I think the biggest POINT that people should be taking from the playlist is not the back then and today thing, but more of the fact that here you have what 40+ songs on a weekly playlist changing pretty quickly, NOW you dont, sorry if folks dont believe that one, but TODAY you get 15 at best, and it stays that way for months.

japanrocks said:

-----
Maybe “Eye of the Tiger” was crap but look at the rest of the playlist and compare to the crap we have today. In addition, RnB stations did have the balls to play some pop music back then which took years for pop radio stations to give Rnb/Rap a spin.

I remember when you could get these radio playlists from record stores.I used to grab them all the time It made it easy for you to shop for the records that you liked.

Many pop/rock songs made it onto R&B radio. However, it had to be a really great pop/rock song for R&B radio to play it such as Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust". But with pop radio, it was the exact opposite. Most of the time when pop radio played an R&B song, it was usually one of the weaker R&B songs.

Back in the 1980s, I had a drawer full of playlists because every time I went to the record store (which was every weekend) I would pick one up. They definately made it easier to shop. I don't know what "pick hits" or "extras" mean, but they always seemed to be a song that was brand new and lesser known. I bought many a 45 from reading those pick hits and extras. Hell, I had the brand new jams just as fast as the radio stations did.

vainandy said:

Our local R&B station (KSOL) would often play pop/rock songs that were funky and danceable,such as these songs:

"She Blinded With Me With Science" by Thomas Dolby (1983)
"The Reflex" by Duran Duran (1984)
"Miss Me Blind" by Culture Club (1984)
"Holiday" and "Lucky Star" by Madonna (1983)
"I Want A New Drug" by Huey Lewis and the News (1984)

and of course,they treated Hall and Oates like any other R&B group (lol).All of their stuff was played.