In our ongoing effort to provide programmers with the most accurate charts, breaking industry news and informed analysis of gathering trends, Airplay Monitor is pleased to introduce the popular HitPredictor feature to country readers (see graph, page 38).

Already successfully identifying positive consumer reaction to new music for the R&B/hip-hop, modern rock, AC and top 40 formats, Nashville's country fare is the most recent addition to the HitPredictor menu of products.

Launched in 2002 by veteran promotion executive Rick Bisceglia and venerable programming expert Guy Zapoleon as a unit of their PromoSquad venture, HitPredictor is an online research method that helps labels, programmers, artists and managers gauge the hit potential of new songs.

Although many record labels contract with HitPredictor to aid them in selecting singles, the company also tests virtually every new song released to radio once the label has picked a single and chosen an impact date. Every song tested is eligible to appear on the HitPredictor weekly chart. The outcome of the scoring process can be influenced only by the consumer panel selected to evaluate the songs.

The music is blind tested by a large group of carefully qualified, active consumers who have identified country as their primary music taste and regularly listen to country radio. No industry insiders or tastemakers are allowed to participate in the testing. Research participants must listen to each song at least three times in its entirety in order to register a response. Hook-testing is never used in this process, which adds substantial credibility to the research and is the primary basis for the integrity of the results.

Artists are never revealed to the research participants, which largely prevents name-associated bias in the responses. Of course, participants may recognize a particular artist's voice, but their response is never aided by the inclusion of that information as part of the research exercise.

Songs are rated on a 1-5 scale, and the final results are based on weighted positives. The HitPredictor chart highlights songs that have scored 65 or higher and are judged to have top 10 callout potential (see legend below graph, page 38).

The first glimpse of the weekly results is published every Monday in the Monitor Hotline fax and appears adjacent to the Country Airplay chart in each issue of the magazine. If you're not receiving our Hotline fax, call 646-654-7255 for subscription information. To learn more about PromoSquad and HitPredictor, visit hitpredictor.com. Also note that with the introduction of HitPredictor, our weekly top 20 country recurrents list moves from the pages of Monitor to the Hotline fax.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts about these changes. Feedback is always welcome and encouraged.