COUNTRY 1 AIRPLAY TM June 25, 1993 $5.00 Volume 1 No. 1 A Guide To Monitor Country Airplay Monitor is a small magazine which we hope will become essential reading for everyone programming music at country stations in the U.S. In this article we'll guide you through the different charts and features which will appear in Monitor each week. All information in Monitor is supplied by Broadcast Data Systems, a sis- ter company of Billboard Magazine. All data on the charts and features is actual monitored airplay from the panel of 113 country stations; there is no playlist information taken over the telephone from radio stations. BDS electronically monitors airplay in 85 major U.S. markets 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For those of you not familiar with BDS, each song is played into a computer-"encoded"-and an audio fingerprint of the song is created. These patterns are sent by wire from the main computer in Kan- sas City to the remote monitors around the country, where the patterns are stored. At each monitor site a group of stereo tuners listens to 8-12 local stations around the clock, recognizing and logging all songs encoded in the monitor's memory. New patterns are encoded daily, to keep track of all current music in five major radio formats: top 40, country, R&B, album rock, and adult contemporary. MONDAY -SUNDAY WEEK The airplay week used for Monitor runs from 12:01 A.M. on Monday to 11:59 P.M. the next Sunday. For example, for this issue dated June 25 the monitored week runs from Monday, June 14 through Sunday, June 20. The charts and features are prepared just hours after the monitored week ends, and Monitor is mailed first class to radio stations and record companies around the country. Our intention is to get the information into our readers' hands by Friday, the issue date. Now on to the specific features in Monitor. Starting on the back page, there is the BDS Country Airplay chart, which is the only feature in Mon- itor which also appears in Billboard Magazine. This chart ranks the 75 most -played current records in order of number of actual plays on the 113 monitored stations. The actual number of plays registered in the survey week and during the previous week are listed on the right side of the chart (the number of plays appears only in Monitor; it does not appear in Bill- board). In the case of a tie in plays, the record with more stations playing it is placed first. A bullet is awarded to any record which registers an increase in total plays over the previous week, regardless of chart move- ment. Titles may move backward with a bullet or may move upward with- out earning a bullet. If a title loses a bullet one week because of a decline in detections, it may regain the bullet the next week if it shows an increase. AIRPOWER A record receives the Airpower award in the first week that it reaches 2000 total plays on the chart. For all records which register up to 3000 detections and are increasing in plays, a detailed breakdown of their airplay is provided on the BDS Impact page. The titles are listed in groups accord- ing to the total number of plays for the week. This week's Airpower records are in the second group, followed by other categories down the page to a minimum of 75 plays. Those titles appearing on the page for the first time are called "Initial Impact" records, indicated by a red star next to the title. The week after a record reaches 3000 plays for the first time, it "grad- uates" off the Impact page, but stays on the chart. The detailed information on the Impact page includes: the record's posi- tion on the chart (if any); the number of detections registered in total for this week and last; and the number of monitored stations playing the rec- ord. Then it lists "rotation leaders"-those monitored stations playing the record 40 times or more per week if total plays are over 2000. For records with 500-1999 total plays, 30 or more plays on a station qualifies as a rota- tion leader, and for records with under 500 total plays, rotation leaders are those stations playing the record 20 or more times per week. Below the list of rotation leaders, "new airplay" is listed-those monitored sta- tions which registered a minimum of six plays on the record for the first time this week. In the center of the magazine are the Power Playlists-actual monitored playlists from at least 36 country stations with the largest weekly cume IT iAiov'T BETHE LAST audience according to Arbitron. Each station's top 30 titles for the week are listed, with this week's and last week's plays, so you can see the trend in airplay. On page three are the week's Biggest Gainers, those records with the largest gain in actual number of plays compared to last week, and THE BIGGEST SELLING ARTIST OF 1992 starting next week will be a list of the major new releases which are being promoted for airplay for the first time during the week ahead. Finally, at the bottom of page three we proyjde actual monitored playlists of the two major country music video channels, The Nashville Network and Country Featuring"ff% T4 Kiva Ot A tAle41.44%" Music Television. (The monitored video playlists, due to a longer process- ing time, reflect the week ending Thursday, June 17.) We hope that Monitor will prove to be an essential programming tool. Please give us your feedback so we can make Monitor as useful as possible. NehvIllo a PolyGram company Contact Lynn Shults at 615-321-4291 or Michael Ellis at 212-536-5039 with JOE SCAIFE & JIM COTTON JACK McFADDEN your comments or suggestions. We'd love to hear from you. t Epic Release. Patty's First Epic #1 Monitor. BIGGEST GAINERS. COUNTRYONFIDENTIAL Strongest Increase in Airplay This Week by Lynn Shults INCREASE WELCOME TO the Country Airplay Monitor. We are excited about bringing you spe- IN PLAYS cific airplay information provided by Broadcast Data Systems. Within this column will be my random thoughts ranging from assessments of high-tech information to seat - AARON TIPPIN WORKING MAN'S PH.D (RCA) +637 of -the -pants intuition derived from 30 -plus years of experience in the music biz. As this year's Fan Fair has just ended, I have a couple of observations that keep running DOUG STONE WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT (EPIC) +468 through mind. One is the continual fusion of other musical styles into country music. Since the consumer shift to country music began in '89, I have continually heard people HAL KETCHUM MAMA KNOWS THE HIGHWAY (CURB) +390 be judgmental about what is country and what isn't. And on the other side, I've wat- ched and listened as others pushed to stretch out both musically and in live perfor- CARLENE CARTER EVERY LITTLE THING (GIANT) +371 mances. Then there have been those wonderful debates about the impact of the baby - boomers, the Urban Cowboy days, the importance of TNN & CMT, how the club scene CLINT BLACK WITH WYNONNA A BAD GOODBYE (RCA) +370 is just disco in cowboy boots, and how all of this is just cyclical. Well, it is cyclical. TRISHA YEARWOOD DOWN ON MY KNEES (MCA) +344 I THINK William Shakespeare said (even though he may not have written it down), "The only thing constant is change." And that is what we have been going through. DWIGHT YOAKAM A THOUSAND MILES FROM NOWHERE (REPRISE) +332 Change. And we are going to be continually changing. Nothing stays the same. It is for this reason that many of country music's established stars got left in the vapor LITTLE TEXAS WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN (WARNER BROS.) +330 trail of today's hot new country acts. On the pop side, such artists as Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, Tina Turner, etc., keep on evolving. They also do not live 250 days a TRACY LAWRENCE CAN'T BREAK IT TO MY HEART (ATLANTIC) +326 year on the road or attempt to deliver a new album every 12 months or so. As we go down this path of success, we must not be afraid of the unknown changesthat BILLY RAY CYRUS IN THE HEART OF A WOMAN (MERCURY) +318 are in front of us. Maybe we should just learn to enjoy the process. SHENANDOAH JANIES BAKER'S LOVE SLAVE (RCA) +301 MCBRIDE & THE RIDE LOVE ON THE LOOSE, HEART ON ... (MCA) +294 JOHN ANDERSON MONEY IN THE BANK (BNA) +291 VIDEO PLAYLISTS DOUG SUPERNAW RENO (BNA) +288 CMT Lisa Stewart, Under The Light Of The Tex 21 21 TW LW 31 RESTLESS HEART WE GOT THE LOVE (RCA) +284 38 John Berry, A Mind Of Her Own 21 21 1 Joe Diffie, Honky Tonk Attitude 40 37 39 Boy Howdy, A Cowboy's Born With A Broken 21 21 Shelby Lynne, Feelin' Kind Of Lonely Ton 38 12 2 40Shenandoah, Janie Baker 21 21 3 Patty Loveless, Blame It On Your Heart 37 35 41 John Brannen, Never Say Never Again 21 21 4 Lorrie Morgan, I Guess You Had To Be The 36 35 42Little Texas, What Might Have Been 21 26 5 Pam Tillis, Cleopatra, Queen Of Denial 35 25 43 Ronna Reeves, Never Let Him See Me Cry 21 21 6 Reba Mcentire, It's Your Call 35 35 44Shania Twain, Dance With The One That Br 21 21 1 Confederate Railroad, When You Leave Tha 35 35 45Toby Keith, He Ain't Worth Missing 21 6 8 Sammy Kershaw, Haunted Heart 35 35 46George Jones, Walls Can Fall 21 33 Randy Travis, An Old Pair Of Shoes 35 35 9 41 Clay Walker, What's It To You 21 6 John Anderson, Money In The Bank 35 35 10 48Billy Ray Cyrus, Some Gave All 19 21 11 Carlene Carter, Every Little Thing 35 35 PUBLISHER: MICHAEL ELLIS 49Ricky Lynn Gregg, IfI Had A Cheatin' He 19 21 12 Clint Black With Wynonna, A Bad Goodbye 35 35 DIRECTOR OF CHARTS: LYNN SHULTS 50 Dwight Yoakam, Ain't That Lonely Yet 19 31 13 Mark Chesnutt, It Sure Is Monday 35 29 CHART PRODUCTION MANAGER: MICHAEL CUSSON 14Alan Jackson, Chattahoochee 34 30 ADVERTISING SALES: LEE ANN PACK 15 Steve WarMer, If I Didn't Love You 34 12 TNN 1W LW ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MANAGER: LYDIA MIKULKO 16 Suzy Bogguss, Heartache 31 35 7 4 CIRCULATION MANAGER: JEANNE JAMIN 17 Larry Stewart, Alright Already 30 39 1 Alan Jackson, Chattahoochee 28 28 2 John Anderson, Money In The Bank 6 5 PROMOTION DIRECTOR: ELISSA TOMASETTI 18 Tracy Byrd, Holdin' Heaven 19 Radney Foster, Easier Said Than Done 28 28 3 Aaron Tippin, Working Man's Ph.D 6 3 EDITORIAL PRODUCTION MANAGER: JAMES B.