The Christmas music backlash is swift and mighty. Realizing this, the programming folks at The Arch (106.5 FM) decided they'd fight the Holiday creep by playing the station's entire library -- which they say is the largest of any radio station in St. Louis -- in alphabetical order. It's called A to Z week (hey...) and it comprises... 1,400 songs. Or roughly the capacity of the smallest iPod nano currently being manufactured. But: This constitutes just the station's "hits." Program Director Kevin Robinson explains (caps lock his): "Every song must be a HIT for the genre -- that is have MASS appeal for those two to ninety two. At 106.5 The Arch, we don't go DEEP, we go WIDE!" So there you have it.
In this exhumation of the Arch's archives, Robinson and the staff have uncovered a few nuggets.
In the library of 106.5 The Arch:
-The word "I" begins the most songs. The word "don't" begins the second most.
-The oldest song is "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets.
-The newest song is "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO.
-According to Robinson, the strangest back-to-back pairings have included (or will include) "Cat Scratch Fever" in "Cat's in the Cradle," and one trio later this week that will see the Waitresses go into Enrique Inglesias into Joan Jett.