The Countdown Influence

Submitted by admin on April 15, 2009 - 7:31pm

Both radio and the major labels soon discovered that Countdown and its audience were to become a force to be reckoned with. The ABC's nationwide reach gave Countdown a stranglehold on the Australian pop scene. This, combined with the introduction of colour TV as well as a charismatic host who was already well connected to many Australian music and international stars, made it an unstoppable phenomenon.

As has often been noted, Countdown’s huge audience could practically guarantee success for a new act, and radio stations soon found that if they ignored Molly's hit picks and new releases, they did so at their own peril. For the first time, TV had gained primacy as the medium that broke new music, giving it a significant power to influence radio programming and act as a filter between the labels and the radio stations. The pattern was set very early on, with Countdown’s first one-hour show in January 1975, the first made in colour, which featured controversial new Melbourne band Skyhooks.

Countdown was also revolutionary in its use of promotional film-clips, and the power of the film clip was quickly realised by record labels that now had to push the band’s look and image, an marketing aspect that couldn’t be exploited through the medium of radio. Countdown brought this power of visual appeal to its large viewing audiences and hence the program was to become be the forerunner in introducing new songs and bands through their video clips.

During the early '70s, Australian Commercial radio stations were extremely conventional and stubborn with their programming. Radio gave no opportunity to new local talent to receive any air play and stuck with the tried and true favourites. Molly and Countdown saw the opportunity to use Countdown as a platform for championing new Aussie acts at home and overseas. This had a major impact on the industry as when the show was in full flight, radio could not ignore the acts appearing on the show, or Molly’s recommendations. It's no exaggeration to say that, at its peak, one appearance on Countdown by a new act would virtually guarantee radio airplay, and it's equally indisputable that literally dozens of leading groups of the late '70s and '80s owed their first major breaks to Countdown.

During its lifetime Countdown launched and supported a huge range of Australian acts. They include Skyhooks, Sherbet, Hush, Dragon, Mi-Sex, INXS, Machinations, Dugites, The Church, Eurogliders, Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons, Paul Kelly, Kevin Borich Express, Mother Goose, The Saints, Split Enz, Crowded House, Mental as Anything, Men At Work, Little River Band, Flowers/Icehouse, Pseudo Echo, Christie Allen, Richard Clapton, Andy Gibb, The Ferrets, The Swingers, The Reels, The Go-Betweens, Models, Kids In The Kitchen, Moving Pictures, Uncanny X-Men, The Radiators, Spy Vs. Spy, Wa Wa Nee, Sharon O'Neill, Kim Hart, and Australian Crawl.