The Vodafone Big Top 40
| Other names | Big Top 40 |
|---|---|
| Genre | Download chart |
| Running time | 180 mins (inc. adverts) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | Capital London |
| Syndicates | See section: Stations |
| Hosted by |
Marvin Humes (2014-) Kat Shoob (2009–) Rich Clarke (2009–13) Greg Burns (2014–16) |
| Starring | Matt Wilkinson, The Bassman |
| Created by | Global |
| Produced by | Rich Steel |
| Air dates | since 14 June 2009 |
| Website | www.BigTop40.com |
The Vodafone Big Top 40 is a chart show broadcast on 140 radio stations in the UK with an audience each week of 2.5 million listeners. It is the single biggest radio programme on UK Commercial Radio, and around twice the size of its competitor. The chart has no affiliation with the Official Charts Company as it is based on radio airplay and music download figures provided by iTunes.
The Vodafone Big Top 40 was launched following the demise of Hit40UK, and is produced by Global Radio, broadcast from the studios at Leicester Square in London. It claims to be the first real-time chart ever to be broadcast in the United Kingdom and broadcasts on 140 local commercial radio stations across the country.
The first show was broadcast on Sunday 14 June 2009.
The show was originally presented by Capital radio DJs Rich Clarke and Kat Shoob, with Heart presenter Matt Wilkinson deputising both Clarke and Shoob. The radio broadcast also features voice over artist Howard Ritchie who announces the chart position for each of the songs broadcast, along with the names of the presenters and radio station it is being broadcast on. Clarke presented his final show on 29 December 2013, with JLS member Marvin Humes joining the show from 5 January 2014 with Greg Burns deputising Marvin and Kat. Since January 2017 capital fm afternoon presenter The Bassman is the current stand in presenter.
The chart is based on music download figures provided by iTunes. The show starts at 4pm with a shortened version of the top 10 most downloaded songs of the previous seven days. This is followed by and countdown of numbers 40 to 11, compiled again by iTunes downloads from across the last 7 days, but also includes music streaming and airplay on the stations who carry the show (see section: Stations). At 18:00, the live iTunes top 10 is frozen and the ten songs are played out in full, with the number 1 song announced just before 7pm.
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