I’m happy that Huntr/x’s “Golden” is a power for so many CHR stations now. When this column declared it Song of Summer 2025, that decision reflected the cultural impact and shared experience of KPop Demon Hunters. At that moment, though, it looked like CHR was going to acknowledge “Golden” but not power it, viewing it more as BTS’s “Dynamite” than Rosé & Bruno Mars’s “APT.” Shattering the clichés about K-Pop’s appeal is a good thing. But “Golden” is still a Song of Summer in power nearly six months later.
I’m happy that Sombr’s “Back to Friends” is the most-powered song in the CHR format this week. As an artist, Sombr has shown that TikTok and streaming can give us mainstream radio records and not just songs that challenge Top 40’s fringes. Then again, “Back to Friends” could have been a hit last summer, too, had radio not throttled it on behalf of “Undressed.” Top 40, in constant need of records, should have played both, and it shouldn’t be ignoring “12 to 12” this winter, either.
Over the years, we’ve looked at the songs in power rotation at various major CHR stations as a way of gauging the health of the format. In 2019, the hits were so weak that mid-charters like Cheat Codes’ “No Promises” could rebound into power at major stations. In 2023, we were seeing signs of a “power shortage” — fewer semi-hit songs of the Cheat Codes sort bouncing back, but more big hits that would not go away because there was less to replace them. In mid-2023, consultant Guy Zapoleon predicted 19 consensus powers for the year. In 2025, we ended up with 18.
In February 2026, the format most expected to be in the moment is in a moment from late August 2025, judging from this year’s survey. “Back to Friends” is receiving 100 spins or more on 96 stations, followed by Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” (80), “Golden” (62), Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia” and “Opalite” (both 33), Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” (31), and Myles Smith’s “Nice to Meet You” (25). CHR feels less stale than when “Ordinary”–only slightly older than “Golden”–and “Die With a Smile” were lingering as powers, but it’s not exactly “Today’s Best Music.”
There are both good and bad signs for Top 40 product overall. After stretches dominated by Christmas music or album cuts, the top 10 songs on Billboard are all CHR radio records of some sort, although their chart trajectories may differ significantly (e.g., Ella Langley’s “Choosing Texas,” just going to CHR radio now after several months of Country dominance).
But there are also only 43 songs receiving more than 100 spins on Mediabase’s Top 40 Airplay chart. That number is slightly impacted by recent changes that manually took some older titles off sooner, such as Warren, Smith, and Leon Thomas’ “Mutt.” It also doesn’t include Djo’s “End of Beginning,” returning to current rotation for many stations due to its post-Stranger Things recurrent, but not yet back on the CHR chart. But the number is exceptionally low for a format that once had about 100 titles in play.
Here’s a look at power rotation over the last seven days as seen from the monitors of nine different CHRs. (As usual, there’s no inside knowledge about station rotations here; any judgments about what stations considered to be power are mine, based on the data.)
WHTZ (Z100) New York
One of the most telling stories about Z100 and its iHeart brethren now is taking place in sub-power, with the station championing titles like Benson Boone’s “Mr. Electric Blue” and now Doja Cat’s “Gorgeous” that aren’t driven by streaming stories. Bieber’s “Yukon” moves into power this week, seemingly replacing Swift’s “Opalite,” which was a power last week.
- Sombr, “Back to Friends” (105)
- Taylor Swift, “The Fate of Ophelia” (105)
- Olivia Dean, “Man I Need” (104)
- Huntr/x, “Golden” (102)
- Justin Bieber, “Yukon” (97)
KIIS Los Angeles
Recent years have seen the line between power and power new blurred, as stations ponder whether to move at the speed of streaming. KIIS not only moved “Aperture” into power after three days, but it’s now spinning faster than the station’s other top rotating titles.
- Harry Styles, “Aperture” (122)
- Sombr, “Back to Friends” (106)
- Olivia Dean, “Man I Need” (104)
- Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars, “Die With a Smile” (103)
- Ravyn Lenae, “Love Me Not”(94) — seems to be replacing Leon Thomas’s “Mutt,” which was in a similar place at the bottom of the first tier last week
SiriusXM Hits 1
In recent months, Hits1 has trimmed its powers, and I feel like I’m happening on gold titles more often, as I do in the rest of the format. But SXH1 is still usually the station to put major releases in power first, as seen with “I Just Might.” It has also been powering Raye, a song kept out of power by callout on most stations, although a hit by every other metric.
- Bruno Mars, “I Just Might” (94)
- Sombr, “Back to Friends” (93)
- Raye, “Where Is My Husband?” (90)
- Olivia Dean, “Man I Need” (86) — the next two most-played songs are “Aperture” and Sienna Spiro’s “Die on This Hill.”
KMVQ (Now 99.7) San Francisco
Now 99.7 has been very responsive to streaming data in recent years. It’s also often the first major-market station where I see a song powered. Here’s a look at Now and rival Wild 94.9, whose early support of “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” has led to it being an early power on both stations.
- Olivia Dean, “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” (120)
- Sombr, “Back to Friends” (116)
- Taylor Swift, “Opalite” (116)
- Olivia Dean, “Man I Need” (114)
- Bruno Mars, “I Just Might” (114)
KYLD (Wild 94.9) San Francisco
- Justin Bieber, “Yukon” (126)
- Olivia Dean, “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” (125)
- Ariana Grande, “Twilight Zone” (119)
- Taylor Swift, “The Fate of Ophelia” (117)
- Kehlani, “Folded” (112)
WWWQ (Q99.7) Atlanta
- Sombr, “Back to Friends” (125)
- Olivia Dean, “Man I Need” (124)
- Huntr/x, “Golden” (116)
- Taylor Swift, “The Fate of Ophelia” (115)
- Alex Warren, “Ordinary” (113)
KBFF (Live 95.5) Portland, Ore.
Cumulus’s Q99.7 — currently being revamped by new PD Patrick Davis — and Connoisseur’s Live 95.5 share the same powers this week. Both stations have a history of left-field streaming crossovers that’s less visible this week, although Live 95.5 has “Die on This Hill” just below its top 10.
- Olivia Dean, “Man I Need” (113)
- Sombr, “Back to Friends” (113)
- Taylor Swift, “The Fate of Ophelia” (112)
- Alex Warren, “Ordinary” (112)
- Huntr/x, “Golden” (110)
WXXL (XL106.7) Orlando, Fla.
- Sombr, “Back to Friends” (110)
- Huntr/x, “Golden” (105)
- Taylor Swift, “Opalite” (99)
- Djo, “End of Beginning” (97) — had already moved to power by last week
- Alex Warren, “Ordinary” (87) — both that song and “Opalite” climb this week as Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” moves out of power.
WIXX Green Bay, Wis.
A few weeks ago, I noticed that power rotation at some of the successful medium-to-small market stations I watch most closely (WIXX; WVSR Charleston, W.Va.; WKRZ Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) were almost exclusively Country crossovers, Country-adjacent, and folk-leaning titles. That’s less the case for WIXX this week, but “All the Way” does return to power.
- Taylor Swift, “Opalite” (67)
- Huntr/x, “Golden” (66)
- BigXThaPlug f/Bailey Zimmerman, “All the Way” (65)
- Myles Smith, “Nice to Meet You” (65)
- Alex Warren, “Ordinary” (64)
Somewhere under all that wildly excessive reverb is a pretty good song called “Back to Friends.” One Reddit thread had even fans describing the new album as kind of unlistenable due to the reverb. It was a bad production choice that can be rectified with an “organic remix ” It’s mystifying and frustrating.
I’ve noticed that with a lot of the indie pop now, there are better hooks and better energy, but acts are still afraid to make a song too obvious or fun or propulsive, as if they need the plausible deniability of being a little inaccessible to still feel “indie.” “Back To Friends” has become a hit despite that, but I’d like to hear the lyric, and when Harry Styles does allow the remix or edit of “Aperture,” I’d like to hear that vocal mixed up a little, too.