Originally Posted by
Boogiedown
Being live on air: timing was everything. There's a certain rhythm for inserting commercials, maintaining the right ratio of music to ads, being able to end the music exactly at the top of the hour. I can imagine that stunt of Phil's really irked the programmers, and only aided in their cooling to his product. Not smart, and at 45 seconds, such a glaring discrepancy OF COURSE they would notice.
Also station listeners would be patient enough to wait through a short song they didn't really like for hopes of the next one being a favorite. But if you didn't like or were tired of the entirety of American Pie....halfway through ...what else is on the dial.
. In the 60's, programming was based on a Top 40 playlist, a number you could manage and keep the hotter stuff in rapid rotation. As records got longer in the 70's stations began using a trimmed down Top 30 list so as to be able to keep all the tunes heard in a timely rotation and to especially assure the hottest singles got frequent play.
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