For the 15th consecutive year Musicradio77.com Survey Guy Mike Riccio
is trying to recreate the excitement that WABC listeners experienced each year
in the 1960s and 1970s between the time they unwrapped their Christmas presents
and finished writing their New Year’s resolutions.
Through Tuesday, Dec. 4, Mike, the moderator for
OldiesBoard.com, will be taking
votes for the annual Top Songs 77 All-Time Favorite Hits Poll, which will be
featured on Rewound
Radio starting Dec. 26.
The Survey Guy says his research is based on the best-selling hits that were a
staple of the station from 1964 through 1981, which was its last full year with
a Top 40 format. The list was trimmed to the Top 77 in 1977, 1978 and 1981.
Starting the day after Christmas, the famed WABC air personalities – such as Dan
Ingram, Cousin Brucie, Ron Lundy, Harry Harrison and Chuck Leonard - would play
the top 100 songs. In some years, the talent would announce the songs over
an introductory jingle.
Some of the large number of high school and college students who listened to the
station during its musicradio era, would stay tuned for longer periods since
they were on school vacation and would tape the shows so they would have
recordings of their favorite songs from that year.
Several segments from the Top 100 were contributed to WABC Rewound, which aired
on Memorial Day from 1999 through 2008.
Fans of the Musicradio77 era can vote for their top 7 songs
at VoteTop77.com. The Top 77 survey
was featured on Musicradio77.com from 1998 through 2006 and again starting in
2010.
After the voting closes Dec. 4, Mike and his associates
will tabulate the list through mid-December for the Top 77 Countdown
with Bob Radil, who formerly did a 60’s-70’s show on WNHU, the station at the
University of New Haven and now does a show on Rewound Radio.
Bob will start the countdown Dec. 26 at 2 PM on Rewound Radio.,
and Mike said other songs nominated for the list, but that didn’t make the Top
77, will also be featured on Rewound Radio through New Year’s Day.
Mike said in a Nov. 19, 2012 phone
interview that “Hey Jude,” by the Beatles has been the number one song every
year he has done the survey, except 2010, when “Rag Doll,” by the Four Seasons
captured the top spot.
“Hey Jude was a dominant song in 1968 that was number one on WABC’s Top 100 for
that year,” he said. “It is one of those songs that epitomized what the Beatles
did.”
“ ‘Hey Jude’ is the one song that overlaps the taste of Beatles fans, whether
you’re mostly interested in the songs they did when they first came to America
in 1964 or you mostly like songs from other parts of the Beatles era,” Mike
added. “The common thread is a lot of Beatles fans like “Hey Jude,’ “
He said he believes “Rag Doll” supplanted “Hey Jude” in 2010 largely because of
the interest in the Broadway show “Jersey Boys,” which is based on the Four
Seasons and has generated more interest in their music.
Mike said that in some years there is a song that surges in the survey because
it has been recently featured in a television commercial.
Mike said there are more people voting now than in the early years.
“There are some people who vote every year and we also get new people every
year,” he said.
He said over time “the variety of songs has increased,” noting that most
recently there have been about 3,000 songs nominated per year.
Mike said this is the third year that the Top 77 has allowed voters to nominate
at least seven songs.
“With seven, you have an increase in variety and we can generate a larger number
of songs that are nominated and end the voting a little earlier so there is
enough time to tabulate everything and be ready for the Top 77 countdown show,”
Mike said.
The Survey guy added
the Top 77 now has an Internet data base of 50,000 songs that will activate when
a voter types a few letters of a popular song and
inserts it into the ballot.
“It
makes it easier,” Mike explained. “Sometimes people don’t write the actual name
of the song. For example, with “Joy To The World,” by Three Dog Night they might
write part of the lyric by going, ‘Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog.’ That makes it more
difficult to tabulate the votes.”
He
gets help from fellow Survey Guy Tom Natoli, who maintains an Excel point
system.
Mike, Tom, Don Tandler and Ken Williamson became the Survey Guys shortly after
Musicradio77.com Web master Allan Sniffen launched the site in 1996.
The four of them
compiled each of the weekly WABC music surveys from 1960 to 1982.
Additionally, Mike said Frank Thomas has provided technical help, which, among
other things, has helped legitimize the voting.
“We do get people who try to stuff the ballot box,” Mike said. “Due to the
technical work, we have many fail-safe systems that will kick it back to us if
something is amiss.”
Mike, who has been a real estate professional for 26 years, formerly worked
as an air personality at WBLI, WLIX and WGLI and currently does a show once
a month at WCWP, the station at C.W. Post University on Long Island, his alma
mater.
He worked there with Bill Mozer and Frank D’Elia, who were engineers at WABC
during its musicradio era.
Mike said the Top 77 survey is a source of enjoyment for many people who grew up
listening to WABC.
“The voters love it,” he said. “There are people who want to nominate their top
20 songs.”
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