While the emergence of Mediabase’s first official airplay update in several weeks signals radio’s return to form, the chart itself is not a wholly conventional one.
Insofar as it measures airplay from December 28 to January 3 and thus includes the last several days of the year, its data is still affected by year-end countdowns and other unorthodox playlist approaches.
That reality worked against some current songs. It did not, however, prevent James Newton Howard’s “The Hanging Tree (featuring Jennifer Lawrence)” and Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” from making big gains.
The former song, which rises to #14 (+3) on Mediabase’s official pop radio airplay chart, enjoyed a week-over-week spin boost of 616. Pop’s greatest gain for the week, the boost brought the song’s overall weekly spin count to 5,529.
Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking,” meanwhile, enjoyed a 605 spin gain. The format’s second-greatest, the gain was enough to bring the song to #17 on the chart (+5) with 4,347 total spins.
Other big gainers: Mark Ronson’s #9 “Uptown Funk (featuring Bruno Mars)” (9,640 spins, +542), Prince Royce’s #24 “Stuck on a Feeling (featuring Snoop Dogg)” (3,166 spins, +508) and Pitbull’s #25 “Time of Our Lives (featuring Ne-Yo)” (3,056 spins, +398).
