The Top 20 Countdown: An Introduction

Welcome all you Rockaholics to your Top Twenty Countdown.  The only Countdown on the planet, no, the universe determined by you.  

That's how I start the CGCM Top 20 Countdown.  Why?  Because it is true.  

Whenever you listen to a countdown, aside from maybe buying some of the music on that chart, how much control do you really have over it?   None.  That's right, I said none.  Everything is determined by radio play and sometimes by sales, but mostly it is determined by somebody sitting in an office or cubicle somewhere deciding what music you like.  How wrong is that!  Some radio programmer is telling you what your taste in music should be.   

I think Rush said it best, "I will choose a path thats clear, I will choose free will."

So, when we were starting this Top 20 Countdown, I knew that there had to be a better way to generate our own chart.   It was fellow CGCM DJ Trevor McDougall, who suggested creating a poll and letting people decide by voting on, or writing in their choices.  My first thought was "what a lot of work."  Then I realized, that this way would make things easier, and generate a chart in a different manner than the mainstream.  

In retrospect, this harkens back to my early days in radio when I hosted a daily segment known as "The Top 7 at 7."  For all intents and purposes, this was a chart.  But a chart that was very different from the station's regular weekly countdown.  But why?  It was the same music.  I'll tell you, there was one determining factor.  Listeners.  They voted for what they liked, they voted for what they wanted to hear.  It worked then, it works now.

The monthly Top 20 Countdown has been running on CGCM Rock Radio since September 2022 and it has been a fairly popular addition to the already excellent line up of shows on this small, but mighty internet radio station.  We bring it to you the first Saturday of every month, starting at noon, eastern at www.cgcmrockradio.com  

Now, part of the fun about this countdown is the fact that you can vote, with the poll being posted on both the CGCM Group and the CGCM Top 20 Countdown Group Facebook pages.  This way YOU get to decide what YOU want to hear.  And believe me, this works, for our April Top 20, we had 7, that means that 35% of the songs in the Top 20 are debuts.  And that is because you listen to, and love new music.  

And that is who we are at CGCM Rock Radio.  A group of dedicated Rock and Radio fans continually striving to show you just exactly what we think rock radio SHOULD be!!!