The Network Chart Show
Encyclopedia
The Network Chart Show was a radio programme launched across Independent Local Radio
in the UK on 30 September 1984.
(known then as "Kid Jensen"), however Pat Sharp
would often provide holiday cover in its later years: in its earlier years Timmy Mallett
and Alan Freeman
also filled in. The show originally ran from 5pm until 7pm in direct competition to BBC Radio One's Top 40 chart show and was broadcast from Capital Radio
's studios on Euston Road
in London
.
It networked, hence the name in the UK on a number of ILRs using the transmission circuits of Independent Radio News
, which meant it was originally in mono on most radio stations. Later, the programme was upgraded to be broadcast in stereo
.
The programme used to start bang on at 5pm which at the time was quite a radical step for the 5pm and 6pm news to be dropped. Each local station would play their own 10 second ident
before linking up with the national feed. The final song faded out shortly before the 7pm news bulletin, each radio station would opt-out
at various times depending on the length of their news in jingle
. Eventually the programme was extended starting an hour earlier at 4pm; not all of the stations took the extra hour to begin with.
Programme features included "Network Chart Mastermixes" - where two songs adjacent to each other in the chart were professionally mixed together.
David Jensen would record trailers to run on radio stations during the week which famously started "Hi Chart Fans!!".
In later years the programme was sponsored by coffee
company Nescafe
.
stations. The chart was distributed by Satellite Media Services, produced by Capital Radio
and compiled by the Media Research Information Bureau (MRIB). The chart differed from the entirely sales-based "official" Gallup
chart as it included airplay statistics when compiling the chart. In 1991, data was being collected from around 300 independent record shops who were provided with a checklist of currently released singles. Sales were "checked off against ticks on the retailers' masterbags" and these figures would be collected by telephone on Thursdays. Airplay statistics were factored in by all Independent Local Radio stations providing which playlist (A, B, or C) the current releases were on. More weight was given to the larger stations at the time, such as Capital (17 percent), BRMB
, Clyde
, GWR, Metro
, and Piccadilly
. If a record was on every Independent Local Radio station's A list the sales were boosted by 40 percent.
The data was compiled by MRIB, a different company to the BBC chart (compiled by Gallup
), and was notable for factoring in airplay in addition to sales (the Gallup chart was entirely sales-based). For its first three years, the Network Chart was more up-to-date than the BBC chart broadcast simultaneously (which had been around since the previous Tuesday), with many singles entering before they had made the official chart and reaching their peak earlier, but from 4 October 1987 the official chart was brand new on a Sunday afternoon and was more up-to-date, with singles now usually entering it before they made the Network Chart. Even when the Network Chart was more up-to-date, though, the Gallup chart was always considered the "official" Top 40, and indeed was promoted as such by the BBC.
In compiling the chart MRIB employed a sliding scale, meaning that for the lower reaches of the Top 40, airplay counted almost as much as sales. This often meant that the 40-to-20 positions could be very different between the Network and BBC charts. The weight given to airplay diminished the higher one went in the chart, and the Top 10 was meant to be entirely sales-based, although the Network Chart did not include sales from the previous day (Saturday, the single most important record-buying day), it was not unusual for the MRIB and Gallup charts to have different songs at Number One.
using the chart data from The Network Chart. The show itself tried and failed to compete with the BBC
who had the long established Top of the Pops
. It ran for just over a year and was produced by Tyne Tees Television
, but was often beaten in the ratings by rival programs on other channels such as EastEnders
. The TV show was axed after industrial disputes saw the end of live performances.
On 16 March 1989, Fantail Publishing released a tie-in book called, The Network Chart Book Of Hits, which was a review of the previous year, 1988 in music. It featured a selection of the singles, albums and music videos charts, as well as interviews with some of the artists who had big hits that year. The book was introduced by David Jensen and the author was Mike Hrano.
Teen magazine Number One
used The Network Chart singles and albums charts from January 1985, right up until summer 1990, when it was sold by its publishers, IPC Media to BBC Magazines. From then on it featured the official national singles and albums charts until the magazine's demise in early 1992. Also, the national Sunday newspaper, The News of the World, used to feature The Network Chart Top 20 singles chart in their music section in the late 1980s and early 1990s, where as The Sunday People featured the MRIB top 10 right up to MRIB's Singles/Album Chart demise in April 2008. Although Independent Radio stopped using it in August 1993.
. On 15 June 2009, hit40uk became The Big Top 40 Show
. All these shows mostly used the Official Top 10, except The Big Top 40 which uses the iTunes live top 10, at the end of the show, and kicks off with the full week's top 10 on iTunes. The 40-11 on all of them is a 50/50 Sales/Airplay chart.
Independent Local Radio
Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. The same name is used for Independent Local Radio in Ireland.-Development of ILR:...
in the UK on 30 September 1984.
Background
The main presenter was David JensenDavid Jensen
David "Kid" Jensen , is a Danish Canadian-born, British radio DJ.-Early career:Born in a Danish family residing Victoria, British Columbia, Jensen began his career in his home country at the age of sixteen playing jazz and classical music. He then joined Radio Luxembourg at the age of eighteen in...
(known then as "Kid Jensen"), however Pat Sharp
Pat Sharp
Pat Sharp is a British radio and television presenter and disc jockey. In the UK, he is known mainly for his work on the children's television programme Fun House, his former mullet and his radio shows as well as his support of Arsenal...
would often provide holiday cover in its later years: in its earlier years Timmy Mallett
Timmy Mallett
Timmy Mallett is a TV presenter and broadcaster in the UK. He achieved cult status on BBC Radio Oxford and Manchester's Piccadilly Radio and later on TV-am...
and Alan Freeman
Alan Freeman
Alan Leslie "Fluff" Freeman, MBE was a British disc jockey and radio personality in the United Kingdom for 40 years.-Career:...
also filled in. The show originally ran from 5pm until 7pm in direct competition to BBC Radio One's Top 40 chart show and was broadcast from Capital Radio
Capital Radio
Capital London is a London based radio station which launched on 16 October 1973 and is owned by Global Radio. On 3 January 2011 it formed part of the nine station Capital radio network.- Pre-launch :...
's studios on Euston Road
Euston Road
Euston Road is an important thoroughfare in central London, England, and forms part of the A501. It is part of the New Road from Paddington to Islington, and was opened as part of the New Road in 1756...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
It networked, hence the name in the UK on a number of ILRs using the transmission circuits of Independent Radio News
Independent Radio News
Independent Radio News provides a service of news bulletins, audio and copy to commercial radio stations in the UK and beyond.The managing director of IRN is Tim Molloy, who succeeded long-term MD John Perkins in November 2009...
, which meant it was originally in mono on most radio stations. Later, the programme was upgraded to be broadcast in stereo
STEREO
STEREO is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft were launched into orbits that cause them to respectively pull farther ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth...
.
The programme used to start bang on at 5pm which at the time was quite a radical step for the 5pm and 6pm news to be dropped. Each local station would play their own 10 second ident
Ident
The Ident Protocol, specified in RFC 1413, is an Internet protocol that helps identify the user of a particular TCP connection. One popular daemon program for providing the ident service is identd.-How ident works:...
before linking up with the national feed. The final song faded out shortly before the 7pm news bulletin, each radio station would opt-out
Opt-out
The term opt-out refers to several methods by which individuals can avoid receiving unsolicited product or service information. This ability is usually associated with direct marketing campaigns such as telemarketing, e-mail marketing, or direct mail. A list of those who have opted-out is called a...
at various times depending on the length of their news in jingle
Jingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
. Eventually the programme was extended starting an hour earlier at 4pm; not all of the stations took the extra hour to begin with.
Programme features included "Network Chart Mastermixes" - where two songs adjacent to each other in the chart were professionally mixed together.
David Jensen would record trailers to run on radio stations during the week which famously started "Hi Chart Fans!!".
In later years the programme was sponsored by coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
company Nescafe
Nescafé
Nescafé is a brand of instant coffee made by Nestlé. It comes in the form of many different products. The name is a portmanteau of the words "Nestlé" and "café". Nestlé's flagship powdered coffee product was introduced in Switzerland on April 1, 1938 after being developed for seven or eight years...
.
The Network Chart
The chart was owned by Association of Independent Radio Contractors (AIRC) – the trade body for Independent Local RadioIndependent Local Radio
Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. The same name is used for Independent Local Radio in Ireland.-Development of ILR:...
stations. The chart was distributed by Satellite Media Services, produced by Capital Radio
Capital Radio
Capital London is a London based radio station which launched on 16 October 1973 and is owned by Global Radio. On 3 January 2011 it formed part of the nine station Capital radio network.- Pre-launch :...
and compiled by the Media Research Information Bureau (MRIB). The chart differed from the entirely sales-based "official" Gallup
The Gallup Organization
The Gallup Organization, is primarily a research-based performance-management consulting company. Some of Gallup's key practice areas are - Employee Engagement, Customer Engagement and Well-Being. Gallup has over 40 offices in 27 countries. World headquarters are in Washington, D.C. Operational...
chart as it included airplay statistics when compiling the chart. In 1991, data was being collected from around 300 independent record shops who were provided with a checklist of currently released singles. Sales were "checked off against ticks on the retailers' masterbags" and these figures would be collected by telephone on Thursdays. Airplay statistics were factored in by all Independent Local Radio stations providing which playlist (A, B, or C) the current releases were on. More weight was given to the larger stations at the time, such as Capital (17 percent), BRMB
Brmb
brmb is a local radio station based in Birmingham, UK, owned and operated by Orion Media. The station broadcasts on 96.4 FM, DAB Digital Radio in the West Midlands and online...
, Clyde
Radio Clyde
Radio Clyde is a division of Bauer Radio based in Glasgow, Scotland. They currently operate an FM station and an AM station from studios in Clydebank West Dunbartonshire.- History :...
, GWR, Metro
Metro Radio
Metro Radio is an independent local radio station based in Newcastle upon Tyne and broadcasting to Tyne and Wear, County Durham and Northumberland. The station's output is principally contemporary pop and dance music...
, and Piccadilly
Piccadilly Magic 1152
NB Piccadilly Radio re-directs here. See also Key 103Piccadilly Magic 1152 , began broadcasting as Piccadilly Radio, which was Manchester's first commercial radio station.-Early years:...
. If a record was on every Independent Local Radio station's A list the sales were boosted by 40 percent.
The data was compiled by MRIB, a different company to the BBC chart (compiled by Gallup
The Gallup Organization
The Gallup Organization, is primarily a research-based performance-management consulting company. Some of Gallup's key practice areas are - Employee Engagement, Customer Engagement and Well-Being. Gallup has over 40 offices in 27 countries. World headquarters are in Washington, D.C. Operational...
), and was notable for factoring in airplay in addition to sales (the Gallup chart was entirely sales-based). For its first three years, the Network Chart was more up-to-date than the BBC chart broadcast simultaneously (which had been around since the previous Tuesday), with many singles entering before they had made the official chart and reaching their peak earlier, but from 4 October 1987 the official chart was brand new on a Sunday afternoon and was more up-to-date, with singles now usually entering it before they made the Network Chart. Even when the Network Chart was more up-to-date, though, the Gallup chart was always considered the "official" Top 40, and indeed was promoted as such by the BBC.
In compiling the chart MRIB employed a sliding scale, meaning that for the lower reaches of the Top 40, airplay counted almost as much as sales. This often meant that the 40-to-20 positions could be very different between the Network and BBC charts. The weight given to airplay diminished the higher one went in the chart, and the Top 10 was meant to be entirely sales-based, although the Network Chart did not include sales from the previous day (Saturday, the single most important record-buying day), it was not unusual for the MRIB and Gallup charts to have different songs at Number One.
Spin-offs
A TV version launched in 1987 called The Roxy - presented by David Jensen and Kevin SharkeyKevin Sharkey
Kevin Sharkey is an Irish artist and designer.-Early life:Sharkey was born in Dublin in 1962, but was brought up in Killybegs, County Donegal.-Earlier career:...
using the chart data from The Network Chart. The show itself tried and failed to compete with the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
who had the long established Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
. It ran for just over a year and was produced by Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television is the ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. As of 2009, it forms part of a non-franchise ITV Tyne Tees & Border region, shared with the ITV Border region...
, but was often beaten in the ratings by rival programs on other channels such as EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
. The TV show was axed after industrial disputes saw the end of live performances.
On 16 March 1989, Fantail Publishing released a tie-in book called, The Network Chart Book Of Hits, which was a review of the previous year, 1988 in music. It featured a selection of the singles, albums and music videos charts, as well as interviews with some of the artists who had big hits that year. The book was introduced by David Jensen and the author was Mike Hrano.
Teen magazine Number One
Number One (magazine)
Number One was a British magazine dealing with pop music. It ran for nine years, mostly during the 1980s and was aimed at a mainly teenage market.- Overview :...
used The Network Chart singles and albums charts from January 1985, right up until summer 1990, when it was sold by its publishers, IPC Media to BBC Magazines. From then on it featured the official national singles and albums charts until the magazine's demise in early 1992. Also, the national Sunday newspaper, The News of the World, used to feature The Network Chart Top 20 singles chart in their music section in the late 1980s and early 1990s, where as The Sunday People featured the MRIB top 10 right up to MRIB's Singles/Album Chart demise in April 2008. Although Independent Radio stopped using it in August 1993.
Re-branding
From 1 August 1993, Neil Fox took over the rebranded Pepsi Network Chart which later became the Pepsi Chart and then hit40ukHit40uk
Hit40UK was a networked Top 40 chart show broadcasting on around 130 UK commercial radio stations every Sunday from 4pm to 7pm. It is now a TV programme shown on 4Music. The radio version was produced in house by Global Radio and Somethin' Else...
. On 15 June 2009, hit40uk became The Big Top 40 Show
The Big Top 40 Show
The Vodafone Big Top 40 is a chart show broadcast on 140 radio stations in the UK. The chart is based on music download figures provided by iTunes.-Format:...
. All these shows mostly used the Official Top 10, except The Big Top 40 which uses the iTunes live top 10, at the end of the show, and kicks off with the full week's top 10 on iTunes. The 40-11 on all of them is a 50/50 Sales/Airplay chart.
External links
- Article on The Network Chart Show.
- Media UK Listing.
- radioairearchive.googlepages.com Audio of The Network Chart Show via Radio Aire between 1987 and 1990.