My favorite “broken by radio” story is “Hanky Panky” by Tommy James & the Shondells. Recorded for a small label in 1964, dies, plucked out of a bin by a Pittsburgh DJ, picked up by Roulette, James has to find a new Shondells because the old one didn’t exist anymore, goes to No. 1.
But that’s when radio stations were truly independent and not all owned by three companies - and weren’t competing against streaming and everything else.
I don’t envy new artists these days. I guess there’s always Bandcamp.
I love this deep dive on the changing relationship between radio and top hits.
I remember hearing that Sheriff song in the Sirius Top 40 80s countdown recently, and they told the story about how it appeared so many years earlier which is fascinating.
I just ordered and received your Uncharted Territory book, and I’m looking forward to exploring more musical info!
This is super interesting and I love your approach of looking at the timing of Billboard charting to interrogate this question.
But to me this focuses mainly on terrestrial Radio as a medium vs Streaming. I think most would say, without needing to look at data, that Radio is certainly less important in 2026 than in 1986.
I'm curious about how "radio" in the sense of "curated discovery" plays out in helping to chart streaming hits compared to the before times.
How many streaming hits are coming from active decision making to put on that particular track, vs a song boosted to appear in people's Discover feeds or infinite playlists? Are there ways to track that data or does it not get differentiated publicly?
I remember that Sheriff song. Like most things, I can place it in time by what I associate it with, in this case a particular girlfriend in high school. So I would have been sure that the song came out in 1988, not 1983. Learn something every day.
Excellent column Its a whole different bussiness In the NYC area across the fm dial there are at least 3 Christian contemerary music An they paid big $$$$$ for those stations Keep up the good work
Radio still exists?
I’m only half joking.
My favorite “broken by radio” story is “Hanky Panky” by Tommy James & the Shondells. Recorded for a small label in 1964, dies, plucked out of a bin by a Pittsburgh DJ, picked up by Roulette, James has to find a new Shondells because the old one didn’t exist anymore, goes to No. 1.
But that’s when radio stations were truly independent and not all owned by three companies - and weren’t competing against streaming and everything else.
I don’t envy new artists these days. I guess there’s always Bandcamp.
Love stories like this. The telecommunications act of 1998 was truly a disaster for radio
I love this deep dive on the changing relationship between radio and top hits.
I remember hearing that Sheriff song in the Sirius Top 40 80s countdown recently, and they told the story about how it appeared so many years earlier which is fascinating.
I just ordered and received your Uncharted Territory book, and I’m looking forward to exploring more musical info!
This is super interesting and I love your approach of looking at the timing of Billboard charting to interrogate this question.
But to me this focuses mainly on terrestrial Radio as a medium vs Streaming. I think most would say, without needing to look at data, that Radio is certainly less important in 2026 than in 1986.
I'm curious about how "radio" in the sense of "curated discovery" plays out in helping to chart streaming hits compared to the before times.
How many streaming hits are coming from active decision making to put on that particular track, vs a song boosted to appear in people's Discover feeds or infinite playlists? Are there ways to track that data or does it not get differentiated publicly?
I remember that Sheriff song. Like most things, I can place it in time by what I associate it with, in this case a particular girlfriend in high school. So I would have been sure that the song came out in 1988, not 1983. Learn something every day.
Excellent column Its a whole different bussiness In the NYC area across the fm dial there are at least 3 Christian contemerary music An they paid big $$$$$ for those stations Keep up the good work