About twice a year the Chicago “classic rock” station does
something strange.  Instead of its regular programming sequence,
it sets aside about a week to play through all the greatest
songs in alphabetical order.  And this is advertised as a big
event, a restoration of order out of chaos that the audience has
apparently been desperate for since the last time they did it. 
They are at it again this week and in between “Boys of Summer”
and “Brain Damage/Eclipse” I started to wonder why this was
thought to be a good marketing strategy.    1. There is the
possibility of coordination failure between audience and
programmer at certain time slots.  If everybody tuning in at
noon is expecting late 70′s prog rock then they better play that
or lose their audience.  The A to Z is a way to break the trap.
2. It works as a commitment not to repeat a song for a whole
week.   3. It’s really just a negotiation tactic with the
program director.  The station proves publicly that the program
director’s choice of playlist on a