What If It’s Only a Radio Hit?

What if a song is only a hit on the radio? Is it a hit if callout respondents like it, but it doesn’t generate streams–the industry’s current index of a “hit”?

One of the gratifying developments of recent months has been the emergence of fellow Radioinsight columnist Mason Kelter as an industry voice. Kelter is the host of the nightly syndicated LiveLine. That show’s top 10 requests have become a weekly feature in Ross on Radio. Radioinsight’s weekly Mason’s Observations column has campaigned passionately for songs with request and streaming stories. 

Over the last week a few of the songs that Kelter has most championed — Gigi Perez’s “Sailor Song”; the Weeknd’s “Timeless; Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” — have made their way on to WHTZ (Z100) New York. At the same time, my colleague has been merciless about the songs that have neither streaming nor request stories, songs he consigns to radio’s long-accruing pile of “turntable hits.”

Some of the songs that haven’t generated requests for LiveLine have been songs that started with a streaming story, such as Addison Rae’s “Diet Pepsi,” but trailed off eventually. Even Meghan Trainor’s “Criminals,” a song about which Kelter is unsparing, had an exciting first few weeks thanks to Netflix’s The Perfect Couple and then-WWWQ (Q99.7) Atlanta PD Louie Diaz, whose support was enough for Epic to switch singles.

Then there are also a handful of songs that don’t generate calls for LiveLine but do perform in callout research at a time when few newer songs do. Jelly Roll’s “I Am Not Okay” is a power on the successful medium-market stations that I take very seriously, among them WIXX Green Bay, Wis.; WKRZ Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; WVSR (Electric 102) Charleston, W. Va.; and a subpower on WXLK (K92) Roanoke Va. It certainly feels like a multi-format hit.

The songs driven by callout, especially on those stations, are in fact often songs with some Country-crossover aspect that have the advantage of being warmed up by market rivals. Sometimes they are heritage acts — Eminem’s “Houdini” was a power at many of those stations. David Guetta’s reworking of Alphaville’s “Forever Young” generated its callout story in another way — armed with a beloved hook, it made a surprise debut at No. 1 on Coleman Insights’ national callout.

Kelter sees the charts as clogged with label hype. I think there’s less of that than there used to be, if only because of shrinking departments and budget tightening. But I do see a lot of records in the top 20 in limbo — not yet showing any real story, not yet replaced by something newer and more exciting, also because of fewer releases and budget tightening. And I think the songs that mostly strong in callout are a category unto themselves that radio needs in part because there aren’t enough songs generated by streaming alone.

Although it might not seem that way from looking at the charts, labels seem less willing to chase a pure radio record, too. Mike Couchman, PD of Christian AC KLJY (Joy 96) and Christian Hip-Hop KXBS (Boost Radio) St. Louis, writes, “Labels seem to crave a day when there are no such thing as turntable hits. They think we’ll all be better off if radio rotates only what their streaming data validates as hits … if a song is top-testing at radio, but not moving either of the other needles [streaming or TikTok/Instagram], it’s a dud from the label’s POV.

“I can’t help but wonder if turntable hits have enormous value to radio, though? From my formative years to today, certain songs are staples of radio across all formats. They’re songs I never sought out when I bought music, yet I have nothing for love but them anyhow. Will radio hurt itself if it chooses to embrace the label community’s skepticism of turntable hits? Or are good ‘radio songs’ a relic that we need to let go of as we adapt to changing times?”

It shouldn’t have to be an either-or discussion. I’m excited about requests stats being back in the music meeting. I’m happy when streaming hits sound good on the radio — even those such as “Million Dollar Baby” that seem initially daunting to PDs. And I’m excited when callout confirms a new hit, rather than clog the top of the charts with older ones. Radio needs all its hits. I would never begrudge the ones that are only radio hits, as long as there’s some story.

“Forever Young” is growing respectably — the No. 8 greatest gainer this week. Because of the emphasis on streaming and TikTok that Couchman describes, there’s not quite the same sort of immediate ratification that there was when, say, Green Day’s “When I Come Around” debuted at No. 1 in the now-defunct trade publication R&R’s Callout America and became a CHR hit within minutes. I see it as a valuable record, in part because of my longtime appreciation of that song’s stealth pop-culture impact over 40 years.

Beyond the songs that have some story, I do see a lot of records in the top 20 in limbo. Was “Dancing in the Flames” by the Weeknd, quickly upstaged by “Timeless,” worth investing more than three months? I heard stories of eventual callout in some places, but now it’s peaked at No. 6. Maybe there’s room to nurture 1-2 songs that might pull through. There’s not room for a dozen of them. Both Mike Castellucci and Matt Bailey note that airplay seldom makes streaming rebound, although it can drive streams on songs like “Good Luck Babe” that are still new to many listeners.

Part of what makes the songs in limbo so frustrating is the time it takes for them to play out. The chain reaction of more passive listeners and CHR’s diminished reach is not just that it takes longer to confirm songs as callout hits, but also that it takes longer to be sure that a song will not be. I’d be less frustrated by the songs that claw their way to the top 10 if they got there quickly. For that to happen, radio would have to spin new songs more, and there would have to be something to replace those songs once we know they won’t go any higher.

More radio product, allowed to run its course more quickly, is unlikely under the current label paradigm. Some label people have said to me that lack of a concrete payoff from airplay — as opposed to streaming — is the stopper. But even without a performance royalty, labels are usually sharing in songwriting royalties. It’s not as if there’s no incentive to have a radio hit. I’m also surprised that radio isn’t more interested in flexing and showing its impact. But if there’s no enterprise, then there’s less chance of a pure radio hit developing.

There are really three different definitions of “turntable hit” at play here. For Kelter, it’s a pejorative for any passive record, regardless of whether there’s another story. For Couchman, it’s a callout-only title. I still use it to mean those tempo songs that just sounded good on the radio. Few of our struggling songs are, say, “Don’t Wanna Fall in Love” by Jane Child, which I still put in the “smile because it happened” category. Playing songs for that reason is a programmers’ indulgence, but “just play the hits, even if it’s Hozier for eight months” hasn’t helped CHR much lately.

In 2025, I’ve been circling around the notion of “what is a hit” in various ways. I appreciate readers’ forbearance if these are familiar topics, but we should keep talking through them until we don’t need to. When radio has more hits, it won’t just benefit radio, it will benefit labels and radio departments as well to have a second R&D stream. Ultimately, helping listeners to enjoy a song they might not have chosen for themselves is something they need us for. We just need to decide which ones.