RnR Chart ending?

[AnotherCat]

So we all got the email from some folks at this company that tracks indie and noncommercial stations that they were going to do some kind of hybrid "Groove music" chart to fill the gap that is being left when RnR eliminates their chart this week. However, there has been nothing about this in RnR? Anyone know what's up???  Are they eliminating the chart or just turning it to Smooth A/C

[Nock]

So we all got the email from some folks at this company that tracks indie and noncommercial stations that they were going to do some kind of hybrid "Groove music" chart to fill the gap that is being left when RnR eliminates their chart this week. However, there has been nothing about this in RnR? Anyone know what's up???  Are they eliminating the chart or just turning it to Smooth A/C

Thought I saw something over on Magic Island posted by Carol Archer that the chart is gone and so is she?

Nock

[Bill Harmonic]

Carol is out toward the end of this month (25th I believe along with others from R&R) and I think that the chart goes away also but I'm not sure of that timetable because one was not given that I saw. At least that was my read on what was sent to me. Could be wrong but if you don't have the editor then why have the chart. If you didn't know the chart was down to about 15 stations for main reporters and I think 16 for indicators. Almost half of what they had during the hayday. I never followed the chart anyway. It pretty much ended up as a mirror to the BA list in the end. I've always looked at the stations that I deem important and take a gander at their playlist on Yes.com. I really don't want to fight the "Single" song process anymore. We have the Top 20 Countdown for that (Ugh). I would like the whole CD sent to me and I will decided what is good or not for my show. I assume that any smooth jazz news in the future will be run through the AC department so I'm not holding my breath on a ton of news coming out. Back to Future. Live long and prosper through the underground, the internet and the weekends. Look for the opportunity we have to reinvent the process and the music. Go for it!

[cklw800]

Amen, "Phil" Harmonic.  I miss the days in R&R where PDs would chime in from around the country touting their discovery of great tracks on the new CDs.  How exciting it was to talk about the music.  Carol Archer pretty much had no material to discuss, other than the state of radio and the sales side of the format.  I had stopped reading almost a year ago because I missed the music talk.  Half of the people interviewed in her column would be fired the next week and some of the highlighted stations flipped their format right after the issue went to press.  Then you really look into the upbeat talk and great ideas presented in that column right before the flip, knowing they meant nothing.  It showed how little anyone really knew what to do.  They only had ideas.  I remember one article with a PD saying how much the management believed in the format, and that station was flipped the next week and the PD fired.  It made the reading experience so unbelievable.  You think you're hearing the experts, the ones who know, and they're out the next week after looking so good in the articles.  That section was really a waste of space for fans of the format itself and those who are still left in it.  You just couldn't believe waht ytou read in the articles anymore.  I have all the old issues, glancing at some of them before posting.  Read some of the ones from the past year and you won't believe your eyes.  Many of those people and stations are gone and the ideas never realized.  Like you said Bill, it's really up to us!  Go for it! 

[majaman78]

Amen, "Phil" Harmonic.  I miss the days in R&R where PDs would chime in from around the country touting their discovery of great tracks on the new CDs.  How exciting it was to talk about the music.  Carol Archer pretty much had no material to discuss, other than the state of radio and the sales side of the format.  I had stopped reading almost a year ago because I missed the music talk.  Half of the people interviewed in her column would be fired the next week and some of the highlighted stations flipped their format right after the issue went to press.  Then you really look into the upbeat talk and great ideas presented in that column right before the flip, knowing they meant nothing.  It showed how little anyone really knew what to do.  They only had ideas.  I remember one article with a PD saying how much the management believed in the format, and that station was flipped the next week and the PD fired.  It made the reading experience so unbelievable.  You think you're hearing the experts, the ones who know, and they're out the next week after looking so good in the articles.  That section was really a waste of space for fans of the format itself and those who are still left in it.  You just couldn't believe waht ytou read in the articles anymore.  I have all the old issues, glancing at some of them before posting.  Read some of the ones from the past year and you won't believe your eyes.  Many of those people and stations are gone and the ideas never realized.  Like you said Bill, it's really up to us!  Go for it! 

As far as I was concerned...Carol Archer was a BA mouthpiece, nothing more and nothing less.

I personally gleaned nothing from her articles or the chart which still holds some tunes over a year old.

[AC Tones]

The only charts I pay attention to are smoothjazz.com's Top 50 album charts, which are far more inclusive and representative of the best new music out there.  Like majaman78 said, the Top 20 chart has invariably been way outdated and largely (if not exclusively) predicated on what BA spins.

[cklw800]

Gone! Wonder if it leaves Billboard as well altogether.  Billboard printed the top songs from the R&R chart, but also printed an albums version.  The music appears as it's becoming more irrevelant to radio and traditional mags like the above-mentioned.  Looks like Internet and other media is the way to go.  The music itself it great! Wonderful!  It's just the radio treatment of the artists' songs.  So many better cuts and artists could have garnered more excitement and sales.  By the way, format staples (if you even know who they are) Lee Venters, Paolo, The Blue Knights, Pete Escovedo, XL, Freddie Ravel, Tony Gable & 206, Warren Berhardt, Apostles, Tim Heintz, The David Blamires Group, Ed Calle, Gato Barbieri, Niteflyte, Art Porter, Richard Smith, Roger Smith, Bona Fide ("High Street" and "X-Ray Hip" were apparently the only two songs they ever recorded).  The aforementioned and their ONE song have been played for nearly the whole 20 years in the format.  Wonder how many CDs these guys sold...except for Bona Fide.  They sold CDs that never got played by the format.  A real disservice was done to Joe Sample, Crusaders, Hiroshima, Dave Brubeck, Hugh Masekela, Herb Alpert, Fattburger and other great artists who had so many other great songs to be heard on the radio and get more interest in the format.  Even Brian Culberston, Brian Simpson, Mindi Abair and Candy Dulfer had other great offerings not displayed.  Incredible!  Maybe this spells the end of the format on radio.