Radio Music Surveys 1955 – 1960: A Collection of Stations and Songs from the Dawn of Top 40

From 1955 to 1960, a major tracking system of America’s music during rock’s formative years took root. Its birth is pictured here. Hit Radio formats began in the 1950s when AM radio ruled and everything was still in mono. It was an exciting time when youthful listeners took over pop music and radio stations became personal companions. The second half of the decade when rock and roll was taking root was fortunately documented by the very radio stations that were making this happen. A station’s weekly music survey influenced which songs to play. Stations began publishing and distributing their surveys as a promotional tool, just when rock music was emerging. Copies appearing weekly on record store’s countertops were snatched up by music buyers who could now readily identify new songs of interest and see how their favorites were doing. This rare collection of surveys documents how Top 40 music and personality radio came to be. Pictured are original surveys, each carefully restored, from a variety of stations border to border and coast to coast. Presented in chronological order, each page displays a full playlist for that particular week. Historians and casual readers will get a close-up view of the most exciting and important era of radio and pop music.