The Pepsi Chart (previously known as "The Pepsi Network Chart Show") was a networked Sunday afternoon
Top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "cont ...
countdown
A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...
on UK radio that started life on 1 August 1993 with Neil 'Doctor' Fox hosting the show live from the
Capital Radio
Capital London is a radio station owned and operated by the Global media company as part of its national Capital FM Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Britain's first two commercial radio stations. ...
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 and big-prize competitions were held.
The ''Pepsi Chart'' was produced for the Commercial Radio Companies Association by the
Unique Broadcasting Company
UBC Media Group was a production and content creation company which began as the Unique Broadcasting Company in 1989. In June 2014 the company merged with 7digital to form a global digital music and radio platform. The new company was called 7digi ...
, 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
''For the Network, see Hits Radio. For the National DAB station, see Hits Radio UK.''
Hits Radio Manchester is an Independent local radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Greater Mancheste ...
Manchester's Darren Proctor. Occasional guest presenters filled in, such as
Richard Blackwood
Richard Clifford Blackwood (born 15 May 1972) is a British actor, presenter and rapper. Between 2015 and 2018, he played Vincent Hubbard in the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders''. In 2020, he began portraying the role of Felix Westwood in the Chan ...
of
MTV UK
MTV is a British pay television channel focusing on reality TV and music programming operated by Paramount Networks UK & Australia.
The channel launched as part of MTV Networks Europe localisation strategy in 1997. MTV UK (previously MTV UK & ...
& Ireland fame.
The Top 10 of the ''Pepsi Chart'' was the same as the official Top 10 of the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
that was compiled by the
Official Charts Company
The Official Charts (legal name: The Official UK Charts Company Limited) is a British inter-professional organization that compiles various "official" record charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France.
In the United Kingdom, its charts in ...
(OCC but then CIN) and which was used by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's Radio 1 '' Official Chart Show''. However, the lower positions of 11–40 on the ''Pepsi Chart'' combined sales with radio airplay data. The ''Pepsi Chart'' was a re-branded version of ''
The Network Chart Show
''The Commercial Radio Chart Show'' is a radio programme that was broadcast across commercial adult contemporary and contemporary hit radio stations across the United Kingdom, from 30 September 1984 to 30 December 2018. It had many different nam ...
'' which had previously been compiled by
MRIB
The Media Research Information Bureau (MRIB) was a music chart research company that operated in the United Kingdom from 1981 to 2008. It was best known for compiling the chart data for '' The Network Chart Show'' which was broadcast by many TV and ...
until Pepsi took over sponsorship from
Nescafé
Nescafé is a brand of coffee made by Nestlé. It comes in many different forms. The name is a portmanteau of the words "Nestlé" and "café". Nestlé first introduced their flagship coffee brand in Switzerland on 1 April 1938.
History
Nestl� ...
in August 1993. In 1995, it was called the ''Pepsi Network Chart Show'', but in 1996 it was renamed the ''Pepsi Chart''.
Compilation
Different compilation methods of the chart show were employed in its time. Initially, the sales:
airplay
Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...
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 Charts (legal name: The Official UK Charts Company Limited) is a British inter-professional organization that compiles various "official" record charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France.
In the United Kingdom, its charts inc ...
) 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
"Candle in the Wind" is a threnody written by English musician Elton John and songwriter Bernie Taupin, and performed by John. It was originally written in 1973, in honour of Marilyn Monroe, who had died 11 years earlier.
In 1997, John perfor ...
came out as top. The ''Pepsi Chart Show'' used Satellite Media Services to receive new releases and interview cuts.
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 airtime. 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
The Smash Hits Poll Winners Party was a British awards ceremony which ran from 1979 (as the Smash Hits Readers' Poll) to 2005. Each award winner was voted by readers of the '' Smash Hits'' magazine. It ended with the closure of the magazine in F ...
and Capital FM's own
Party in the Park
Party in the Park is the generic name given to music concerts organised by various radio stations and local authorities and groups in the United Kingdom, typically in large parks during the summer, however it is also used to refer to a family ori ...
concerts were recurring occasions of popularity with the show. In April, 1997, the ''Pepsi Chart'' claimed a larger audience size than BBC Radio 1's ''Official Chart''. In April, 1999, ''
Music Week
''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future.
History
Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...
'' reported that despite BBC Radio 1's ''Official Chart'' receiving record numbers of listeners, the ''Pepsi Chart'' still had a bigger listening audience.
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
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
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 agreed for a 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 extensions
Channel 5 programme
Following the success of the radio show, ''The Pepsi Chart Show'' was launched on Channel 5 on 4 February 1998, as a rival to the BBC's ''
Top of the Pops
''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most o ...
'' weekly music programme. The programme was made for the channel by Endemol's Initial, (with producer Malcolm Gerrie being previously behind Channel 4's ''The Tube''), and was the channel's first advertiser-supplied programming deal.
Filming initially took place at the Hanover Grand venue near to London's Regent Street, with
Rhona Mitra
Rhona is the name of:
* Rhona Adair (1878–1961), British golf champion
* Rhona Bennett (born 1976), American singer, actress and model
* Rhona Brankin (born 1950), Labour Co-operative politician and Member of the Scottish Parliament
* Rhona B ...
and
Eddy Temple-Morris
Edward Owen Kayvan Temple-Morris (born 26 April 1965 in Cardiff) is a British DJ, record producer and TV presenter. He hosted London radio station XFM's specialist show ''The Remix'' for 15 years,Leicester Square, with Fox himself at the helm of the show, usually broadcast at 3.30pm on Saturdays. Live performances at the Sound nightclub were also used in ''Pepsi Chart'' TV shows overseas, combining these English language performances with local ones in countries such as Hungary, Poland, Mexico, Latin America (La Cartelera Pepsi) Russia, Thailand and Australia. The late
Caroline Flack
Caroline Louise Flack (9 November 1979 – 15 February 2020) was an English television and radio presenter and actress. She won the twelfth series of BBC’s ''Strictly Come Dancing'' in 2014 and presented '' The X Factor'' and later ''Love Is ...
was the international presenter for several countries including Norway and Tahiti.
In 1998 ''The Pepsi Chart Show'' was one of the Top 30 most-watched shows on Channel 5, but ultimately 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 occasionally 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 sometimes did not fully reflect the music in the radio version of the Pepsi Chart, which was more biased towards commercial radio airplay's hit music.
In the programme's last year it lost two-thirds of its audience with 100,000 viewers watching the Saturday afternoon programme, when the show axed by Kevin Lygo, Channel 5's new programming boss. The last episode went out on 25 June 2002 with Abbie Eastwood and Matt Brown being the final regular presenters of the series. Since ''The Pepsi Chart Show'', the channel has not broadcast a regular weekly chart show in its schedules, though since being owned by ViacomCBS, Channel 5 has broadcast a number of series featuring retro countdowns on a Friday night, under names such as ''The Greatest Hits of the 80s'' and ''Britain's Biggest 90s Hits''. Unlike ''The Pepsi Chart Show'', these shows (featuring a year-by-year countdown of hits from 1970 to 1999) are made in-house by Viacom International Studios UK (VIS) and use data supplied by The Official Charts Company.
''Doctor Fox's Chart Update''
''Doctor Fox's Chart Update'' was a Pepsi Chart branded spin-off aired as a 5-minute slot on Channel 5 on Monday evenings, providing a recap of the previous night's new Top 10 (as in those days, the chart was published on Sundays at 7pm, rather than on Fridays at 5:45pm as is the case now).
Compilation albums
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 is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961.
History
Pepsi wa ...
and
7-Up
7 Up (stylized as 7up outside North America) is an American brand of lemon-lime-flavored non-caffeinated soft drink. The brand and formula are owned by Keurig Dr Pepper although the beverage is internationally distributed by PepsiCo. 7 Up comp ...
soft drinks. Commercial compilation albums 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
Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well.
Many board games feature a co ...
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
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961.
History
Pepsi wa ...
took over as sponsors of ''
The Network Chart Show
''The Commercial Radio Chart Show'' is a radio programme that was broadcast across commercial adult contemporary and contemporary hit radio stations across the United Kingdom, from 30 September 1984 to 30 December 2018. It had many different nam ...
'' in August 1993 from
Nescafé
Nescafé is a brand of coffee made by Nestlé. It comes in many different forms. The name is a portmanteau of the words "Nestlé" and "café". Nestlé first introduced their flagship coffee brand in Switzerland on 1 April 1938.
History
Nestl� ...
, with a complete overhaul of the original show's format. After nine successful years, in late 2002, Pepsi announced the termination of their sponsorship of the show. However, '' Music & Media'' reported in July, 2002, that Channel 5 had dropped the ''Pepsi Chart Show'' due to poor viewer ratings.
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.
List of albums
Here is a complete list of the compilation albums 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'' (2002)
#''Listen Up'' (2003) (not so much a Pepsi Chart album but an album based on
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961.
History
Pepsi wa ...
. It was free in Popworld magazine).
Additionally, there was a released DVD titled ''Pepsi Chart Music Quiz'' in 2002.