Interesting Hot 100 History Fact

I don't know if anyone has been following the controversial changes that Billboard made to its genre (Country, R&B, Rock, Rap) charts this week. They've changed them to include sales data. The controversial part is that each will now include airplay from all radio formats in their calculations of each separate chart. (That's right. Pop radio airplay will now be used to determine what the top country hits are.)

But I digress...

My reason for posting is that in the course of discussions (fights) on another forum, an interesting fact about how the Hot 100 was compiled was revealed.

The following is from an article that appeared on page 3 of the May 11, 1968 issue of Billboard. (You can find it using Google Books.)

"BB SHEDS AIRPLAY FACTOR IN TOP HALF OF HOT 100

The top half of Billboard's Hot 100 chart will no longer utilize the airplay ingredient it had been using in the past because of the number of Top 40 format stations which have changed the tabulating process of their printed playlists. This part of the chart is now being tabulated solely from dealers' sales reports from 21 markets across the country.

For the past several months, Top 40 stations have been leaning toward a tighter printed playlist. Many records on their way up have been dropped from station lists making room for stronger new product, or because the station management decided the sound of the disk was not what they desired for their audience, despite the fact that there were sales in the market.

The bottom half of the "Hot 100" and the "Bubbling" chart still involves the ingredients of dealer sales reports and the Top 40 stations' printed lists. In this area of the chart, the airplay reflection is required for the newer product to enable chart movement.

With this change, in the first 50 positions, the "star performer" rating in that area is now based upon a 25 per cent increase in dealer sales reports for the individual record from one week to the next. Similarly, disks in the bottom half of the "Hot 100" chart must reflect an across-the-board increase of 25 per cent in both dealer sales reports and Top 40 airplay combined."

How about that? I never knew this before. And while listening to "American Top 40: The '70s" rebroadcasts, I've always smiled when Casey would say that the countdown was based on sales only. Turns out, he was telling the truth.

Thought you guys might like to see this.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to suggest that it had remained that way. I should have been more clear.

My actual point was that I believed that it had always been part of the formula. I just found it interesting that at one point, the top half of the chart was strictly sales-based.

I think I can even pinpoint when it changed back. I have the Whitburn chart reprint books. On the chart for June 9, 1973 the last week's position column is blank except for a note to see the article on page 1 of that week's issue.

I went to Google books and found that article. It states that indeed airplay was being given a GREATER part of the chart than sales due to a decrease in sales outlets at that time. Interestingly, it also says that it was going to include one-stops, that mostly serviced jukebox companies.

Edited by JMD1961

JMD1961 wrote: I think I can even pinpoint when it changed back. I have the Whitburn chart reprint books. On the chart for June 9, 1973 the last week's position column is blank except for a note to see the article on page 1 of that week's issue. I went to Google books and found that article. It states that indeed airplay was being given a GREATER part of the chart than sales due to a decrease in sales outlets at that time. Interestingly, it also says that it was going to include one-stops, that mostly serviced jukebox companies.

I think you're right about that: I see also that from June or July of 1969 (there are missing issues online) up through 6/9/73 (the week of the blank "last week" column), the notation at the top of each chart explaining what a "star" meant read: "STAR PERFORMER--Records showing greatest increase in retail sales activity over the previous week, based on actual market reports." (It had previously defined it as "Sides registering greatest proportionate upward progress this week.")

Then beginning 6/16/73, the notation was changed to: "STAR PERFORMERS: 'This Week' and 'Last Week' stars are conveyed to show records that have the greatest increase in point values."

So there you have it. It appears that, from the 5/11/68 through 6/2/73 issues of "Billboard," the top 50 of the Hot 100 was completely sales-based -- no airplay info incorporated at all.

Thanks for posting this and doing the research, JMD!

EDIT: That's through 6/2/73, of course, not 6/2/68 as I'd originally posted.

Edited by Brian W.

Curiously, how did Billboard get anything even remotely resembling an accurate airplay reports in those days? Most stations didn't even keep spin logs for internal use, let alone to report to the trades. There were no independent monitoring services (ie-Mediabase). For the most part they'd just mail in a copy of their printed survey, which wasn't necessarily indicative of amount of play (ie-how much more often was a top 10 song played than, for example #28?).

Well, even once the airplay was incorporated back into the charts in 1973, from '73 to '98 (pre-SoundScan), there would always be inaccuracy in the charts the radio stations sent in.