Top 40

see also Contemporary hit radio for information on the radio format itself The Top Forty or Top 40 is a music industry shorthand for the currently most-popular songs in a particular genre. When used without qualification, it typically refers to the best-selling or most frequently broadcast pop music songs. According to legend, the Top 40 radio format was created by Todd Storz in Omaha in 1955, after observing customers at a bar playing the same handful of songs on a jukebox over and over again. Storz realized that treating the radio station's playlist as a jukebox would ensure that listeners would always hear popular songs, regardless of what time of the day they tuned in, if the station made an effort to play a smaller group of songs. The music ranged anywhere from country & western to pop music, rock & roll, even instrumentals and novelty songs.
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