AT LEAST 18 IN A ROW???

[crackthemic3]

Sorry if this is a dumb question but always wondered what the purpose is behind the "At least 18 in a row" moniker. Oviously it sounds great that your playing 18 songs in a row, HOWEVER I have heard a few stations that use this and don't play 18 in a row, they stop down 2 stopsets each hour. Does it have to do something with the clocks? What's 18 an hour and a half commercial free? Or is it simply becuase "18" is a number that has been researched as a common number, or just sounds good?

[Rico Garcia]

Sorry if this is a dumb question but always wondered what the purpose is behind the "At least 18 in a row" moniker. Oviously it sounds great that your playing 18 songs in a row, HOWEVER I have heard a few stations that use this and don't play 18 in a row, they stop down 2 stopsets each hour. Does it have to do something with the clocks? What's 18 an hour and a half commercial free? Or is it simply becuase "18" is a number that has been researched as a common number, or just sounds good?

It really depends on the station, but I'll take a shot at a brief explanation/assumption:

Regarding two stopsets an hour - The station may not execute "18 in a row" back-to-back all day. It may be once per day part. Or maybe they do 18 in a row, stopset, 2-3 songs, stopset, then kick off 18 again. Or maybe it's once every couple hours, or every other hour, etc. There are many ways to execute such a concept.

I've also heard stations say "At least 40 in a row" which refers to 40 MINUTES of uninterrupted music. It's all in the wording.

But remember: Just because a marketer (or radio station) says something is amazing doesn't make it so.

[crackthemic3]

Gotcha but why 18? A lot of CHR/Rhythmic and even Urbans use "18" you think it would be like 10, or 20, etc.

[JetBlack1015]

"AT LEAST 18 IN A ROW" is an old Clifton-ism (referring to Jerry Clifton) it's in place at alot of the stations he consults and it's even still in play with stations he USED to consult.

And more often than not, it's a play on words to refer to the amount of time between stopsets. Like the gentleman before me stated.

[RussAllen]

If I remember correctly when I worked at a Clifton station that did the "at least 18 in a row" the reason given was that 18 is just an unusual number not associated with anything (except the radio station the theory was) so it would stand out.

The stations that really executed this well, made everything revolve around 18.  Caller 18 to win contests etc.

Hope that helps some.

[Rico Garcia]

If I remember correctly when I worked at a Clifton station that did the "at least 18 in a row" the reason given was that 18 is just an unusual number not associated with anything (except the radio station the theory was) so it would stand out.

Interesting, but makes sense. Thanks for sharing.

[ShawtyBlack_ATL]

Here in ATL WHTA/HOT 107.9(urban) did the "Blazin 18 In A Row" for like almost 2 years.  After that, WWWQ/Q100(chr/pop) did "10 In A Row."  I never remember hearing that many songs in a row.  When it first laucnhed on HOT 107, I believe they actually counted down the songs.

[RussAllen]

When it first laucnhed on HOT 107, I believe they actually counted down the songs.

Yes, counting the songs is an important part of drilling into the listeners minds that you really do this.  Back in the day at WPGC we had "Continuous music sweeps" and "Continuous music sweepstakes".  We'd play at least 18 songs in a row in both, the difference was that the continuous music sweepstakes paid off with $100 if you could tell us how many songs we played in a row.

Jocks did breaks like "this is song number 12 of at least 18 songs in a row...".  When we were Jammin' in Jamuary (with lighter spot loads) we'd sometimes have breaks like "this is song number 22 of at least 18 songs in a row".  Seems absurd, but it was to further illustrate that not only did we play at least 18 songs in a row without stopping for commercials (approx 90 minutes) but we'd sometimes go well beyond 18 in a row.

[LeeLHeureux]

I've heard several stations still push the 18 as well.  The one that comes to mind first is WZMX in Hartford as it has been their positioning statement for several years..

[ShawtyBlack_ATL]

How does the "18 In A Row" compare to "Atleast 50 Minutes of Music" postioners?  I know most Cox Radio stations use that one.