- Tim Martz' Radio Power is asked by the FCC about a Milwaukee translator move-in
- The Birth of Urban EMO
- MDNA: 53 Is The New 42
- Digital Marketing Campaigns that Inspire
- Eric Church Reflects On A Whirlwind Year, And What's Next
- Cincinnati: Bill Cunningham Taking TV Show National on the CW
- Findlay, OH: WKXA Going Country Just in Time for Valentine's Day
- Jackson Dell Weaver Gets GM Nod at KGY/Olympia, WA.
- "WOW" Veteran Des Moines Morning Talents Lou & Heather Resign from KWQW
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Items Tagged With: “top 40”
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MDNA: 53 Is The New 42
Time for another ROR “instant request.”TargetSpot/Ronning Lipset Radio co-founder Andy Lipset writes, "Madonna’s performance at the Super Bowl and then subsequently hearing her new single on [WHTZ] Z100 and WKTU [New York] this weekend had me thinking. My own research (kids, wife, neighbors, co-workers, social networks, etc.) all show that “Give Me…
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Ross On Records: Hip-Hop Racks Up The Hits
For several years, one of the key indicators that Hip-Hop was no longer the only music that mattered to any self-respecting 17-year-old was that it was no longer selling without Top 40 airplay—and not so much with it, either. That represented a sea-change for Hip-Hop, and R&B before it, which had been able to unleash one stealth hit after another s…
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Could “At Last” Be A Hit Today? It Already Is
This article was written in February, 2011, in response to an NPR feature on Etta James' "At Last" and the state of current songwriting that had run several weeks earlier. As fans and industryites mourn James, who died Jan.
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Songs That Made A Difference In 2011
The story of 2011’s breakthrough records may not be those that moved radio forward, but those that slowed it down. Programmer-turned-Episcopalian minister Josh Hosler clocked the tempo of Top 40 last year and found that, depending on how you looked at it, 2011 might be the most relentlessly uptempo year ever.
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2011’s Most Influential Songs From a Listener’s Perspective
Editor’s note: Ross On Radio reader Tom Smith responded to a call in last year’s final column for feedback on influential songs of 2011. Instead of a few titles, I got the sort of comprehensive and thought-provoking essay that deserved to be read on its own.—Sean Ross“We Found Love,” Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris – By now it is pretty obvious tha…
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Ross On Radio: The Local Hit Lives
One of my best radio moments of the last few weeks involved Hip-Hop/R&B KMEL San Francisco and its top 6 at 6 p.m. countdown.
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Is Hot AC's Balance Shifting Again?
A year ago, the CHR success of "Turbo-Pop" and an ever increasing amount of Rhythmic Pop lured Hot AC closer to Mainstream Top 40's orbit. Now, there are signs of the Adult Top 40 format moving back to its traditional pop/rock/singer-songwriter sound of the last 15 years.
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With Lyrical Edits, The Logic Is Obscured
Three months ago, a reporter for all-News KYW Philadelphia called with an interesting question: why was there such inconsistency in the way that radio stations edited current hits? My best guess at the time was that as AC and Hot AC stations started to take more of their product from Mainstream CHR, there were more hits with potential lyric issues …
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Ross On Records: LMFAO Gets Sexy As Gaga Gets Serious
One of the things I’ve appreciated in watching the growth of LMFAO over the last three years is their ability to make records that are funny and audacious and still sound like well-crafted, well-calculated hit singles. On their first album, only West Coast and Southwest listeners knew what a good singles machine they had become.
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Girls With Guitars: From Country To Pop And Back
In 1994, a few things happened that shifted the balance of power between Country and Top 40 radio. Country, concerned about the possible opportunity for a more gold-based format, started digging deeper in its library again, thus disenfranchising some of the listeners who hadn’t been around long enough to know those songs.
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New Coldplay! New Rihanna! New Coldplay AND Rihanna! So Why So Glum About Q4?
In the natural order of things, the fourth quarter in the record business used to mean albums from superstar artists. The first quarter was for new acts.
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Fresh Listen: WXXL (XL106.7) Orlando, Fla.
Ever wished you could sit in on the music meeting at WXXL (XL106.7) Orlando, Fla.? Tune in the station Sunday nights at 6 p.m.
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First Listen: George Wilson's Memory Tunes
Country Oldies, when you can find them on the radio, often come in one of two packages.The bulk of the FM commercial outlets are heavy on ’80s titles and, increasingly, early ’90s songs as those become a little harder to find on mainstream Country stations. The ’70s are represented by a relatively small swath of titles, and the ’60s by only a few s…
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Ross On Records: Another Asterisk For PPM Law
After topping the Billboard Hot 100, Adele’s “Someone Like You” would have been remembered as a No. 1 record, regardless of whether it actually fought its way past Mainstream 40’s “Ballad Blockade” to No.
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The Second CHR Boom: PPM Loved It?
It’s coming up on three years since the quick buzz around CBS Radio’s KAMP (Amp 97.1) Los Angeles helped spur a building boom of second CHRs in a market—many of them working from Amp’s musical template, more rhythmic than the incumbent CHR, but not quite Urban or even “Rhythmic Top 40” as that format was then defined.The second CHR boom took pl…
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Ross On Records: We've Got More Soul
James Morrison must be watching Adele’s U.S. success with interest.
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Anatomy Of A Hit: Maroon 5 f/Christina Aguilera, “Moves Like Jagger”
When Maroon 5 landed at Top 40 radio in late 2003 with “Harder To Breathe,” their rhythmic-infused pop made them a better fit for the format than some of the longer-running Modern AC bands who didn’t fit as well between 50 Cent and Linkin Park. In an era without much that pop radio could own, Maroon 5 quickly became a core act over the two year run…
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Ross On Records: Less (Cow)bells, More Whistles
It’s been the topic I tried to avoid writing about.Every few weeks this summer, a programmer or colleague has asked, “When are you going to do something about all the songs with whistling in them?”In recent months, the list of CHR hits with whistling has included Britney Spears’ “I Wanna Go,” Bruno Mars’ “The Lazy Song,” Foster The People’s “Pumped…
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It's Over, Everyone Listens To Techno
The new Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris single, “We Found Love,” is as promising an album opener as one could hope for.
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Ross On Records: Readers’ Songs That Missed The Eurodance Yodeling Boom
In last week’s “Ross On Records,” KZPT (The Point) Kansas City APD Tony Lorino raised the topics of songs that were released at the wrong time—songs whose failure to become hits reflects more what Top 40 radio was willing to play at the time. Lorino’s candidates were Pink’s “God Is A DJ,” pure pop at a time when Hip-Hop was in its final years…
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