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Pepsi Chart (UK)
Encyclopedia
The Pepsi Chart was a networked Sunday afternoon Top 40 countdown on UK radio that started life on 1st August 1993 with Neil 'Doctor' Fox hosting the show live from the Capital Radio
studios in London. The Pepsi Chart show carried an emphasis in fun and was the UK's first personality-led chart show: the presenter
was live and exciting, big-prize competitions were held, and the Top 10 was official - i.e. it was entirely sales-based resulting in a shared song order with the BBC
's Radio 1
Official Chart Show and also theoretically played out at the same time.
The Pepsi Chart was produced for CRCA by Unique Productions who along with the (then) programme director of Capital Radio Richard Park
, and Fox, came up with the new show concept. The show was broadcast on between 80 and 110 local commercial radio stations across the UK via SMS satellite. Locums for the 'Doctor' included Capital's own Steve Penk
and Key 103
Manchester's Darren Proctor. Occasional guest presenters filled in, such as Richard Blackwood
of MTV UK & Ireland fame.
ratio for its 40-11 positions were 30:70, but later became 50:50. Sales data was provided by Chart Information Network (CIN - now known as The Official UK Charts Company
) and airplay data from Music Control. The final chart show on the Sunday before the new year would air with a chart of the year, counting down the Top 40 most popular singles of that particular year. An exception took place in December 1999, the last countdown of the millennium, when the Top 40 of all time was compiled and aired instead. Elton John
's Candle in the Wind
came out as top.
. Criticism from chart purists and fans of the rival Radio 1 Official Top 40 show naturally included comment on the show's 40-11 compilation methods, regular advert slots interrupting the show, and the presenter talking over the starts and ends of music tracks in order to fit the show within the 3 hours. However, this presentation style was typical practice in commercial radio, anyway, and would have been no different from any other show featured on each of the participating stations. With the fun element in place, it was not unusual for the show to go "on the road" and broadcast live, backstage, from music events. The Smash Hits
Poll Winners Party and Capital FM's own Party in the Park
concerts were recurring occasions of popularity with the show.
weekly music programme. Filming initially took place at the Hanover Grand venue near to London's Regent Street
, with Rhona Mitra
and Eddy Temple-Morris
as presenters. Over time, the show moved on to the Sound venue in nearby Leicester Square
, with Fox, himself, at the helm. Abbie Eastwood and Matt Brown
eventually took over to become the final presenters of the show. Despite being one of the most-watched shows on Channel 5, the TV show never really made much of an impact on the music television audience share, with likely blames being a combination of both restrictions in the analogue terrestrial transmission coverage of Channel 5 at the time, and a failure in attracting appearances from the bigger-name pop acts, (There were notably more live performances from the more 'alternative' acts, and as a result, the TV show scarcely reflected the music in the radio version of the Pepsi Chart, which was more biased towards commercial radio airplay's hit music). Named "Doctor Fox's Chart Update" in the TV listings, a Pepsi Chart branded spin-off was also aired as a 5 minute slot on Monday evenings, providing a recap of the previous Sunday night's Top 10.
Nevertheless, the Pepsi Chart brand had remained strong, helped along by its continued use in exclusive promotional CDs and autoscan radios that were offered to consumers of Pepsi
and 7-Up soft drinks. Commercial compilation album
s featuring artists from the chart were also produced for the mainstream music market, and frequently boasted chart-topping positions in the compilations category. Other than music CDs, annuals, board games and music quiz DVDs also found their way into high street stores. The Pepsi Chart brand had also managed to spread to other parts of the world, including countries such as The Netherlands, Ireland and Thailand.
took over as sponsors of The Network Chart Show
in August 1993 from Nescafe
, with a complete overhaul of the original show's format. After 9 successful years, in late 2002, Pepsi announced the termination of their sponsorship of the show.
In January 2003, the show became Hit40UK
, and coincided with launch of the ill-fated rival chart show: the Smash Hits! Chart. On 14 June 2009, Hit40UK became The Big Top 40 Show
, powered by iTunes
.
s released.
Additionally, there was a released DVD titled Pepsi Chart Music Quiz in 2002.
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 :...
studios in London. The Pepsi Chart show carried an emphasis in fun and was the UK's first personality-led chart show: the presenter
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
was live and exciting, big-prize competitions were held, and the Top 10 was official - i.e. it was entirely sales-based resulting in a shared song order 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...
's Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
Official Chart Show and also theoretically played out at the same time.
The Pepsi Chart was produced for CRCA by Unique Productions who along with the (then) programme director of Capital Radio Richard Park
Richard Park (broadcaster)
Richard Park is a Scottish media personality and businessman, who is Executive Director of Global Radio. He was previously a media consultant and broadcaster in the UK and has also made appearances as the 'Headmaster' of BBC TV's Fame Academy programmes.-Professional career:Voted most influential...
, and Fox, came up with the new show concept. The show was broadcast on between 80 and 110 local commercial radio stations across the UK via SMS satellite. Locums for the 'Doctor' included Capital's own Steve Penk
Steve Penk
Steve Penk is a British radio and TV presenter. He was born Stephen Penkethman on 28 September 1961, in Rusholme, Manchester and is renowned for his wind-up calls. Penk has worked for various national and local radio stations...
and Key 103
Key 103
Key 103 is an Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to the city of Manchester and the north west of England. Its output is principally contemporary pop and dance music. Formerly owned by Trans World Communications, EMAP and now by Bauer Radio, Key 103 is part of Bauer's Place Network of...
Manchester's Darren Proctor. Occasional guest presenters filled in, such as Richard Blackwood
Richard Blackwood
Richard Blackwood , is an English comedian, media personality, occasional actor and MC. Blackwood is step-brother of Naomi Campbell after his father was married to her mother for a time...
of MTV UK & Ireland fame.
Compilation
Different compilation methods of the chart show were employed in its time. Initially, the sales: airplayAirplay (song)
Airplay is a term used in the radio broadcasting industry to state how frequently a song is being played on over-the-air radio stations. For example, a song which is being played several times every day would be classed as receiving a large amount of airplay...
ratio for its 40-11 positions were 30:70, but later became 50:50. Sales data was provided by Chart Information Network (CIN - now known as The Official UK Charts Company
The Official UK Charts Company
The Official Charts Company , previously called the Chart Information Network and then The Official UK Charts Company, compiles various "official" UK record charts, including the UK Singles Chart, the UK Albums Chart, and the UK Official Download Chart, as well as genre-specific and music video...
) and airplay data from Music Control. The final chart show on the Sunday before the new year would air with a chart of the year, counting down the Top 40 most popular singles of that particular year. An exception took place in December 1999, the last countdown of the millennium, when the Top 40 of all time was compiled and aired instead. Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
's Candle in the Wind
Candle in the Wind
"Candle in the Wind" is a song with music by Elton John and lyrics by Bernie Taupin. It was originally written in 1973, in honour of Marilyn Monroe, who had died 11 years earlier....
came out as top.
Show Format
Over the years of the show's broadcast, little variation in the format was applied. A typical 3-hour show was aired live between 4pm and 7pm each Sunday, and consisted of the standard 40-1 singles countdown with the inclusion of recaps after every 10 songs. Competition announcements, live calls from contestants, interviews with the artists making that particular week's chart, and advertisements made up the remaining airtimeAirtime
Airtime is a free and open source radio management application for remote broadcast automation , and program exchange between radio stations.-History:...
. Criticism from chart purists and fans of the rival Radio 1 Official Top 40 show naturally included comment on the show's 40-11 compilation methods, regular advert slots interrupting the show, and the presenter talking over the starts and ends of music tracks in order to fit the show within the 3 hours. However, this presentation style was typical practice in commercial radio, anyway, and would have been no different from any other show featured on each of the participating stations. With the fun element in place, it was not unusual for the show to go "on the road" and broadcast live, backstage, from music events. The Smash Hits
Smash Hits
Smash Hits was a pop music based magazine, aimed at teenagers and young adults and originally published in the United Kingdom by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006 and was issued fortnightly for most of that time...
Poll Winners Party and Capital FM's own Party in the Park
Party in the Park
Party in the Park is the generic name given to music concerts organised by various radio stations and local authorities in England and Wales, typically in large parks during the summer.-Leeds' Party in the Park:...
concerts were recurring occasions of popularity with the show.
Artist Involvement
As well as standard reaction interviews with chart-toppers, artists were often asked by Fox to "introduce the number one to the country". At other times, over the course of the show, artists may be asked to phone in to the studio at intervals to "pester" Fox into revealing the number one track way before even the Top 10 had begun being counted down. At these scripted points, Fox would insist that they'd have to wait to the end, just as with the rest of the listeners. Artists managing to cling on to the top spot for a total of four weeks would be awarded a Pepsi Chart blue disc. Although not made entirely clear to the listeners what exactly this blue disc was, its appearance was similar to those presented in Silver and Gold Record awards.Station Participation
Requirements for a radio station taking the show were that the station's coverage area was mostly in a "white-space", i.e. broadcasting to an audience not already covered by a rival participant. There were the odd exceptions to the rule, most notably when existing stations agree for the new station to carry the show. Other requirements were that the station was a current CRCA member, and the ability to fulfill the obligation of playing a pre-determined number of show promos over the week during primetime to a specific number of the target 15-24 audience. As well as taking the Sunday afternoon show, stations were requested to air the 5-minute chart checkups as part of their usual programming on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Non-live audio clips were delivered via SMS and so stations were expected to have the facility and equipment already in place.Brand
Following the success of the radio show, the Pepsi Chart Show was brought to TV screens on Channel 5 as a rival to the BBC's Top of the PopsTop 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...
weekly music programme. Filming initially took place at the Hanover Grand venue near to London's Regent Street
Regent Street
Regent Street is one of the major shopping streets in London's West End, well known to tourists and Londoners alike, and famous for its Christmas illuminations...
, with Rhona Mitra
Rhona Mitra
Rhona Natasha Mitra , sometimes credited as Rona Mitra, is an English actress, model and singer.-Early life:Mitra was born in Paddington, London, England, the daughter of Anthony Mitra, a cosmetic surgeon, and Nora Downey...
and Eddy Temple-Morris
Eddy Temple-Morris
The Honourable Edward Temple-Morris is a British DJ, record producer and TV presenter.-Biography:Eddy Temple-Morris hosts XFM's specialist show The Remix. Before joining XFM, he was the main presenter on the MTV show Up for It Live, presented shows for Atlantic 252 & BBC Hereford & Worcester,...
as presenters. Over time, the show moved on to the Sound venue in nearby Leicester Square
Leicester Square
Leicester Square is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. The Square lies within an area bound by Lisle Street, to the north; Charing Cross Road, to the east; Orange Street, to the south; and Whitcomb Street, to the west...
, with Fox, himself, at the helm. Abbie Eastwood and Matt Brown
Matt Brown (TV presenter)
Matt Brown is a British television presenter. He started out in 1999 hosting Nickelodeon UK along with Mike McClean, Simon Amstell, Mounya Khamlichi and Yiolanda Koppel, but is best known for presenting the ITV2 spin-off programmes Love Island Aftersun, which he hosted in 2005 with Celebrity Love...
eventually took over to become the final presenters of the show. Despite being one of the most-watched shows on Channel 5, the TV show never really made much of an impact on the music television audience share, with likely blames being a combination of both restrictions in the analogue terrestrial transmission coverage of Channel 5 at the time, and a failure in attracting appearances from the bigger-name pop acts, (There were notably more live performances from the more 'alternative' acts, and as a result, the TV show scarcely reflected the music in the radio version of the Pepsi Chart, which was more biased towards commercial radio airplay's hit music). Named "Doctor Fox's Chart Update" in the TV listings, a Pepsi Chart branded spin-off was also aired as a 5 minute slot on Monday evenings, providing a recap of the previous Sunday night's Top 10.
Nevertheless, the Pepsi Chart brand had remained strong, helped along by its continued use in exclusive promotional CDs and autoscan radios that were offered to consumers of Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
and 7-Up soft drinks. Commercial compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
s featuring artists from the chart were also produced for the mainstream music market, and frequently boasted chart-topping positions in the compilations category. Other than music CDs, annuals, board games and music quiz DVDs also found their way into high street stores. The Pepsi Chart brand had also managed to spread to other parts of the world, including countries such as The Netherlands, Ireland and Thailand.
Sponsorship
PepsiPepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
took over as sponsors of The Network Chart Show
The Network Chart Show
The Network Chart Show was a radio programme launched across Independent Local Radio in the UK on 30 September 1984.-Background:The main presenter was David Jensen , however Pat Sharp would often provide holiday cover in its later years: in its earlier years Timmy Mallett and Alan Freeman also...
in August 1993 from 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...
, with a complete overhaul of the original show's format. After 9 successful years, in late 2002, Pepsi announced the termination of their sponsorship of the show.
In January 2003, the show became Hit40UK
Hit40uk
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...
, and coincided with launch of the ill-fated rival chart show: the Smash Hits! Chart. On 14 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:...
, powered by iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
.
List of albums
Here is a complete list of the compilation albumCompilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
s released.
- Hits Zone '97 (1997)
- Hits Zone The Best of '97 (1997)
- The Best Pepsi Chart Album in the World ...Ever! (1999)
- The Best Pepsi Chart Album in the World ...Ever! 2000 (2000)
- Pepsi Chart 2001 (2000)
- The New Pepsi Chart Album (2001)
- Pepsi Chart 2002 (2001)
- New! Pepsi Chart 2002 (2002)
- Pepsi Chart 2003 (2003)
- Listen Up (2003) (not so much a Pepsi Chart album but an album based on PepsiPepsiPepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
. It was free in Popworld magazine).
Additionally, there was a released DVD titled Pepsi Chart Music Quiz in 2002.