear it's still going.

Yes, have listened a lot to it. May have been me who posted about it before.

My niece was talking about an ad-free no DJ station the other day that she loves, I think it was this one. I like the idea of it, but I still like oldies mixed in with newies. I love the idea that it's random, though, that's very appealing, but I'd at least prefer a top 50 or 75 to get more obscure tracks.

You always can watch my charts for unknown retro music.

I've had this on for the past hour or so after coming across this thread. I think they've played 1 song I had heard before - so a good way to discover some new old music. Although I do think it would benefit from an algorithm that makes sure the songs are remotely similar as there's been a few weird change of tones - mainly going from 90s songs to 60s songs where the difference in sound is very noticeable.

3 hours ago, househead said:

I've had this on for the past hour or so after coming across this thread. I think they've played 1 song I had heard before - so a good way to discover some new old music. Although I do think it would benefit from an algorithm that makes sure the songs are remotely similar as there's been a few weird change of tones - mainly going from 90s songs to 60s songs where the difference in sound is very noticeable.

I like the way it goes from one extreme to another. I do get that listening to a 50s crooner after hearing a 90s rave classic is a bit of an anti-climax. However the problem with having a similar song that follows is you're likely to switch off if it isn't to your liking. At least with the way it is if you don't like the song playing when you switch on you know it could be one of your favourites up next.

Was there a much higher turnover of charts in the 1990s compared to the earlier decades? I'm only asking because this station sees to play a lot - and I mean a lot - of 90s songs despite being on random rotation? At times every song is a 90s hit with a sprinkling of earlier hits peppered in - it goes slightly against it being a retro station with that penetration of 90s songs.

On 05/02/2026 at 15:38, househead said:

Was there a much higher turnover of charts in the 1990s compared to the earlier decades? I'm only asking because this station sees to play a lot - and I mean a lot - of 90s songs despite being on random rotation? At times every song is a 90s hit with a sprinkling of earlier hits peppered in - it goes slightly against it being a retro station with that penetration of 90s songs.

Yes the 50s had less than 200 new entries every year but there were fewer positions. Then from the 60s to mid-70s it was over 200 new entries each year but always less than 300. Late 70s and most the 80s was around 300 new entries each year then got over 350 in 1988 and 1989. All of the 90s years had at least 400 new entries and from 1992 they all had over 500 and peaked in 1997 when there was over 700.