The Network Chart Show
| Genre | Chart |
|---|---|
| Running time | 5pm to 7pm, later 4pm to 7pm (from 21 October 1990) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom (London) |
| Language(s) | English language |
| Home station | Capital FM |
| Starring | David Jensen |
| Original release | 30 September 1984 – 25 July 1993 (Rebranded) |
The Network Chart Show was a radio programme launched across Independent Local Radio in the UK on 30 September 1984.
The main presenter was David Jensen (known then as "Kid Jensen"), however Pat Sharp would often provide holiday cover in its later years. In its earlier years Timmy Mallett and Alan Freeman filled in for Jensen. The show originally featured the Network Top 30 and ran from 5pm until 7pm in direct competition to BBC Radio One's Top 40 chart show and was broadcast from Capital Radio's studios on Euston Road in London.
It networked, hence the name, in the UK on a number of ILRs using the transmission circuits of Independent Radio News, which meant it was originally in mono on most radio stations. Later, the programme was upgraded to be broadcast in stereo.
The programme used to start bang on at 5pm which at the time was quite a radical step for the 5pm and 6pm news to be dropped. Each local station would play their own 10 second ident before linking up with the national feed. The final song faded out shortly before the 7pm news bulletin, each radio station would opt-out at various times depending on the length of their news-in jingle. Eventually the programme was extended on 21 October 1990 starting an hour earlier at 4:03pm, following the news bulletin, with the chart expanded to a Top 40; not all of the stations took the extra hour to begin with.
Programme features included "Network Chart Mastermixes" - where two songs adjacent to each other in the chart were professionally mixed together.
David Jensen would record trailers to run on radio stations during the week which famously started with the words "Hi Chart Fans!!".
In later years the programme was sponsored by coffee company Nescafe.
The chart was owned by Association of Independent Radio Contractors (AIRC) – the trade body for Independent Local Radio stations. The chart was distributed by Satellite Media Services, produced by Capital Radio and compiled by the Media Research Information Bureau (MRIB). The chart differed from the entirely sales-based "official" Gallup chart used by the BBC as it included airplay statistics when compiling the chart. In 1987, sales data for a Thursday-to-Wednesday week was logged manually in diaries by 300 record shops and posted to MRIB. In 1991, data was being collected from around 300 independent record shops who were provided with a checklist of currently released singles. Sales were "checked off against ticks on the retailers' masterbags" and these figures would be collected by telephone on Thursdays. Airplay statistics were factored in by all Independent Local Radio stations providing which playlist (A, B, or C) the current releases were on. More weight was given to the larger stations at the time, such as Capital (17 percent), BRMB, Clyde, GWR, Metro, and Piccadilly. If a record was on every Independent Local Radio station's A list the sales were boosted by 40 percent.
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