A few days ago, I talked about the A to Z Countdown on the Sound. I am probably boring to death a hefty portion of you, but I mentioned the notion of airing every charting song from the beginning of recorded music until the present. And how neat that would be to experience.
This was actually attempted, sort of, by XM, back before it was acquired by Sirius.
XM's calling card back then was diversity and depth. Some of their flagship channels included 60s on 6 (which replicated the sound of 1960s radio with wacky DJs, sound effects, and a very deep playlist of old hits) and Deep Tracks (which played obscure rock songs from the days of 1970s FM.) Both stations are still around on the merged "Sirius/XM," but are shadows of their former selves.
To perhaps emphasize this, the satellite station did an annual event called simply "It." "It" was playing every major (and even not major) song from the 1920s up to the present, in chronological order. The early decades they did sort of a "greatest hits" summation. But from the late 50s through the early 80s, they played literally every song to hit the top 40.
This took over a month to complete, and that is 24/7, no commercials.
I never heard "It," as I got a satellite radio about 2007, and that was the last year they did it.
Luckily, a few years ago, I was able to acquire the complete recording of the entire month plus of IT.
It sits, a pile of 15 DVDs, waiting to be listened to when I have more time....
